- Perspective: Civic
- Benchmark: Describe how citizens participate in election campaigns.
Anticipatory
Set:
- Introduce two candidates for school president: ìListen carefully to what each candidate has to say because you will be voting later on for your future school president.î
- ìToday we are going to learn more about voting, how to make good decisions, and your duties as citizens so that when you have to make important decisions in the future, you will know what to think about before votingî
Input Mode of Instruction:
Simulation and Role play/ Inquiry/ Discussion
Objectives:
- Students will listen to candidates and write down important issues
- Students will vote for a candidate and support their decision by telling why they voted the way that they did
- Students will talk about how important it is for them to vote
Hands on Activity:
- Students will vote for a candidate based on very little information by writing a name on a slip of paper and putting it in the ballot box. Teacher will create voting chain.
- Students then listen to candidates and write one positive and one negative aspect for each candidate
- Students talk to each other about how candidates are similar and different
- Explain to students that they will vote for a candidate based on their likes and dislikes. Students will individually choose one candidate, write the name on a small slip of paper and put it into a ballot box.
- Teacher creates a ìvoting chainî by linking the slips of paper to show which candidate wins
Closure and Reflection:
- Ask students to look at the chains, which candidate won, how can you tell?
- How would the chain look if you had not voted? What might happen if you could vote as many times as you wanted? Was this a fair decision?
- Ask students to discuss if knowing more information helped them to make a better decision, did they change their vote and why?
- Tell students how influential voting is. . . Alaska was purchased by the US because of ONE VOTE!! People vote for many reasons (issues about school, your city, your president). Only 51% of people voted for our president last election. Those people who did not vote gave up their chance to make a difference.
Higher Level Thinking Questions:
- How are the candidates alike/ how are they different?
- Which position supports your feelings?
- How is this election similar to a presidential election?