Literacy 

Getting it right in English!

Discussing News and Current Events

As there was last year, there have been a lot of big events affecting our country. This can sometimes be quite daunting for children, but also may be for parents/carers in explaining things in a way they will understand. As children get older, they become more aware of news and current events. Discussing current events occurring locally, nationally and worldwide enriches your child’s understanding of the world around them. 

In addition to this, discussing topics of interest about the world, such as countries, natural disasters, animals and scientific/technological discoveries will support your child to build their background knowledge. This assists children in understanding what they are reading, providing content for writing and providing knowledge to support opinions during discussions with others.

Below are some tips/questions and some websites that contain child-friendly news related information. Questions encourage your child to think critically about news and current events and help foster empathy. Questions also help your child to develop oral fluency when discussing social issues.

Questions you might ask when discussing a news story or current event include:

• What do you think caused the event?
• How do you think this will affect people?
• Is it fair?
• Why do you think people think that/do that?
• What do you think will happen next?
• What could fix the problem?

Some other activities to develop your discussion (mostly upper primary):

• Read several articles, or watch some short news stories on the same issue to get different opinions. Then discuss the different opinions.
• Have a debate on a topic, with you and your child taking different sides of the issue.
• Download and listen to podcasts on an issue, and discuss.
• Discuss different “What if?” scenarios. This will help develop your child’s problem solving and imagination.

Some great websites to access student-friendly news articles, videos and other resources (most are Australian websites):

• News Time (pre-schoolers)- https://www.abc.net.au/kidslisten/news-time/
• Kids News- https://www.kidsnews.com.au/news
• Behind the News (BTN)-  https://www.abc.net.au/btn/
• Media Literacy (spotting misinformation)- https://www.abc.net.au/education/media-literacy/
• National Geographic- https://www.nationalgeographic.com.au/
• National Geographic Kids- https://www.natgeokids.com/au/

Sarah Mills

Leading Teacher- Literacy