This study investigated three teachers and their students at International School in Guatemala as they engaged with social issues through and with art. Student and teacher experiences were examined using critical theory, concerned with ideological conflicts that shape the curriculum and how knowledge is legitimated within schools and communities…

This paper discusses the use and benefits of the Current Affairs Journals Assignment in the Introduction to International Relations Class. The assignment provides not only the immediate benefits of relating class material to current events but helps to shape students' interests and to build knowledge in a thematic or regional area that can guide…

A 2018 study conducted by the independent, non-profit organization The Commission on Fake News and The Teaching of Critical Literacy Skills reported that only 2% of children have the literacy skills they need to determine if a news story is real or fake. Over 50% of the teachers in the study believe that current curriculum does not equip children…

This article describes the author's adaptation of Gallagher's (2009) Article of the Week approach to teaching students literacy skills using current events. The use of this unique instructional routine within the context of a Catholic middle school language arts classroom has proven successful for supporting students in developing critical…

In the last few years, xenophobic rhetoric and policies have sharply increased across the world and is especially apparent in the rise of far right political parties in Europe, the Brexit vote in Great Britain, and the election of Donald Trump in the United States. In these times, teachers have a responsibility to stand for values of inclusion and…

From 2012 to 2016, American news headlines were dominated at various times by the killing of black men either stopped by police or presumed to be engaging in suspicious activity, and protests that spread through the Internet social media hashtag #blacklivesmatter. In this piece, the author revisits his time in teaching at an historically black…

As of 2015, millennials (born in the 1990's) became the largest population in the workplace -- and are still growing. Studies indicate millennials are tech savvy but are lagging in the exercise of digital responsibility. In addition, they are passive towards environmental sustainability and fail to grasp the importance of social responsibility.…

In this article Sarita Cargas suggests that getting honors students used to analyzing controversies will contribute to their developing a disposition toward critical thinking. She goes on to say that the value of teaching critical-thinking skills complements the movement of many honors programs toward teaching more than just disciplinary content.…

Through a yearlong, qualitative ethnographic study that incorporated a youth participatory action research project, this research identifies and documents the learning outcomes achieved when core principles of critical pedagogy are brought into practice with urban Latinx youths to develop critical awareness. Analysis reveals three themes around…

Where the author teaches is far from the ocean, bordered on one side by forests of ponderosa and by the High Desert on the other. So when his first graders walked into class on the Monday morning after the 2011 earthquake and subsequent tsunami along the coast of Japan--and their usual light conversations about the weekend included some sobering…

To teach scientific literacy to eighth graders, the authors created a yearlong project that emphasizes the various components and skills required to be a scientifically literate citizen. This project is broken into four separate components: skeptical thinking (pseudoscience), current-event article analysis, fiction and nonfiction literature, and…

In this article, I reflect on the pedagogical decisions I made when I taught a course on gendered literacies during the 2008/2009 presidential campaign. I specifically focus on what I term the "Hillary" phenomenon, the media's often negative and unflattering portrayal of presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. I start with a brief…

Middle school history teachers confront the same challenge every day: how to convey the breadth and depth of a curriculum that spans centuries, countries, and cultures. In "Making History Mine", Sarah Cooper shows teachers how to use thematic instruction to link skills to content knowledge. By combining thought-provoking activities and rich…

In the current climate of high-stakes tests and teacher accountability, how do teachers avoid teaching to the test? With respect to high school social studies and English teachers, the answer lies with critically analyzing items in current events. By carefully reading news stories, students can determine an author's bias through his or her use of…

Describes a three-part midterm exercise designed to demonstrate how using general semantics as an analytical tool can increase awareness and improve critical thinking about an issue. Explains each phase of the assignment in detail. Concludes with student responses to the exercise, indicating that the exercise is indeed helpful in analyzing current…