Social Studies in Elementary Education

15e
Walter C. Parker & Terence A. Beck

Chapter 6

Current Events and Public

Issues

By: Terence A. Beck, University of Puget

Sound
Copyright 2017, 2012, 2009 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
 Chapter Outline

Purposes

Building a Current Events Program: Three Approaches

Implementing Four Strategies for Teaching Current Events

Teaching Enduring Public Issues

Copyright 2017, 2012, 2009 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Social Studies in Elementary Education, 15e, by Parker and Beck.
All Rights Reserved
 Key Concepts

Current events

Public issues

Controversy

Copyright 2017, 2012, 2009 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Social Studies in Elementary Education, 15e, by Parker and Beck.
All Rights Reserved
 Picture This

While the national news was focused on the war and the economy, local
television news and daily newspapers were dominated by the whale capture
story, and Mr. Bowers students were upset. He asked them, What do you
want to do? Their responses indicated that they didnt understand the
matter well enough to choose an action. He suggested that they study it
daily, using the same five-part decision-making process they used earlier in
the year on another local controversy. They began by identifying the facts
of the case and the controversial issues of the case. Finally, they selected
one of the issues for decision making, role-playing, and citizen action.

Copyright 2017, 2012, 2009 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Social Studies in Elementary Education, 15e, by Parker and Beck.
All Rights Reserved
Purposes of Teaching Current Events and Social Problems

1. Promote the habit of awareness and interest in current events and

social problems.
2. Promote the refinement of:
Interpreting the news
Discriminating between important and less important news items
Predicting likely consequences of different positions
Taking a position on issues based on knowledge and critical
evaluation of the facts
3. Relate school learning to life outside school.
Copyright 2017, 2012, 2009 by Pearson Education, Inc.
Social Studies in Elementary Education, 15e, by Parker and Beck.
All Rights Reserved
 Approaches

1. Teaching Current Events in Addition to Social Studies

2. Using Current Events to Supplement Social Studies

3. Using Current Events as the Basis for Social Studies Units

Copyright 2017, 2012, 2009 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Social Studies in Elementary Education, 15e, by Parker and Beck.
All Rights Reserved
 Strategies

1. Daily Discussion of News

2. Decision Making on Controversial Issues

3. Teaching About Different Kinds of Controversy

4. Writing About Issues

Copyright 2017, 2012, 2009 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Social Studies in Elementary Education, 15e, by Parker and Beck.
All Rights Reserved
 Daily Discussion of News

Daily Newspapers

Worlds Newspapers, TV Networks on the Internet

Use of Political Cartoons

Copyright 2017, 2012, 2009 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Social Studies in Elementary Education, 15e, by Parker and Beck.
All Rights Reserved
 Decision Making on Controversial Issues

Impart the skills needed for intelligent study and

orderly resolution of the problems inherent in a
democratic society.
Develop dispositions to be civil and tolerant of various
opinions
Encourage children to discuss issues and respect
differences
Use current events involving enduring public issues

Copyright 2017, 2012, 2009 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Social Studies in Elementary Education, 15e, by Parker and Beck.
All Rights Reserved
 Issues and Challenges 6.1

What might parent/guardians be concerned about?

Anticipate these concerns and design around them.
Focus on public, not private controversies.
Communicate the civic goals of discussing controversial issues
Stress the importance of families talking together
Invite and examine all points of view
Parent/guardians want their children to be effective and thoughtful
citizens

Copyright 2017, 2012, 2009 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Social Studies in Elementary Education, 15e, by Parker and Beck.
All Rights Reserved
 Reflect and Discuss 6.2

Give Issues and Challenges 6.1 a generous and a skeptical response.

Being generous, how might treating parents and guardians as partners

in civic education make your job easier and your lessons more

successful? Being skeptical, what might we be missing here?

Copyright 2017, 2012, 2009 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Social Studies in Elementary Education, 15e, by Parker and Beck.
All Rights Reserved
 Teaching about Different Kinds of Controversy

Factual Controversies

Definitional Controversies

Value Controversies

Copyright 2017, 2012, 2009 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Social Studies in Elementary Education, 15e, by Parker and Beck.
All Rights Reserved
 Writing About Issues

The dialogical essay

The short-essay format

Persuasive letter to the editor

Copyright 2017, 2012, 2009 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Social Studies in Elementary Education, 15e, by Parker and Beck.
All Rights Reserved
 Reflect and Discuss 6.3

Brainstorm four or five current events that could be studied with

any one of the four strategies presented here. Then choose the
strategy that you prefer, or create a fifth.

Copyright 2017, 2012, 2009 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Social Studies in Elementary Education, 15e, by Parker and Beck.
All Rights Reserved
 Reflect and Discuss 6.4

What does it mean to not shy away from teaching about controversy
while dealing with issues fairly and with respect? How might the
teachers structure a controversy about a military conflict (it can be
helpful to think of a specific conflict here) in a way that would meet
both of these standards, especially if the teacher has strong opinions
on the matter? And what about issues where some opinions can
denigrate a group of people (immigration, for example)? Is it possible
and desirable to deal with every side of an issue equally?

Copyright 2017, 2012, 2009 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Social Studies in Elementary Education, 15e, by Parker and Beck.
All Rights Reserved
 Issue-centered units

Copyright 2017, 2012, 2009 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Social Studies in Elementary Education, 15e, by Parker and Beck.
All Rights Reserved
 Reflect and Discuss 6.5

In this section, you might have picked up on the fact that we are
concerned about the negative impacts of human consumption on the
earth. Think about how we have organized this section. Do we treat
human environment interaction as sufficiently controversial? Have
we managed to keep the issue alive as an issue while helping to
educate students to consider the good of everyone on the planet?

Copyright 2017, 2012, 2009 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Social Studies in Elementary Education, 15e, by Parker and Beck.
All Rights Reserved
 Discussion Question

We gave three approaches to current events teaching using the

examples of Ms. Hansen, Mr. Hsiao, and Ms. Diaz. This last
featured a lesson plan for studying the nation behind the current
event. Compare and contrast the three approaches. Which is the
strongest?

Copyright 2017, 2012, 2009 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Social Studies in Elementary Education, 15e, by Parker and Beck.
All Rights Reserved