Discover how current events for high school students can be an opportunity to practice important media literacy skills and spark meaningful conversations.
If living in the Information Age has taught us anything, it’s that students of all ages could use a few lessons in media literacy. Whether it’s analyzing a news story beyond the headline, identifying media bias, or analyzing the connections between two current events, strengthening these skills leads students to become empowered citizens — and to think twice before believing everything they read!
We’ve gathered a few tips and resources for teaching current events for high school students in social studies, language arts, or any other subject. You’ll find low-prep, standards-aligned ways to guide students through analyzing text, finding reliable sources, discussing sensitive topics, and connecting news stories to their own lives.
Table of Contents
1. Set discussion norms in the classroom
Before you bring an article or news clip into your class, you’ll need to set discussion norms. These established rules help build classroom community and create an environment where students can discuss any current event, even if it evokes strong feelings.
- Let your teenage students know that they’ll need to speak respectfully to each other even when they strongly disagree, and that they’ll need to avoid accusatory or offensive language.
- Tell them to address ideas, not individuals, and to really listen to someone’s stance before responding with their own.
- Model these behaviors with low-stakes current issues that aren’t emotionally or politically charged, so students can be prepared for news stories that resonate more.
2. Teach high schoolers how to consume news
Even though your students are in high school, they may not have the finer points of informational reading down quite yet. Use the foundations of CCSS for informational text to help high schoolers consume news content thoughtfully and responsibly.
- Start by taking them through the parts of a news story, including the headline, the byline, and the inverted pyramid article structure (the most important information first).
- Remind students that news stories are primary sources, but that doesn’t always mean that they’re reliable. Talk about how unreliable sources can lead to misinformation.
- Discuss media bias, how students can identify it when consuming news stories, and how social media should never be the only source for a current event.
Guide students through the informational reading process
Need a way to get students to reflect on what they’ve just read before discussing it? Guide high schoolers through current events with structured current event activity sheets, graphic organizers, and analysis activities that help them break down the main ideas and important details of what they’ve just read.
EDITABLE CURRENT EVENT TEMPLATE- Digital and Print Versions
By The Trendy Science Teacher
Grades: 6th-12th
Subjects: Science, Social Studies
Review any event in the news with a versatile current event assignment worksheet. This resource includes a ready-to-go worksheet complete with review questions, an editable template to fit your classroom needs, and a digital form for students to complete and submit online.
Current Events Reading Comprehension Worksheet | Use With Any Article
By Secondary Social Studies Diversified
Grades: 8th-11th
Subjects: English Language Arts, Informational Text, Social Studies
Standards: CCSS RI.9-10.1; RH.9-10.4
Combine ELA informational reading skills and social studies content with a guided activity on comprehending current events. Aligned to informational reading standards and crafted for multiple levels of understanding, this current event activity sheet includes five literal questions, five inferential comprehension questions, and opportunities for students to cite textual evidence.
3. Vary your discussion style and activities
Discussing current events with high school students isn’t as straightforward as sitting in class and chatting about the news. Using different types of discussion styles and activities challenges students to reframe their thinking and gets more speakers involved in a current events discussion.
- Use Socratic seminars to encourage students to plan out their thinking and respond to discussion questions about a current event.
- For current events that work as debate topics, have students work together in teams to structure a formal debate.
- Consider having high schoolers write about their stance on a current issue as a journal topic rather than a spoken discussion, or extending their topic into a longer research project.
Assign a longer current event research project
It’s one thing to keep up with the daily news, but quite another thing to go into an in-depth analysis on one current event and its implications around the world. Take high schoolers through a more thorough current events project with long-term research, writing, and presentation goals in social studies.
Current Events Global Issues World or Human Geography EOC Research Project
By Let’s Cultivate Greatness
Grades: 9th-12th
Subjects: Environment, Geography, Writing
Standards: CCSS RH.9-10.1, 2, 3, 6, 9, RH.11-12.1, 2, 3, 6, 9; WHST.9-10.1, 1a, 1b, 1c, 1d, 1e, 8, WHST.11-12.1, 1a, 1b, 1c, 1d, 1e, 8
For an in-depth project that addresses multiple social studies literacy standards, try out this adaptable current events research project in your high school classroom. This complete research resource includes two project options (a full research essay and a one-pager) along with step-by-step checklists, an annotated sample essay and project, outline and essay graphic organizers, and differentiation ideas.
4. Make current events part of your routine
High schoolers may find it easier to discuss sensitive news topics if current events are already part of their class routine. Bring in news stories on a weekly or daily basis to give students lots of experience analyzing these current issues.
- Frame a recent event from the news as a question of the day for high school students to discuss in class or add to a written journal.
- Encourage students to bring in a news story that interests them and share it in current event groups.
- Have a worksheet or graphic organizer that students already know how to use when you address a topical news story.
Get students familiar with informational text analysis
The news never stops, so your students’ informational reading shouldn’t stop, either! Keep their reading analysis practice current and relevant with resources that relate to any article at any time in the school year or news cycle.
FREE Current Events Worksheet
By History Gal
Grades: 6th-12th
Subjects: Civics, U.S. History, World History
This no-prep worksheet allows students to analyze and evaluate a recent news or historical event. It includes spaces for basic information, questions students have about the text, analysis of any pictures included with the article, and a tweet-length summary for students to sum up the information they’ve read.
5. Link current events to core subjects
Current events don’t need to stay in social studies class. Find ways to connect a recent news story to other core subjects in your high schoolers’ schedule, and to build those connections as they continue to analyze different contexts of the current event.
- For news stories about medical studies or scientific discoveries, have students analyze both the social implications and the scientific perspective.
- Incorporate math skills into your current events lesson by focusing on data and statistics represented in a news story.
- Prompt high schoolers to research news stories focused on different subjects, such as a certain era in history, literature, or performing arts.
Help students connect current events to their own lives
Any news story can resonate with high schoolers if they see how it relates to them. Help them forge connections with a current event by tracking the ways it connects to their own lives, historical events, or other current issues in the news.
Current Event Worksheet / Template & Assignment for Middle & High School
By History to the Core and More
Grades: 6th-12th
Subjects: Social Studies, U.S. History, World History
Six different forms invite high schoolers to write down source information as they conduct research on a current event in the news. With a checklist and rubric, a list of news sources, a current event log, and presentation directions, this editable resource is a great way for learners to keep track of the sources they consult throughout their assignment.
6. Bring in multiple perspectives
No two people have the same perspective on the same event, and that includes the students in your class! Teach high schoolers that current events are more complex than they seem, and that studying one event through different points of view can give them the needed context.
- Have students compare the ways print news, social media, and 24-hour news networks discuss the same event.
- Demonstrate the ways two people can see an issue in opposite ways by having student volunteers debate duelling perspectives on the same issue.
- Discuss how a news outlet’s audience may impact the way they report on a current event, and how seeking multiple perspectives can mitigate this issue.
7. Be ready to talk about emotional events
Sensitive or inflammatory news stories are bound to catch your students’ attention, whether they scroll past them on their feed or hear peers talking about them in the hall. While it may be tempting to avoid these loaded topics, addressing topical news stories like any other current event in your class is an important way to help students process issues that evoke strong feelings.
- Prepare to talk about a big news story as soon as possible with your high schoolers, even if it’s just a short class discussion or journal topic.
- Model an authentic emotional response to a sensitive news story if you feel strongly about it, as your honesty will resonate with teenagers.
- Remind students of your discussion norms and the importance of speaking respectfully about a topic, even if it makes them very emotional.
How to Find Current Events for High School Students
Gone are the days of handing out newspapers for students to find interesting current events. Use these free, 21st-century resources and tools to guide students toward credible accounts of current events to discuss in class.
- Common Sense Education: A list of free and paid online news magazines that include aligned assignments and lesson plans.
- Scholastic Magazines: Grade-aligned articles and reading exercises focused on high-interest news stories.
- PBS News Hour Classroom: Multimedia explorations of current events designed for secondary students.
- CNN 10: A popular video resource for students to access up-to-date news items and current events.
- Newsela: Leveled articles and assessments aligned to informational reading skills for every grade level.
- Smithsonian: A series of digital articles and interactive resources to help teens connect to current events.
Make media literacy part of your high schoolers’ education
Teaching current events for high school students is an organic way to address important literacy standards and critical thinking skills. When students practice these life skills activities, they’ll see the news in a brand new way — and will be able to form their own opinions about events it portrays. Find more high school current events resources to teach media literacy to teenagers, and enjoy the moments of authenticity that a current event discussion can bring to your class.
