Yana Paskova for The New York TimesChildren at a rally for Mitt Romney in Michigan on Feb. 27. Go to Election 2012 photo collection »Welcome to Election Week on The Learning Network.
With the Republican National Convention beginning on Monday and theDemocratic National Convention starting on Sept. 3, the race for the White House is coming into its final months, and we’ve created a flexible Election 2012 Unit we hope will help you plan ahead.
We’ll be publishing new parts of this unit all week, each section of which is based around an “essential question” and intended to work with any day’s Times — and to be easy to adapt to your curriculum, time frame and students.
We’re also introducing a contest, which runs from now until Sept. 21. To enter, students age 13 to 25 just have to answer the question, How Would the Presidential Campaigns Change if the Voting Age Were 13? — a question that is also at the heart of our teaching unit. Winners will have a chance to have their thoughts published both on The Learning Network and elsewhere on NYTimes.com.
Below, a broad overview of the unit. Each day from now through Aug. 24 we’ll lay out a new “mini-unit” that will address a different essential question through activities, inquiry-based projects and practical handouts.
Finally, tell us how you’re teaching about this election. If we hear from enough readers, we’ll choose our favorite ideas to feature on the blog.
2012 Presidential Election Unit Overview
Overall Theme
What if the voting age were lowered to 13? How would the candidates try to appeal to younger voters? How would the issues change as more teenagers gained the right to vote? Would young people get more engaged in our democratic system?
Four Essential Questions, One Per “Mini-Unit”
- Who are the candidates?
- What are the issues?
- How are the candidates trying to win the election?
- Who do you think should win the election?
Rationale and Overview
In this unit, we’re putting teenagers front and center by having them consider these basic essential questions — questions central to any election — through the lens of a hypothetical situation in which the voting age has been lowered to 13.
Each section of the unit builds on the one before to ask students to look critically at the 2012 candidates, issues and campaign strategies, but each also offers separate warm-up activities, research tasks and final projects. Teachers can add or subtract pieces or further scaffold to fit their individual classes, time frames and curricular demands.
The unit begins with students forming a research team assigned to one candidate, working for a retooled presidential campaign suddenly hyper-aware of the newly important youth vote. They design candidate profiles, conduct opposition research, create issues-based campaign materials, analyze the competing presidential campaign strategies and write their own campaign speeches.
After students have completely immersed themselves in campaign research, they take a step back to write their own editorial about who they think should be the next president of the United States.The unit concludes as the class stages a mock election for the school community using the materials they generated over the course of the unit.
Goals
- To engage students in the democratic process by making them active participants in Election 2012.
- To encourage students to think critically about information, point of view, and sources by making them campaign message-makers.
- To help students become better readers, writers, group members, presenters and thinkers, aligned with the Common Core State Standards.
Framework
Mini-Unit 1: Who Are the candidates?
Project: Candidate Profiles
Students research one candidate and retool his campaign to appeal to younger voters by creating brochures, slide shows, biographies or Facebook pages or other social media strategies to introduce him.
Mini-Unit 2: What Are the issues?
Project: Issue-Based Campaign Materials or Strategy
Project: Debate
Students survey one another on the issues that matter to them, then research one or more of these issues to create campaign materials like buttons, advertising, brochures or posters around it. Then, they debate the issues, either from the candidates’ point of view or their own.
Mini-Unit 3: How are the candidates trying to win the election?
Project: Argumentative Essay
Project: Campaign Speech or Presentation
Students assess campaign ads to analyze how the candidates this year are trying to appeal to voters, then focus on one campaign strategy to write an essay answering the question, “Which candidate is running the better campaign?” They write campaign speeches for the candidate they have researched.
Mini-Unit 4: What Do You Think?
Project: Student Editorial
Students conduct a one-question interview on views about the election so far, then write an editorial in which they tell why they think one of the candidates should be elected. They use the materials they have created and what they have learned so far to run a mock election.
Unit Culminating Project: Mock Election
Related: In addition to our Election 2012 Unit, bookmark our Election 2012 page, which lists all lesson plans, Student Opinion questions, crosswords and more related to this topic. We will keep updating this page as we add new election-related resources.
If you want to take the unit theme in a different direction, students could research the voting age and whether it should be lowered. Relevant Times resources include our lesson plan, “Acting Your Age: Considering the Age of Responsibility” as well as three Opinion pieces:
- “You’re 16, You’re Beautiful and You’re a Voter,”
- “Leave the Voting Age Alone”
- “Scared Straight — Into the Voting Booth”
This unit meets the Common Core State Standards, as well as the McREL Standards, as follows:
Common Core Anchor Standards, 6-12
Reading
1. Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.
2. Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas.
3. Analyze how and why individuals, events and ideas develop and interact over the course of a text.
6. Assess how point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of a text.
7. Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse formats and media, including visually and quantitatively, as well as in words.
10. Read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts independently and proficiently.
Writing
1. Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.
2. Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization and analysis of content.
4. Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization and style are appropriate to task, purpose and audience.
5. Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting or trying a new approach.
6. Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and to interact and collaborate with others.
7. Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects based on specific questions, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.
8. Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, assess the credibility and accuracy of each source, then integrate the information while avoiding plagiarism.
9. Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection and research.
Speaking and Listening
1. Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
2. Integrate and evaluate information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively and orally.
3. Evaluate a speaker’s point of view, reasoning and use of evidence and oratory.
4. Present information, findings and supporting evidence such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning and the organization, development and style are appropriate to task, purpose and audience.
5. Make strategic use of digital media and visual displays of data to express information and enhance understanding of presentations.
6. Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and communicative tasks, demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate.
Civics
1. Understands ideas about civic life, politics and government.
13. Understands the character of American political and social conflict and factors that tend to prevent or lower its intensity.
14. Understands issues concerning the disparities between ideals and reality in American political and social life.
20. Understands the roles of political parties, campaigns, elections and associations and groups in American politics.
28. Understands how participation in civic and political life can help citizens attain individual and public goals.
29. Understands the importance of political leadership, public service and a knowledgeable citizenry in American constitutional democracy.
