At the beginning of each class, I give my students about a half an hour to look through USA TODAY to find out what's going on both locally and nationally. I then use the Today's Issues teaching guide with the Experience TODAY lesson plan to discuss a topic such as risk taking. I have students look through the paper for examples of people in the news that are taking risks or placing themselves in difficult situations. We have been talking about Topic 2: HIV, AIDS and other STDs this week, and we use the paper and the case study from Today's Issues to determine what a person could have done differently to avoid taking the sort of risks that result in negative repercussions. Students discuss what they would have done differently, or where a person could turn to, e.g., a state health agency, for help or support.
Basically, I'm trying to tie what they read in the paper to their own lives in order to show them that the news is affecting real people in the world. I want them to get away from the, "It-can't-happen-to-me mentality." The paper helps them make the important and meaningful connection between what's happening in their lives and what's happening in the world around them.
