We’re in the thick of the presidential primaries, and candidates’ eyes are on their political parties’ formal conventions, which will take place in late August for Republicans and early September for Democrats.
Here are some suggestions for teaching and learning about the 2012 election season, followed by selected New York Times features and Learning Network lesson plans. Bookmark this page: we’ll be adding activity ideas and resources as the march to the White House proceeds, and will link from here to all the election resources we publish.
Meanwhile, we’d love to hear from you! Please share how you’re approaching the election with students in the comment box below.
1. Create Candidate Profiles
Where do the presidential candidates stand on issues? How are they represented and defined in the media, and how accurate are those portrayals? What factors, including personal characteristics like hairstyles and dress as well as campaign theme songs, contribute to the candidates’ images? Create a class wiki profiling the presidential candidates.
2. Do Election Math
Look at the campaign season through a mathematical lens by following the delegate count, and then use the data to make projections or by examining the role that money plays in politics by investigating whether there is a correlation betweencampaign donations and poll numbers. Or, using the electoral map, map out various routes to the White House by examiningstates populations, the number of electoral votes each state has and how many electoral votes a candidate needs to win the presidency. Then determine which combinations of states could yield a victory. Create infographics that effectively tell the story of the election thus far. Also, look into what happens if the Republican convention ends up being brokered.
3. Explore the Art of Political Speechwriting and Delivery
Examine a presidential candidate’s stump speech, looking specifically at word choice and how it relates to meaning and effectiveness. Then write an original stump speech for a presidential candidate that uses similar oratorical approaches as the presidential candidates themselves use in their stump speeches. Finally, create an interactive version of your speech that provides explanatory annotations about the rhetorical moves you are making and their intended effect.
4. Play Campaign News Games
Play campaign bingo or conduct a scavenger hunt by finding particular pieces of campaign news in an online or print edition of the Times.
5. Explore the Issues
Choose one issue of interest and examine each of the candidates’ stances on the issue. Create an issue booklet or Web site that maps out and describes – and perhaps even compares – each candidate’s views, platform and history on this issue. You might even include how, if at all, the candidate has evolved on the issue over time. Additionally, students can work to develop their own position on this issue and write a letter to the editor or create a video that offers their personal take on the topic.
6. Examine Debate Strategies
Watch excerpts from the presidential debates, paying particular attention to candidates’ rhetorical moves and commonly heard themes or phrases. Then mine the debates for examples of issue- and character-based arguments as well as spin. After analyzing candidates’ approaches to debating, discuss which debate moves were the most and least effective. Hold either a mock debate in which students take on the roles of presidential candidates or a mock post-debate “spin room” session, with students playing candidate staffers. During debates, they can take advantage of the “second screen” phenomenon and monitor Facebook, Twitter and other social media to see what viewers are saying in real time. They can also try live-”tweeting” or live-blogging a debate, focusing on key phrases and moments, or pulling together a narrative of Twitter posts using a tool likeStorify.
7. Investigate Polling and Projection Data
Examine the results of a recent poll or a selection of recent polls, particularly ones that have accompanying graphics. Hunt for trends in the polling data. What trends exist across different groups? What opportunities do these polls point to for each of the candidates? What polling results are surprising? Write letters to the editor, or letters of advice to the political party of presidential candidate of your choice, focusing on the one or two trends in the polling data that you think are the most significant. Alternatively, examine one of Nate Silver’s data analyses on his blog, FiveThirtyEight, and then discuss his analysis. On what factors does Mr. Silver base his predictions? Has he been right in the past?
8. Create a Youth Campaign
Reflect on your political ideology, your stance on important campaign issues and your political party affiliation. Draw on your political identity and ideology to develop a campaign designed to get teenagers not yet eligible to vote involved in the election. For example, they might get involved in a campaign like “Why Tuesday?” or “#16tovote,” or they might participate in a rally or other event.
9. Investigate Young Voters’ Role
Consider what young voters are saying a selection of opinion pieces written by young people about the upcoming elections and how their level of involvement so far compares with youth involvement in the 2008 election. Then conduct a series of interviews to better understand how young voters in your community are approaching the 2012 race. Create a short documentary that tells the story of how young people in your community are approaching the election.
10. Follow Campaign News
Follow news of the presidential campaign on a digital or timeline, Facebook page or Twitter feed over time, and engage in class discussion along the way. Along with adding breaking news, add weekly photographs to your feed to help tell the story of the campaign and provide material for analysis. Fact-check statements made by politicians on the class page whenever they hear something questionable. On Twitter, they can use the hashtag #asknyt to submit candidate comments made during debates that they think merit some scrutiny.
Teaching Resources
The Politics section includes, along with daily news stories, the political news blog The Caucus and the data analysis blogFiveThirtyEight, as well as candidate profiles, primary results by state, political polls and more.
Visit the politics video channel for videos that capture specific elements of the campaign in footage and explanation.
The Learning Network’s civics section contains lesson plans pertaining to the presidency and government, including numerous activities related to past elections as well as the current election season.
Selected lesson plans are below.
2012 Election
The United States of Numeracy: The Math of a Presidential Campaign
On the Stump: Examining the Form and Function of Campaign Speeches
Character vs. Characterization: Examining How Candidates and Politi...
First Contest of the Year: Following the Iowa Caucuses
10 Ways to Teach About Election Day
Elections in General
When It Counts: Getting Involved in Election Issues
Party Like It’s 1992 or ’84 or ’76 or ’68!
When the Personal Becomes Presidential
President Obama’s Election and First Term
One Year Later: Grading President Obama
From the Post Office to the Oval Office
The 2008 Presidential Election
What to Watch for on Election Night
