Classroom President

Presidential Elections are held in America every 4 years. Presidential candidates must present their points of view in a campaign, which also contains debates, marketing strategies, and appealing to the needs of the citizens. It is important that students understand the history of voting and the importance of voting.

• If nobody volunteers, I will draw 4 student names from a hat
• These candidates can choose a partner to develop a presidential campaign
• I will ask for 4 volunteers to be presidential candidates
• The rest of the students will take time exploring the history and process of campaigning. This can be done alone or in small groups
• The students will vote for the class president after the presidential debate

Ideally, students will have a fun learning experience. At the end of this assignment, all students should know:

• Requirements for Presidential Candidates
• Presidential Parties
• Common campaign methods
• Marketing strategies
• Presidential Debates
• Length of Presidential Terms
• The amount of times one can serve as President
• The name of a President they researched that interested them

By allowing students the option to work in groups or alone, they can create a comfortable environment for themselves to best learn in. Presidential candidates and their partner will also be able to answer the questions for the bulleted information, because they will have to use these tools to promote their own candidacy. Students will have monitored access to the Internet, the classroom library, clips from CNN videos I have downloaded onto discs, and magazines from previous elections.

With the use of classroom resources, students will learn the process of elections. In order to promote a successful and well organized campaign, the candidates and their teammate must understand the process themselves. They will spend about an hour or so doing their research and writing as much information about elections as they can. After the hour, they will work closely with their partners to determine which party they would like to represent. They will also develop a sign, a short skit to serve as a marketing commercial, and prepare themselves for a debate. During this time, I will allow the rest of the students another half an hour to select a United States President they like and compose a few sentence paragraph explaining why they chose this President. While the candidates continue to work on their campaign, I will work with the rest of the class on becoming "registered voters." Since all students must have a student ID on a lanyard everyday, I will use this as a state ID and create voter cards. I will talk with the students about the voting process and how it is important to become a registered voter. We will also briefly discuss how votes and electoral college votes are used to determine the next President.

All students will sit with their chairs facing the front of the classroom while each candidate performs their commercial, talks about what they will and will not do for the classroom, and present their signs. Then, the candidates will be asked questions by their peers in a debate form.

Students will be given 10 minutes to sit alone and think of who they feel is best suited for the position of classroom President.

Each student will come to my desk with their voter card and fill it out in front of me. I have sealed a box with a small slit on top for the students to place their card in.

I will count them 3 times and announce the class President.

Afterwards, we will hold a discussion to answer any questions the students have about the process, any interesting information the students found, and I will randomly ask students questions to engage each one in conversation.

There are a possible 40 points for this assignment.

For candidates and their partner:

Research 15 points

Presentation of selected party/campaign 5 points

Commercial 5 points

Debate 5 points

Participation in classroom discussion 10 points

For the voters:

Research 15 points

U.S. President paragraph 5 points

Classroom assignment (creating voter card and engaging in the discussion about registration and voting process) 5 points

Engaging in debate/asking candidates questions 5 points

Participation in classroom discussion 10 points

I will work closely with both candidates and voters to provide encouragement, critical thinking, and creativity.

At this point, all students should know the basic rules and practices that take place prior to election night in the United States. Students should be able to answer questions such as:

• What are the different kinds of parties?
• How long are presidential terms?
• What are some common tactics used in campaigning?
• What is a Presidential Debate?
• What are the requirements for voting?

Students will utilize as many classroom resources as they need to gather their research. We will also hold multiple classroom discussions in which students are encouraged to take notes. Engaging students in discussion is one of the many ways I feel students will retain the information. Actually allowing students to carry out the process in the classroom is a great hands on tool I feel will help them understand the process better.

Here are some websites that may be used by students. This is not a complete list of resources students will have access to.

https://www.teachervision.com/elections/teaching-methods/56372.html

http://us.cnn.com/election/2012/candidates.html

http://teacher.scholastic.com/scholasticnews/indepth/election2008.htm