Current Events

A big part of the 6th grade Social Studies curriculum is studying current events. It's more important than ever for our students to understand what's happening in the world, and for them to see how events around the world affect their lives right now and into the future.

To study the current events, we start each Social Studies class by watching CNN Student News. CNN Student News is a 10 minute, commercial-free newscast designed for students. It's a non-biased newscast, making sure to show opinions of both the "Left" and the "Right." We always follow the news with a class discussion, where students can test out their ideas and express their opinions with others.

To assess students' understanding of the news, every two weeks the students analyze a political cartoon based on the news stories we've watched. When analyzing the cartoon, students are asked three questions:

1. Which current event is the cartoon referring to?
2. What is the meaning of the cartoon?
3. What is the artist trying to say in the cartoon? What is his/her agenda for drawing this cartoon?

The last question is the most important question for students to answer - it's a critical thinking skill that teaches students to carefully analyze the media, to see how others use bias and propaganda to try to influence others.

Note: To see a broadcast of CNN Student News, click on one of the links to the right. You can watch the most recent episode of the news, and read other stories as reported by the crew at CNN Student News.