Site of the Day: ListenCurrent

Last week I met some representatives from ListenCurrent while presenting/attending ACTEM's annual conference in Augusta. It seems like a really cool site to use to learning about current events in the classroom, so I wanted to share.


So, what is ListenCurrent?
"Listen Current makes it easy to bring authentic voices and compelling non-fiction stories to the classroom. We curate the best of public radio to keep teaching connected to the real world and build student listening skills at the same time." [source]
As someone who grew up with Public Radio, I obviously have a personal reason for why I think this is a helpful site for our students to use. I also like it from an educational standpoint because the site gives the students the ability to listen to the article while they are reading. Therefore the article is easier to access by a wide range of reading levels. The site posts a new article every day and most that I've seen are 5 minutes or less in length. Imagine spending the first 5 minutes of class every day learning about what is going on in the world? From politics to the environment, the US to the world... The curators seemingly post about about a wide range of topics. You can also opt to receive a weekly roundup email that summarizes everything from the week in one easy email [example].

Finally, they also offer lesson plans developed surrounding the current events that they are posting. The content areas cover Science, ELA, and Social Studies. Click here to check out their lesson plans to see if one would work for you.

The basic account is free, but you can obviously opt for the premium level to get more bells and whistles.

Check it out and let me know what you think!

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