KQED: The Lowdown

The Lowdown, part of KQED News, is a trustworthy resource for teachers looking to integrate current events into their curriculum. The site offers videos, visualizations, and interactives -- alongside news stories -- to help students explore and understand complex current events. What's more, most of the content here helps students make important connections between the past and their world today. While it's not as easy as it used to be to navigate (e.g., they ditched a menu for a scrollable list of stories), teachers who take the time to hunt down something relevant -- or just rely on the most current stories -- will be able to deepen students' understanding of social studies or ELA topics.

For example, teachers could use the Minimum Wage Interactive Explainer during a unit on the Depression. The Words of Warcraft piece would be valuable to enhance any discussion of rhetorical devices in persuasive speeches. Although the resources vary from topic to topic, many are Common Core aligned and include blog articles, an educator guide or discussion questions, and some type of multimedia resource.

Standouts:

• Minimum Wage Blues
• Gun Control
• Immigration Reform
• The Facebook Effect

Editor's note: There have been syndication partnerships between the Common Sense Education blog and KQED's The Lowdown. However, Common Sense Education's reviews maintain editorial integrity and independence.