Current Events: Connecting Our Students to the World Around Them

Helping our students grow into confident, capable adults means giving them the ability to connect classroom learning to the real world. For students with moderate to severe disabilities, regularly integrating current events into instruction is an essential bridge to this independence. While we recognize this can be challenging to implement, this practice builds necessary background knowledge and helps students better understand the community and world around them.

To help you facilitate these real-world connections efficiently and promote student engagement, enCORE Events and The TeachTown Chronicles – included in your enCORE subscription – support your daily instruction by providing accessible, weekly news content that encourages skill practice across multiple domains and builds essential background knowledge.

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enCORE Events: Practice with Relevance

enCORE Events is a weekly, standards-aligned resource that uses accessible news stories about timely, real-world events – like Women’s History Month, the Super Bowl, or Lunar New Year – as the context for skill practice. This content is intended to be supplemental, providing relevant opportunities for students to apply skills across different domains.

Each weekly release includes:

• Three Levels of Accessibility: Introductory, Basic, and Advanced newsletters ensure that all students can access the core content at an appropriate reading level.
• Integrated Skill Practice: Activities are included across ELA, Math, Science, and Social Studies (including a visual recipe), giving students a structured way to practice skills they are working on in your core curriculum.
• Essential Support: Clear vocabulary and visual supports, along with comprehension materials, are built into the resource to promote understanding.

The TeachTown Chronicle: Building Knowledge and Comprehension

To deepen a student’s engagement with current events, we offer The TeachTown Chronicle – a weekly, student-friendly periodical designed to complement the content in enCORE Events.

Building background knowledge and encouraging thoughtful processing are important steps in helping students become informed members of their community. Each edition of The TeachTown Chronicle supports this effort by providing:

• Contextual Understanding: The periodical works to strengthen background knowledge related to the weekly news stories, making complex topics more understandable.
• Response Opportunities: Classroom response questions, including options for extended writing, provide a structured way for students to process the information and communicate their learning.
• Age-Appropriate Content: Tailored versions for both primary and secondary learners ensure the topics are relevant and engaging for your specific students.

Both enCORE Events and The TeachTown Chronicles are instantly available as easy-to-use PDFs and e-Readers, ensuring you have quick access to these vital learning materials. By integrating consistent skill practice and opportunities for building background knowledge, we are working together to ensure our students not only master academic skills but also become more connected and informed about the world around them.

Start exploring! You can access enCORE Events and The TeachTown Chronicles on the platform today.