The Week is a valuable current events resource with timely information that helps students build their knowledge of current events. As I’ve reviewed The Week, I believe this is a valuable resource for teachers to use because the week surveys a variety of news sources that students can access and read. Each week comes with a lesson guide to help you plan and select appropriate topics of conversation.
As we work to integrate nonfiction texts into student reading, it is helpful to use reliable online tools for this purpose. Additionally, we need to build information literacy by exposing students to a variety of news sources. In my opinion, The Week does this very well.
If you haven’t heard of the week, it is structured like a “Presidential Briefing.” Instead of reporters going to “cover” events, they instead survey and read through many sources of news and summarize the most important into a simple-to-read 42-page document. Instead of one point of view, the news articles include multiple points of view so students can compare and evaluate sources and discuss a variety of opinions. If you want to look deeper into The Week, get the facts in the free Teachers’ Reference Guide.
Unique Features That Make Current Events Relevant
Several features of The Week that I think are particularly useful for building information literacy include:
- The Main Three News Stories of the Week – The three stories getting the most coverage and a variety of articles to read on the topic along with a summary.
- The controversy of the week – The top issue is shared along with multiple viewpoints.
- How they see us – Commentary on how the international news organizations view US news.
- Pick of the week’s cartoons – Open up a conversation on current events in a novel way from the best cartoons across a variety of news sources.
- learn about other features…
How Do I Subscribe to The Week?
The Week subscription for schools comes to your classroom in both print and digital at $1.09 per copy (this is 78% off the single copy price.)
You can order several weeks or more of this valuable current events resource.
The Week includes multiple perspectives on today’s news articles from a variety of news sources.
from Cool Cat Teacher BlogCool Cat Teacher Blog https://www.coolcatteacher.com/the-week/
Joe Fatheree is an award-winning author, educator, and filmmaker. He has received numerous educational awards, including Illinois Teacher of the Year and the NEA’s National Award for Teaching Excellence. He was recently named one of the Top 10 Teachers in the World by the Varkey Foundation. He has served as the Director of Strategic Projects for the National Network of State Teachers of the Year in Washington, D.C. and is the instructor of creativity and innovation at Effingham High School in Illinois.
Nicole has been a Program Specialist in Instructional Technology at San Juan Unified School District since 2018. Prior to that, she taught French for 25 years, winning numerous awards for her work designing authentic relevant learning experiences for her students. Her most notable awards include finalist for California State Teacher of the Year, 2012 and ACTFL National Language Teacher of the Year, 2015.
