Current Events Teaching Center | Weekly Reader: Curriculum-Rich Resources for Teachers

Current Events Teaching Center

Your guide to using the latest issue in your classroom

December 5, 2011
Main News
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Welcome to the Current Events Online Teaching Center! Here you'll find all the information you've come to rely on from your Teacher's Guide, now in a convenient online format. Click the tabs above to access article background information, reproducible skills pages, and additional resources. The boxes at right will take you to subscriber-only content, including interactive digital editions, archives, and your teacher's guide in printable
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The Teaching Center for each issue will be available the Wednesday before the issue date. Scroll down or click the All Issues tab for previous issues.

The world’s population recently reached 7 billion. Don’t miss CE’s interactive, online-only Special Report on the world’s rapid population growth and some of the challenges that lie ahead. This subscriber exclusive includes audio, videos, slideshows, and games to excite and engage your students. Check it out here. Available on 11/22/2012.

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In This Issue
Welcome to Current Events! In Issue 9, CE heads to the Middle East. The United Nations recently issued a report suggesting that Iran is developing nuclear weapons. Time Trip looks back at the Persian Empire.

Pencils down? This issue's news debate is about some schools requiring students to take online classes. Student reporters take sides.

Objectives
Main News: Students will learn about a recent United Nations report suggesting that Iran is developing nuclear weapons. Time Trip looks back at the Persian Empire.
News Debate: Students will be able to conduct an informed debate about whether online classes should be required for high school graduation.

Standards
COMMON CORE STATE STANDARD
Main News: Distinguish among fact, opinion, and reasoned judgment in a text.

SOCIAL STUDIES (NCSS)
Main News: Science, technology, and society
News Debate: Individuals, groups, and institutions

Language Arts (NCTE)
Main News: Students read nonfiction to build an understanding of the world.
News Debate: Students draw on prior experience to interpret text.

Geography (NCGE)
Main News: The changes that occur in the meaning and use of Earth’s resources

Social Studies Vocabulary
International Atomic Energy Agency; Alexander the Great

Skills Builders
Page 3: Comprehension Skills
Page 4: News Crossword

PREVIOUS ISSUES

Issue 1: Game Over?

Issue 2: Always Remember

Issue 3: Got Work?

Issue 4: In Our Galaxy Far, Far Away

Issue 5: Cyberbullying Crackdown

Issue 6: Three Women for Peace

Issue 7: Republican Rumble

Issue 8: Hit Men

War Worries

Get Talking
Have students locate Iran on a map of the Middle East. Have them point out Israel, the Persian Gulf, and the Strait of Hormuz. Ask: Why, do you think, does the United States consider this part of the world important for U.S. interests?

Notes Behind the News
• Nuclear weapons are useless unless they have a delivery system, a missile, or an airplane that can get them to a target. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report, Iran worked to redesign and miniaturize a Pakistani nuclear weapons design.
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on November 13 that the full extent of Iran’s nuclear weapons
development was not reflected in the IAEA report. Netanyahu believes that Iran is closer to producing a weapon than the United Nations (U.N.) realizes. At a cabinet meeting, Netanyahu made a public appeal, repeating his call for the world “to stop Iran’s race to arm itself with a nuclear weapon before it is too late.” Israeli newspapers report that Netanyahu is pressing his cabinet to support possible military action to halt Iran’s nuclear program.
• China and Russia question the IAEA report. Russia suspects the authors of some comments in the document of “political dishonesty,” according to a statement by Russia’s Foreign Ministry. Russia has said the report should lead to “dialogue and cooperation” between Iran and the West to solve the problem. China says that Iran’s progress toward a nuclear weapon isn’t as dramatic or as quick as the report indicates. Both China and Russia have veto power in the U.N. Security Council, so they can block any new trade sanctions.

Doing More
The United States and several other nations strongly opposed to Iran’s having nuclear weapons have large nuclear arsenals themselves. Given that, why should they deny other nations, such as Iran, the same right to have such weapons? Write a paragraph either supporting those countries’ position or opposing it.

Cyber Students

Get Talking
Ask students: Have you taken a class online? What might be the benefits of an online course? What might be some of the drawbacks?

Notes Behind the News
• An estimated 1.03 million students from kindergarten through 12th grade took an online course during the 2007–2008 school year, a 47 percent increase from the previous year, according to the Sloan Consortium.
• As of the fall of 2010, about 200,000 U.S. students attended online school full-time.
• A 2009 report by the U.S. Department of Education found benefits of online courses for college students but concluded that there had not been enough studies to determine whether online courses had benefits for younger students.
• Idaho’s new measure requires students to pass one synchronous course and one asynchronous course. A synchronous course requires that students and the teacher be online at the same time, and an asynchronous course is one in which students read lessons and work on homework at their own pace, without direct communication with a teacher or other students.
• The new requirement by the Idaho State Board of Education was part of a larger set of measures that also included merit pay for teachers, limits on bargaining rights for unions, reductions in teacher salaries, and improvements in classroom technology. The measure was supported by Idaho’s governor and its public schools chief.
• Idaho’s new package of laws drew significant criticism from teachers. A group opposing the changes collected enough signatures to put measures to repeal the laws on the November 2012 ballot.

Doing More
Have each student create a plan or an online class. Ask: Which class would you want to take on the Internet? How would your online class be different from a traditional in-school class? How would it make use of technology? How would students taking your class interact? How would the students be tested? Students can see examples of some of Florida’s online classes by going here.

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