Puyallup School District Civics OER w/ Washington State History
Republican Elephant & Democratic Donkey
Materials/Resources:
- Lessons from iCivics: Voting Rights, Electoral Process_2015, Party Systems, Role of Media, Propaganda, One Big Party [https://www.icivics.org/]
- Reading from American Government, e-book by ushistory.org: Chapter 4 American Political Attitudes and Participation, Chapter 5 How Do Citizens Connect With Their Government? [http://www.ushistory.org/gov/index.asp]
- Crash Course Government Videos
- 38 How Voters Decide [https://youtu.be/eermkiaFoWc]
- 40 Political Parties [https://youtu.be/VEmOUHxessE]
- 35 Political Ideology [https://youtu.be/j_k_k-bHigM]
Original Materials:
- Unit Cover page
- Notes guides for lessons
- Unit crossword
- Unit vocabulary
Each lesson will include:
- PowerPoint adapted from original sources
- Notes Guides (may be used as a reading guide)
- Related worksheets (often from original sources)
- Quiz (adapted from original sources)
Unit 4 Civics Packet: includes student hand-outs for all materials in the unit; individual copies of student handouts can be found within each section.
Suggested Project: Political Ideology Reflection Project
- Have students take several ideology quizzes online; they can take a screen shot of the scores to verify completion
- Students write a short reflection examining the results, explaining what they think of the terms ‘liberal’ and ‘conservative’, as well as identifying which issues were most important to their own political ideology
- See handout for sample questions/reflection, links to quizzes, and sample rubric
Unit 4 Notes
Crash Course Video Guides
How Voters Decide: Crash Course Government and Politics #38 | Standard YouTube License
Political Parties: Crash Course Government and Politics #40 | Standard YouTube License
Political Ideology: Crash Course Government and Politics #35 | Standard YouTube License
Voting Rights
Voting Rights | iCivics - Educators must sign in to iCivics in order to download materials. See Attribution section.
Explore the evolution of voting rights in the United States through an interactive PowerPoint presentation highlighting landmark changes. Following the presentation and class discussion, students apply the new knowledge of voting legislation to individual scenarios through a class activity.
Electoral Process
The Electoral Process | iCivics - Educators must sign in to iCivics in order to download materials. See Attribution section.
Take a peek into the electoral process- from party primaries to the general election. Students will learn the distinctions between the popular vote and the Electoral College, and exercise their critical reasoning skills to analyze the differences between the presidential and congressional elections. Students will also contrast the various nomination processes and learn about the role of party conventions in American politics.
Party Systems
Party Systems | iCivics - Educators must sign in to iCivics in order to download materials. See Attribution section.
Does every country have Republicans and Democrats? (Spoiler alert: No.) Use this mini-lesson to show your students that there are lots of different political party systems around the world.
One Big Party
One Big Party? | iCivics - Educators must sign in to iCivics in order to download materials. See Attribution section.
In One Big Party, students learn about the role of political parties in the United States and the influence parties have in our political system, including the role of third parties. This lesson does not cover political party ideologies.
Role of the Media
The Role of Media | iCivics - Educators must sign in to iCivics in order to download materials. See Attribution section.
What is the media? What does it do? Students examine the types and roles of the media by taking on the role of newsmaker and agenda setter.
Propaganda
Propaganda: What's the Message? | iCivics - Educators must sign in to iCivics in order to download materials. See Attribution section.
Examine the seven forms of propaganda found in advertising and politics. Discover the persuasive methods behind the messaging we see every day and gain skills to effectively identify and counter them. A classroom gallery walk challenges students to detect the propaganda techniques at work and evaluate their effectiveness.
Attribution and License
Republican Elephant & Democratic Donkey - Unofficial Icons by DonkeyHotey | CC BY
Voting Rights, Electoral Process, Party Systems, Role of Media, Propaganda, One Big Party readings and Teacher Guides are copyright iCivics, Inc.
Visit www.icivics.org/teachers, to access the state standards aligned to these lesson plans and for more resources. Provide feedback to feedback@icivics.org
Terms of Use: You may copy, distribute, or transmit this work for noncommercial purposes if you credit iCivics. All other rights reserved.
Except where otherwise noted, original materials by Puyallup School District are available under a Creative Commons Attribution license.