About This Webinar
As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, educators face the important task of helping students navigate a complex national narrative. This SML session, "Beyond the Soundbite," equips middle and high school teachers with the tools to transform Judy Woodruff’s America at a Crossroads series into a catalyst for deep, nuanced classroom inquiry.
Participants will explore pivotal moments from U.S. history as well as current events curated for the America 250 anniversary, intentionally examining both the "highs" of American progress and the "lows" of our shared challenges. By looking past polarized rhetoric, we will focus on how to use high-quality journalism to help students synthesize conflicting perspectives and appreciate the complexity of the American experiment.
Attendees will be provided with a suite of PBS News Hour Classroom lesson plans, also published on Share My Lesson, specifically designed to facilitate these difficult conversations. We will practice concrete strategies for fostering civil discourse, ensuring students can disagree respectfully while grounding their arguments in evidence. Finally, we will discuss how to move students from passive observation to active civic engagement, empowering the next generation to see themselves as stakeholders in the nation’s future.
Want more sessions to choose from? Check out all of the free, for-credit webinars in Share My Lesson's Summer of Learning 2026 series.
Executive Summary via On24 AI:
PBS News Hour Classroom showcased how Judy Woodruff’s “America at a Crossroads” series can support America 250 instruction by helping educators facilitate nuanced, evidence-based discussions about U.S. history and today’s polarization. The presenter explained how PBS packages short, flexible lesson plans around NewsHour segments—typically including video, transcript, warm-up and essential questions, media literacy prompts, and student action activities—so teachers can adapt them across grade levels and time constraints. Sample clips and lesson examples highlighted how the series addresses founding-era contradictions (including slavery, Native Americans, and women’s exclusion) and current debates over public history and museum interpretation, intentionally presenting differing viewpoints to model civil discourse. The session emphasized practical classroom strategies such as “See-Think-Wonder,” structured civil dialogue norms, and prompts that ask students to evaluate perspective, balance, and missing voices, enabling teachers to teach current events and contested history with clarity, context, and student-centered discussion.
