Election Unit

Created Feb. 7, 2024 by Joe Ferguson


Title: Election Unit

Grade Level: Sixth Grade

Subject: Social Studies

Duration: 6-8 Days (1 hour a day)

DOK Level: Level 4

SAMR Level: Redefinition

Indiana Standard:

  • 6.2.5 Discuss the impact of major forms of government in Europe and the Americas on civil and human rights
  • 6.2.7 Define and compare citizenship and the citizen’s role throughout history in Europe and the Americas.

Objective: Students will be able to identify the differences between the Republican and Democratic Parties. Students will also understand how a debate works as well as a general election.

Essential Question: What is the process for how the United State of American votes for elected officials?

Procedure:https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B465x48vZKreYk9aNGVZS2ltTVU?usp=sharing

  1. Monday

a)Explain our theme week

- Discuss what a debate is and how it works.

- Our debate resolution will be “Which side will you vote for? Republican or Democrat”

One team will be persuading you to vote “Republican” and the other team will be persuading you to vote “Democrat”

-Discuss our debate organization (Google Doc).

- Go over the Election Unit vocabulary (On Quizlet)

b)Reading

-Break up into debate groups.

-Discuss possible assignments of group members. See the teacher to record assignments

- Each side will practice their own debate presentation Next Monday.

- The real debate will be on Next Tuesday!

c)History/Social Studies

- Research to establish some background knowledge

Watch all three videos

http://pbskids.org/youchoose/video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ok_VQ8I7g6I (4 min.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEmOUHxessE (9 min)

  1. Tuesday

Reading/Grammar-

**Make sure that you login to both accounts in order to read both articles**

ReadWorks- Article a Day (http://digital.readworks.org/)

  • Political Parties: Read the article. Don’t forget to type in 2-3 notes into your Book of Knowledge

NEWSELA- Article (https://newsela.com/)

  • Issue Overview: How the U.S. elects its presidents: Read the article. Take the 4 question quiz that goes along with it.

-Research and plan for debate in groups or as individuals as needed.

-Concentrate on the main reason for your side’s issue. You will meet with the teacher to share your main points/reasons. Be sure that you can provide facts/statistics in order to prove up each of your points.

Resources:

https://support.newsela.com/hc/en-us/articles/207718163-Election-Text-Sets

http://www.diffen.com/difference/Democrat_vs_Republican

http://www.enkivillage.com/differences-between-democrats-and-republicans.html

http://us-political-parties.insidegov.com/compare/1-2/Democratic-Party-vs-Republican-Party

http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2016/07/dnc_2016_10_big_ways_the_democratic_platform_diffe.html

http://www.republicanviews.org/differences-between-democrats-and-republicans/

http://academic.regis.edu/jriley/413republicans_v_democrats.htm

https://billygraham.org/story/2016-party-platforms/

  1. Wednesday

Reading/Grammar

ReadWorks- Article a Day (Read with your Desk partner/partners)

(http://digital.readworks.org/)

  • Voting and the Law: Read the article. Don’t forget to type in 2-3 notes into your Book of Knowledge

NEWSELA- Article (Read with your desk partner/partners)

(https://newsela.com/)

  • Issue Overview: Perils of Polling: Read the article. Take the 4 question quiz that goes along with it.

-Continue your research over your issue. Don’t forget to use the resources from yesterday’s document on Google Classroom. Don’t forget to take notes and start to plan out your speech that you will give over your issue.

-We will be taking notes on how to plan out our speech today

  1. Thursday

Reading-

-You should be  at the least starting your speech today. Make sure you have facts and statistics that will add to the strength of your points.

-If you have your speech finalized then I will be meeting with you to go over it.

Campaign Manager

http://indiana.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/0d11fd81-20ba-4dc5-b328-870fe289c148/0d11fd81-20ba-4dc5-b328-870fe289c148/

  • As a group, come up with a slogan for your side and images that represent what you stand for (Republican or Democrat). You will use these to help you complete the following activities

Poster: http://www.postermywall.com/index.php/g/campaign-posters

  • Use the following link or any website with political posters to get a visual of different posters.
  • Using your Campaign slogan to come up with a poster to support your side. Use the images you and your group came up with.

Commercial: http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/2016

  • Use the following link to compare different political campaign commercials
  • Come up with a plan for what you will do for your commercial. Figure out what you will need and what all members of your team will do.

Radio Ad:

  • Come up with a song, a rap, a jingle, or an advertisement that you can use to endorse your party. It needs to go along with the slogan your group came up with.
  1. Friday

Reading

Work on Speeches- you should be finishing up your planner, and at the least starting your speech. Those of you that have your finished you need to be practicing your speech and checking how long it is. You may have group mate check your speech to see if it sounds good if you would like.

No research should be going on today. Everyone should be finishing speeches or practicing and memorizing.

Campaign Manager

Work with your small groups on your posters, commercials, and radio ad. Don’t forget to use your slogan that your group came up with and the images that represent your side.

Finish Early

Study your Election Vocab on Quizlet

IXL: Social Studies Standards (5th Grade)

  • Government J.1 - J.7

Product or Assessment:

  1. Election Unit Vocab Quiz: https://goo.gl/forms/RJOU5NaD5mvHwFj12
  2. Election Unit Debate: Present speeches, campaign ads, videos, etc.
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