Check out the Web sites below for activities, mock elections, videos, lessons plans, primary source materials and more to help your students become immersed in the election process and the impact it will have on their lives,
Get Students Involved in the Election Process
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/thenews/
The producers of the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer are preparing the.Vote and the.Gov—a series of eleven 4- to 5-minute reports on the 2008 campaign leading to the inauguration of the next president. After Election Day, the series will evolve from the.Vote to the.Gov and look at the process of forming a new government, identifying key issues for the new administration and new Congress. The video segments, hosted by the.News journalists, will be provided free to middle school and high school teachers and their students. Each segment of the.Vote and the.Gov is accompanied by online, standards-based activities that will give students the opportunity to create multimedia works: you.Edit allows students to rework and re-edit video material provided by MacNeil/Lehrer Productions, and you.Report serves as a home for student-generated content with students’ perspectives on policy issues and the election process. All segments will be closed captioned. An initial the.Vote report has been posted online, allowing educators to become familiar with the.Vote and the educational opportunities it provides. Regular production will begin in September and run up to the inauguration in January 2009.
ServiceVote 2008
http://www.servicevote.org/
Service Vote is a campaign to engage young people in the political process, beginning with voting. The program challenges youth to think critically about how they can affect issues by getting involved in the political process, and provides opportunities to participate in the presidential election. The Web site features news and information on various races, the presidential candidates, defining the issues and opportunities for peer interaction through a discussion forum where students can post videos, images and audio files.
National Student /Parent Mock Election
http://www.nationalmockelection.org/
Dating from 1980, the National Student/Parent Mock Election (NSPME) is one of the nation's oldest, largest and most successful voter education projects. This year, Google is providing teachers with an online, customizable Mock Election Toolkit, using YouTube and tools like Google News and Google Maps, to help students learn about the 2008 presidential election. The Mock Election will take place on October 30. Real time results will be displayed on a Google Map.
C-Span Classroom
http://www.c-spanclassroom.org
Developed with a team of social studies teachers, the site features hundreds of video clips and related classroom materials organized into six major topic areas: principles of government, legislative branch, executive branch, judicial branch and political participation.
Google for Educators: Election Tools for Teachers
http://www.google.com/educators/elections_tools.html
Google has teamed up with the National Student/Parent Mock Election to get students of all ages excited about the November U.S. elections by bringing into the classroom some of the tools and technologies that didn't exist during the last Presidential election. Elections Tools for Teachers makes it easy to bring some of the best Internet tools into the classroom to get students engaged. Descriptions and suggested learning activities for tools like YouTube, Google Maps, Elections Video Search and Power Readers are included.
Also, for additional high quality materials on Election 2008, remember the online databases Heartland provides.
AP Images: Elections 2008
http://apimages.ap.org/default.aspx
AP Images has added an Election 2008 tab to access photos in showcases categories such as Atmosphere and Supporters and the American President Collection and featured events such as top election images, today's images and presidential debate. Teachers and students have access to AP Images by using their online database username and password. See you teacher librarian if you need help.
SIRS Leading Issues provides an excellent overview of the election; issues of the election including the economy, energy and the environment, health care, immigration and Iraq and the war; interactives and multimedia; and a research guide about how to analyze the facts and apply your knowledge with templates for writing a research paper or mini research paper, creating a PowerPoint presentation or a debate online or analyzing Election 2008 editorial cartoons.
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