Young people are the future voices of the country. In order to be knowledgeable about local and federal elections, future voters must first become aware. Bring an informative lesson plan to your social studies class, in which middle and high schoolers discover the importance of primaries and caucuses in relation to the electoral process. After viewing the included video and researching a series of guiding questions related to issues and events in the election cycle, class groups present their findings to the class, while others take notes. Then, teams create a website that showcases the new-found knowledge and breaks down the processes of primaries and caucuses in presidential elections.

Concepts

elections, presidential elections, news media, the electoral process

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Additional Tags

social studies

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Instructional Ideas

• Set up six learning groups prior to beginning the activity
• Have class members complete some portions of the website design out of class
• Print the six guiding questions and cut into separate strips of paper for groups

Classroom Considerations

• Lesson suggests to break the lesson into three or four 60-minute class periods; tailor the lesson to meet time constraints
• The lesson assumes pupils are familiar with creating websites
• Acquire sources with current political news, such as newspapers and magazines
• Reserve time in the computer lab in order to access the Internet
• The first in a series of four lessons from the Chase the Race in School program that focuses on the same essential question

Pros

• The seven-page packet includes detailed procedures with guiding questions, links for website design and additional election resources, and three worksheets

Cons

• None