Current Events Make Great Discussions

What kind of current events do you do with your students? There are so many stories that can be used in a social studies classroom, where does one start when choosing what to use? I noticed at least 3 stories recently making the rounds that would be great for bell ringer discussions or making social studies relevant to the lives of our students.


1. Greg Oden, the 2007 number one draft pick of the Portland Trailblazers, was seriously injured in a basketball game against the Houston Rockets. Oden, who has been sidelined with injuries during his rookie season, will now have to sit out the remainder of this season. Oden was diagnosed with a fractured right kneecap. EVen though injured during a defensive collision on Saturday, Oden continued to put his team first. He apologized for getting injured and letting the team down. He encouraged them to focus on the score rather than his injuries, and Portland won 90-89 in the last 3 seconds of the game. How could you use this story with your students?




2. Tareq and Michaele Salahi, alleged White House dinner crashers, are in the news. Their attendance at the first state dinner hosted by President Obama has created a number of inquiries. Their visit to the White House state dinner for the Prime Minister of India became widely known when the couple posted pictures of themselves at the dinner with various dignitaries on their Facebook page. The Secret Service has suspended the agents responsible for allowing them in without an invitation. Investigations have been called for by Congress, and the Salahis failed to appear before House Homeland Security hearing on December 3. Mrs. Salahi is trying to win a role on an upcoming reality series "The Real Housewives of D.C." How could you use this story with your students?


3. The Afghanistan-Pakistan War: the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a non-partisan thinktank, has published a number of monographs including "Losing the Afghan-Pakistan War? The Rising Threat" in September, 2008 and "The Afghan-Pakistan War: A Status Report 2009, A Brief Summary." [http://csis.org/files/media/csis/pubs/080917_afghanthreat.pdf and http://csis.org/files/publication/burke/090803_BriefSummary.pdf] [Map from BBC News http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7601748.stm] These documents should be required reading for anyone who wants to speak intelligently on the Afghan-Pakistan problem and the President's current plan. The site has a number of other resources, including videos, that give background information on this vital topic. How could you use this information with your students?