#3: Relevancy is required!
Providing relevancy for your students within lessons is not a new trend in education. However, the technology tools and methods available to do it are growing every year. One teacher trick, I pride myself in, is the ability to identify an important concept in my unit and show students how it is secretly already impacting their lives. For example, when teaching the use of thematic geography maps to 7th graders, instead of drilling them with analysis questions about maps I choose, I give them a job as members of the next International Olympic Committee. Their job is to choose the next country to host the Olympics based on their conclusions from a variety of physical, climate, and human geography maps. For another unit, Instead of reading about the concept of globalization in our textbooks, we collect personal possessions from our homes, take selfies with them and then create physical or digital maps of the world that show just how many countries and hundreds of people are involved in creating our most treasured objects. The following resources will not only engage your students but stimulate your own ability to connect content to student lives and teach through the disciplines. Relevancy is required!
1. PRO/CON Articles from Newsela.
Approach current events by letting students choose issues and debate them. This digital library from Newsela.com is perfect for the virtual or blended classroom. Improve your students' persuasive writing with these articles in support of or against relevant issues. Use the articles as mentor texts or as springboards for meaningful class debate.
1. PRO/CON Articles from Newsela.
Approach current events by letting students choose issues and debate them. This digital library from Newsela.com is perfect for the virtual or blended classroom. Improve your students' persuasive writing with these articles in support of or against relevant issues. Use the articles as mentor texts or as springboards for meaningful class debate.
2. What’s Going On in This Picture?
Introduce your concepts or lessons by showing students what youth lives look like around our nation and the world. What’s Happening in the Picture? is a photo library of provocative images from the New York Times Learning Network that easily pose questions about
people, culture, and conflict all over the world. Prompt students to draw parallels between their own lives and the snapshots of our planet.
Introduce your concepts or lessons by showing students what youth lives look like around our nation and the world. What’s Happening in the Picture? is a photo library of provocative images from the New York Times Learning Network that easily pose questions about
people, culture, and conflict all over the world. Prompt students to draw parallels between their own lives and the snapshots of our planet.
3. What’s Going On in This Graph?
Teach through the disciplines using this compilation of graphs and data about tangible every day topics. The weekly post from the New York Times Learning Network can be used to break the ice to a lesson, provide primary source evidence for student research topics, or just open your students’ eyes to perspectives they had not considered. This resource is not limited to one content area. Topics include health, science, sports, social emotional wellness and others.
Teach through the disciplines using this compilation of graphs and data about tangible every day topics. The weekly post from the New York Times Learning Network can be used to break the ice to a lesson, provide primary source evidence for student research topics, or just open your students’ eyes to perspectives they had not considered. This resource is not limited to one content area. Topics include health, science, sports, social emotional wellness and others.
References:
The Learning Network (Ed.). (2022). What's going on in this graph? New York Times Learning Network. https://www.nytimes.com/column/whats-going-on-in-this-graph
The Learning Network (Ed.). (2022). What's going on in this picture? New York Times Learning Network. https://www.nytimes.com/column/learning-whats-going-on-in-this-picture
Newsela (Ed.). (n.d.). Pro/Con. Newsela. https://newsela.com/subject/other/2000530108
The Learning Network (Ed.). (2022). What's going on in this graph? New York Times Learning Network. https://www.nytimes.com/column/whats-going-on-in-this-graph
The Learning Network (Ed.). (2022). What's going on in this picture? New York Times Learning Network. https://www.nytimes.com/column/learning-whats-going-on-in-this-picture
Newsela (Ed.). (n.d.). Pro/Con. Newsela. https://newsela.com/subject/other/2000530108