Teachable Moments during the COVID-19 School Closure

By Matt Doran

​What can you do to continue the learning at home during the extended school closure? If you are a social studies teacher or interested parent, you really don’t need the latest temporarily-free app. Instead, pose these three questions:

1. What makes a government action legitimate?
2. How should governments balance individual rights with the common good?
3. Do citizens trust the government? 

Watch/read the news and write a daily journal reflection on these questions. When the crisis is over, you will have created a new primary source about this event. Then, go back through history and make connections and comparisons across time and place. Here is a historical look at question 3 since 1958 from the Pew Research Center: Public Trust in Government: 1958-2019. 

​Your students will learn way more from this exercise than filling out digital worksheets.