Kirsten 0:00

Welcome back to the podcast where we, as always, talk about very innovative and fun ways to teach social studies. Today is no exception. We are going to be talking about how to help upper elementary students understand the presidential election process. This election is proving to be quite interesting in a variety of ways. It doesn't matter which side of the bell you fall on. There are so many different events that have been happening over the last few months that have been quite memorable and really unprecedented. So I think it's important to make sure to highlight in some way this specific election, and really any election that happens, whether it's at the local level or state level.

Kirsten 1:36

Before we dive into some activity ideas I wanted to share about my own experience with elections. As a student, I vividly remember participating in mock elections during the 2000 and 2008 presidential races. Specifically for 2008 it wasn't just about casting a vote. We were tasked with writing analysis of the presidential debates. I remember having to as a homework assignment for my AP government class listening in to McCain and Obama debate, and we had to kind of write our opinions about the different issues that they were talking about. And then for the 2000 election, I was in fourth grade, and so we were really voting. It's just a simple voting about, do you want Bush, or do you want Gore to be president? That was a really simple activity that I remember very vividly. And these experiences left a lasting impression on me and helped me understand more about the election process.

Kirsten 2:42

So we're going to be talking about some activity ideas that you can do, that can do the same for your own students. The first activity idea is a mock election. This is very classic, super easy to do, but yet so memorable. As you know, I just talked about a simple mock election that we did that I still remember from fourth grade, and I even remember who most people voted for. You can use real candidates, or even you can get, like, completely made up and just do voting on your favorite types of cookies or favorite candy. We did this back when I taught kindergarten, where they voted on which cookie was better, chocolate chip cookies or Oreo cookies. You could still talk about the election process. So let's go into how you could make this work. You would definitely first want to make sure you're introducing your students to the concept of elections and discuss key terms such as candidates, voting and ballots. Assign roles if you want with other students being candidates, maybe somebody's a campaign manager and somebody's an election official. The second part of this is campaigning. Students are creating campaign materials for their chosen candidates, such as posters, speeches and campaign slogans. This helps develop their persuasive writing and public speaking skills on election day, whatever day you choose, set up a voting booth in the classroom. Each student votes, and the cookies are counted, if you choose that or the ballots are counted to determine the winner. And then lastly, you would announce the results and hold a discussion on the experience. What did students learn about the election process, and how do they feel about the outcome. Were they happy or were they not so happy? So mock election is a really great activity idea if you're short for time or you just want to do something simple and well known.

Kirsten 4:33

Another activity idea is debate analysis, very similar to how I did this in high school. This could be great for your older students, but this is a great way for students to critically evaluate candidates and the issues they talk about. So what you could do is choose a recorded debate, or you can use transcripts, take an excerpt, if needed, provide students with a worksheet or paper to guide their analysis process, including sections for noting different key points. Talk about their body language and overall presentation that each speaker has after watching discuss the candidates positions on the key issues that you choose to focus on. Encourage students to think about why a candidate might emphasize certain points, and also how they handle rebuttals or one off comments or kind of like strays catching strays. How do they handle that? Have students also write a short essay, paragraph or report analyzing the debate. They can focus on one candidate or compare multiple candidates, discussing who they think perform best and why.

Kirsten 5:44

Activity number three that I have for you is to track the states on the day of the election. This is a really great way to track in real time during the election, what is happening in which states are blue, which states are red, and all that good stuff. So what you could do is find a blank map of the United States in just kind of think about handing it out, making copies, and as the results are announced, students update the map, coloring states based on the winning candidate. This visual aid can help students see how the votes contribute to winning the presidency, and also thinking about how many electoral votes are in each state. A really great resource I recommend that I've used several times is Amy Grossbeck's election results map. Right now, at the time of this recording, it is free. I will link it in the comments, and I'm sure she will be updating it for the 2024 election. But it also has a great informational text on how voting works, and the nice blank map of the states and some questions after the election happens.

Kirsten 6:50

All right. Number four, campaign research. So this is an activity that involves students researching past presidential campaigns, so we're thinking about the history, you can assign each student or group a past presidential campaign to research. Provide a list of elements to explore, such as key issues, campaign slogans, major events and the outcome. Students can present their findings in a creative format, such as a news segment or even some type of campaign commercial reenactment. You can get creative with this, or it can be just a simple PowerPoint and then discuss how campaigns have evolved over time, the role of media and what strategies seem to be more effective. One thing specifically is, as the rise of technology happened. It could make or break a candidate. One major example is with television. John F Kennedy. He rocked it. He was great on TV, and his opposing candidate was not. And so that got him kind of one way of how he was able to win the presidency. The same was kind of seen with social media. In 2008 the rise of social media and Facebook and YouTube, Obama used a lot of social media avenues, more so than any other candidate, because before then, social media was not really a thing, if at all.

Kirsten 8:18

Activity number five, voting rights history. This is a great way for teaching the history of voting rights, and can provide context for why it is so important to vote. You can assign students different time periods to research, and they are going into key events in the history of voting rights, such as the 15th Amendment, where it gave people of color, African American men, the right to vote, the 19th Amendment, where women were allowed to vote, and the voting rights act of 1965 which prohibited racial discrimination in voting. There also you can look into how the voting age was lowered from, I believe, 21 to 18 as well. You can also check that out.

Kirsten 9:09

All right, we've talked a lot about activity ideas related to the voting process and election process. Let's do a nice activity after the election, or even when the inauguration happens in January. So my last activity idea I have for you. Activity idea number six is to reflect and discuss. Reflect on the election process can help solidify what they've learned and what is happening in real time. So what you could do is, after the election, hold a reflection session encourage students to discuss their thoughts on the election process, what they learned and how they felt. Another idea is to have students write journal entries about their experiences. They can reflect on what they found surprising, challenging or exciting. And lastly, thinking about facilitating a group discussion. Students can share their reflections and thoughts on the importance of elections in voting.

So there you have it. There are six activity ideas for you to engage your students in the presidential election process, from mock elections to debate analyzes. These activities can make learning about elections not so boring, but a little bit more fun and informative. If you try any of these activities, I'd love to hear how it went. You can always share your experiences with me on social media at the southern teach, or you can shoot me an email. But in general, thank you so much for tuning in to this episode, and I will talk to you again next week.