Lesson Plan : Get Out and Vote!
Teacher Name: | Mr. Howes |
Grade: | Grade 11-12 |
Subject: | Social Studies |
Topic: | Politics, Civics, U.S. History |
Content: | Voting process, candidate research, elections |
Goals: | Students will have a desire to vote and will research candidates before voting. |
Objectives: | Students will learn through a hands-on experiment why voting is important and will also learn the potential impact of deciding not to vote or voting without wisely researching candidates. |
Materials: | Shoe box (for ballot box), slips of paper (with candidates names), Internet and computers |
Introduction: | Voting is a priviledge; nobody has to vote. Those who vote often have a good idea of what each candidate stands for. It seems irresponsible to vote if you don't know anything about any of the people running. |
Development: | Tell students they have the opportunity to vote if they choose to, that is, if they feel as if they know enough about the candidates to make a responsible decision or if they care at all. Proceed to computer lab or library to perform research, in groups, on each candidate. |
Practice: | Students will fill out their own worksheet with their opinions on different issues in the world today. (Teacher should be tallying up results from earlier in the day) |
Accommodations: | Students may work in groups to fill out the worksheet of the presidential candidates. Also, teacher can interpret when vocabulary is above grade level. |
Checking For Understanding: | Later in the day, have all students vote on who they would want to be president. No one can exempt their vote. Count those votes and compare to the results of the earlier vote. |
Closure: | Talk about the differences in voting results and how important it is to vote, and even moreso, to vote responsibly. |
Evaluation: | Students should turn in their worksheet with information gathered on presidential candidates but should keep worksheet with their own personal views. |
Teacher Reflections: |
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