I found this example of real world media for the classroom in a blog post from my mental_floss RSS feed subscription. The following video relates to SOL CE.13f about the role of the government in creating currency.
This is obviously someone’s personal opinion about pennies and nickels, but it contains several references to facts that students can research and update with current figures. Additional sources of information on the subject of pennies include “The Penny’s End is Near” and “The Penny Stops Here,” which both contain more statistics the students can update with research. SOL CD.13f is easy to understand (the federal government issues money and people accept multiple forms of currency for goods and services), but this video and the subsequent research could lead to a class discussion/debate on the continued production and use of pennies and nickels. Students will use higher order thinking skills to analyze the statistics; compare and contrast the associated costs/revenues of the federal government, state governments (sales tax), merchants, and consumers; and formulate their own opinions on the issue.
That is nuts but convincing.