It’s that time again in the United States.
Here’s a beginning list of The Best Resources For Learning About The 2012 U.S. Presidential Election, and I’m sure I’ll be adding tons to it as the election approaches:
Election 2012 comes from Scholastic.
There’s no question in my mind that the National Mock Election Game is the best site for English Language Learners. It has a fair amount of audio support for text. Intermediate ELL’s should be able to play it.
Here are a couple of sites that help you determine what kind of President you would be: PBS’ President For A Day and Are You Presidential Material? from Channel One.
All About Electing A President Of The United States is a very simple guide to the presidential election process. Ben’s Guide To The Election Of The President provides the same type of information, as does a summary from Enchanted Learning.
After students develop some background knowledge about how the Presidential elections work, it might be useful to spend a little time on the electoral college. 270 To Win has a lot of information displayed graphically about previous Presidential elections and what polls are saying now about the upcoming election.
I should at least mention an excellent online game developed by Cable In The Classroom called eElections. However, it’s probably only accessible to very advanced English Language Learners.
CNN has a nice comic-book-like interactive called Eight Steps To The White House. It’s an overview of the election process.
Ask A President is also from CNN. Four virtual presidents answer basic questions about the Presidental election process and how the U.S. Constitution works.
An Electoral College Primer is a bit dry, but makes a good attempt at explaining this crazy system of ours.
Time Magazine has a slideshow on The Voting Machines of America.
Cast Your Vote is an interactive where you can simulate casting a vote in a voting machine.
How Design Can Save Democracy is an interactive graphic from the New York Times that shows a sample Presidential ballot and how it can be designed to be more user-friendly.
The Harford Courant has an interactive graphic demonstrating the voting system in that state.
The Best Places To Learn About President Barack Obama’s Life
See a biography of Mitt Romney at The Biography Channel. You can also see a list of his positions here.
Predict a winner: Battleground states is an interactive from the Los Angeles Times.
The Washington Post also has an interactive predictor.
Brainpop has a series of good movies, but you have to either subscribe or register for a trial period.
The Economist has several good “videographics” on the election.
Election 2012: Teaching Ideas and Resources is from The New York Times Learning Network.
10 Tools, Apps, Interactives And Other Projects Around 2012 U.S. El... is a post at 10,000 Words, and it really is quite an impressive collection.
I Side With is a new cool interactive for learning about the Presidential campaign. Here’s how NPR describes it:
The site’s purpose is to show you which presidential candidate’s views most align with yours by running you through a short quiz that asks your stance on various policy issues, then determines which candidate most agrees with you.
It’s not a new idea — similar quizzes popped up the past few election cycles. But what sets this one apart is the social-media angle: The site allows you to share your results with your friends or to comment via Facebook, and it shows you the states where candidates best match up with the quiz takers.
States of play is an interactive from The Economist.
Candidate Match Game II is from USA Today.
Vote 2012 is a neat interactive map from the PBS News Hour.
Milestones: Paul Ryan is a New York Times interactive.
Race to the White House is an Associated Press interactive.
Timeline: Paul Ryan through the years is from CNN.
Here’s a CNN “Explainer” about political conventions:
Mitt Romney’s Life is an interactive from The Wall Street Journal.
Conventional Wisdom is a WSJ interactive about political conventions.
The New York Times has put together a word cloud indicating the most common words used in speeches at the Republican Convention (I assume they’ll continue to add to it as the Convention goes on). They now have one for the Democratic Convention, too.
The New York Times Learning Network has published an excellent series of lessons on the 2012 elections this week. Most are too challenging to many English Language Learners, but can be modified.
YouTube Politics has video about the elections from multiple networks.
VISUALIZATION: The Most Memorable GOP Convention Moments is a very interesting interactive. The Economist has a good explanation about it.
Where Do You Fit? Introducing The Pew/NewsHour Political Party Quiz is a very accessible interactive from the PBS News Hour.
Play The Election is the newest incarnation of the great Play The News gaming platform. Be sure to click on “Play Games.”
Great Free Web Sites for Teaching Election 2012 is from The New York Times Learning Network.
A comparison of key words spoken by the Republican and Democratic p... during their convention speeches comes from The Washington Post.
Race to the White House is an Associated Press interactive.
Vote Night lets you use a Google Map to predict the election results. It’s similar to several other sites I’ve previously described. However, Vote Night gives you an embed code for your creation so you can add it to your blog or website. Thanks to Google Maps Mania for the tip.
