Curated OER
May the Best Character Win
Running an election campaign takes money. Class groups must effectively budget money in order to design and purchase sufficient advertising aimed at procuring classmates' votes. After completing an online tutorial, they also write and...
Carolina K-12
The Electoral College
Put the Electoral College into perspective with a simulation of an election. Scholars experience an electoral vote, participate in an in-depth discussion on the topic, and engage in a congressional committee where they learn about the...
Curated OER
Hold Your Own Ice Cream Election!
Use ice cream to represent Presidential candidates in this mock election.
Curated OER
Nov. 8, 1960 | Kennedy Is Elected President
Using the presidential election of 1960 as background information, learners consider the push of electoral reform. They read about the events and issues surrounding President Kennedy's win in 1960 and compare them to the same issues...
Curated OER
INVITING CANDIDATES TO CLASS
Students explore the election process by researching politcal platforms, inviting candidates to speak, surveying registered voters, and running a mock election.
Constitutional Rights Foundation
Winner-Take-All: The Two-Party System
Two's company, three's a crowd. High school historians learn about the Electoral College, a two-party, winner-take-all voting system in the United States. The lesson explains the pros and cons of the two-party system, roadblocks for...
Curated OER
Convey Ideas in Writing
Use the platforms of the 2004 presidential candidates to bring persuasive writing to your class. Young voters identify the three issues most important to them in the election and research the issues and candidates' positions. They write...
Center for Civic Education
Becoming an Informed Voter: Creating Initiatives
Continuing from a previous lesson on how to read and analyze proposed legislation on election ballots, your class members will now practice writing up their own proposals for a new school rule or local ordinance that will be...
Curated OER
Voting Rights for Women: Pro- and Anti-Suffrage
Middle schoolers examine the arguments for and against suffrage for women in the 19th and early 20th centuries. They explore various websites, read and discuss primary source documents, develop a document from two points of view, and...
Encyclopedia Britannica
Beyond a Two-Party System
Young political scientists go beyond the two-party system and research third-party candidates running in the 2020 US Presidential election. Groups present background information about the candidate, the party's platform points, and a...
Jane Addams Project
Woman Suffrage
Suffragettes, suffragists, and anti-suffragists. A two-day, richly detailed lesson plan has young historians investigate the twentieth-century suffrage movement. Groups examine primary and secondary source materials about Jane Addams and...
ProCon
Electoral College
The Electoral College's role in elections is sometimes confusing and controversial. Pupils use a debate topics website to research the pros and cons of the practice to debate whether the United States should still use the Electoral...
iCivics
Win the White House
What does it take to win the White House? A video game allows young political operatives to try their hand at winning 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue by deciding on key issues, where and how to spend campaign dollars, and the role of polling...
Encyclopedia Britannica
Candidate Position History Research
Climate change. Assault weapons ban. Death penalty. And the list goes on. So many issues are part of a US presidential election that it can be hard to determine a candidate's position on a particular topic and whether their position has...
C-SPAN
Electoral College
Most people are surprised to learn that American democracy is not as direct as they thought. Using a package of guiding questions, charts and curated videos, learners unpack the unique American institution of the Electoral College. The...
Curated OER
Vote on Election Day
Students explore the rights and the responsibilities of voting. Knowing about the candidates, the election process, and the monitoring of the running of the system is the focus of this lesson plan.
Curated OER
Voting and the U.S. Constitution (Past, Present, and Future)
High schoolers discuss the 26th Amendment, then write letters to a future guest speaker. Students listen to the guest speaker and ask them questions about voting and voter turnout. High schoolers then create handbills urging citizens to...
Curated OER
To Vote or Not to Vote? that is the Question!
Students examine voting rights provided by the United States Constitution. In this voting lesson, students focus on 3 amendments that extended voting rights to all citizens. Students discuss the importance of expressing opinions through...
Curated OER
All Eyes on Iowa
Guid your learners as they become informed members of our community. They'll consider each of the seven questions as they read the New York Times article "All Eye on Iowa." This article relates topics dealing with the 2012 presidential...
Curated OER
The Nominating Process
Ten questions engage students in thinking about what they have read. They are quizzed on basic concepts related to the nomination process and primary elections.
Illustrative Mathematics
Voting for Three, Variation 2
Here is another opportunity for math students to apply reasoning to solve real-world problems with ratios. The ratio of the number of votes for two candidates is provided. Your class is asked to use this ratio and information given about...
Curated OER
Cartoons for the Classroom: Campaign Echoes
Get on those thinking caps, because your class is going to analyze a political cartoon related to the 2008 presidential elections. Included is a large image of the cartoon, background information, and three guiding questions which can be...
Curated OER
Cartoons for the Classroom: Comparing Democracies
Could a president just ignore election results? In this analysis handout, scholars consider this question as they read background information on the 2008 elections in Zimbabwe. Two political cartoons poke fun at President Robert Mugabe,...
Curated OER
What Are the Issues?
Investigate and report on three issues related to a current election. Elementary aged learners research information about specific issues, develop an opinion, and write a persuasive essay using supporting details and evidence to support...