"Every election is determined by the people who show up.” ― Larry J. Sabato, Pendulum Swing Let's say that again. "Every election is determined by the people who show up.” ― Larry J. Sabato, Pendulum Swing Are you listening, people? I love Larry Sabato. Love him. Love the Crystal Ball. Love his MOOC... Was even considering signing up for it... But, I think I may have to disagree with him for half a minute. Go back to the non-voter. Especially those in those heavily partisan states like the Cowboy states or even California. If I am not a part of the ruling elite in that state, why bother? So, I love this unit because it goes into more detail about why its not just if you vote, but where you live that matters. Where you live, especially the district you live in and how its drawn, REALLY matters. So here is my unit. Enjoy. I start on day one with a nice overview of the nomination process. We prep for class by reading the Washington Post article, Why Iowa Gets To Go First. We also watch a little video about how Primaries work. I ask my kids to really consider this guiding question: What types of communities would be more likely to chose a caucus versus a primary election? Why? We start class by reading two articles that highlight the idiosyncrasies of Virginia Ballot Access rules. Ballot Rules and VA Ballot Access They play an important role in illustrating how overtly partisan the whole primary process really is. We discuss the differences in what parties need to do to get on the ballot, and evaluate whether one state is inherently more democratic than the other. Interesting to note here, your students answers may differ over what they consider to be more democratic... more access to the ballot or more representative of the parties' will. Key to this discussion is to act as a mythbuster. The caucuses and primaries are so much more partisan in their results because caucuses and primaries are meant to be an intraparty discussion about who best to nominate to represent each repective party in the electorate while appealing to the undecided and moderate voters. Kids think that these are 'regular' elections (whatever that is)... and I think it is because the elections are held by the states. I remind them that the states election laws are reflecting the needs of the major parties to nominate candidates among themselves... these elections have little federal government oversight because they are merely a nominating mechanism for the parties. I reinforce this by pointing out that minor parties skip this process. Not only because election law prevents their entrance, but it is such a costly process (both in time and capital). Draining funds and volutneers this early on in the election season would make supporting the minor party candidate's run during the general election very difficult. They often have little widespread public debate over who will secure the nomination, because their candidates can easily reach their party in the electorate at nominating conventions. So, we read these articles, discuss the issues, and ask these three questions: If you are a campaign manager, what would you advise your candidate to do if you are a 1.) member of one of the two major parties, or 2.) a third party candidate? What impact does this have on the quality of candidates on the primary ballot? We then move onto the nominating pipeline. I discuss the steps, and include a bit more discussion on the differences between caucuses and primaries. Caucuses seem to elude the kids, so I have to resources I use... one of them was put out by the Clinton campaign to promote caucusing in 2008... And another lovely video from NPR's Ken Rudin walking us through how it works. (He has some really corny jokes, but it works.) We go right through the pipeline up above, spending time talking about the role of delegates (and Superdelegates), the difference between open and closed primaries and caucuses, and ways to improve the primary and caucus procedure. We talk about how they are not held at the same time, and how important Iowa as the first nominating vehicle (caucus), New Hampshire (first primary), South Carolina, et al to the vitality of campaigns. I hit up...
Youth Leadership Initiative also has some great lessons that go with this. I took some resources from their lesson "Selecting a President Part I." Specifically, we did the following: Distribute or project the map Methods of Selecting Presidential Delegates by State. Have students analyze the map and respond to the following questions:
PS... If I had time, I would show this video to show how the party and the media deals with evaluating candidates. Funny to mention that Huntsman was not taken seriously in the straw polls, as well as failing to get on the ballot of Arizona (which shows poor campaign coordination and possible poor leadership) is given a lot of discussion by the media. The media loves everyone BUT Ron Paul. It's a funny video. Watch the very end. Expletive alert, but it's bleeped out. And that is it for day one! Phew!
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Well, do ya? Punk? (Yep. Say it just like Dirty Harry.) After talking about what the federal and state governments do to manage broaden or limit electoral rolls, we turn now to... US. We start off by listing the four categories of voters... I usually put the info up on the board... so that the kids have a better idea of how we categorize voters. The book tends to be vague. We then watch the super fun video up top. The kids take turns using fly swatters to slap the correct category of voter each interviewee is, and the rest of the class judges. To conclude this lesson, I adapted a part of a Youth Leadership Lesson I found a while back. I updated it to examine the 2008 election returns, but since this wasn't mine to begin with I have made it free on my website, along with a link to the Census Bureau document. Enjoy!
I keep on hearing about the radness of prezi. Since I am not tech-shy, I decided to jump in and have my students become experts early on this year. Collaboration nation... my students were challenged to create a two-minute prezi, complete with fake tweets (to work on speaking succinctly and boosting summarization skills), pictures, audio, and video files from LOC.gov... I am really excited to share the results with y'all... And if you want to try this in your own class, covering the following voting-related topics, jump on over to my store and buy the lesson plan. Topics assigned to teach to the class...
The historical struggle for the right to vote is a well documented one in US History, but it is fractured at best. Alice Paul and Lucy Burns. Occoquan Workhouse. Forced feedings. 19th amendment. 15th amendment. Literacy tests. (For fun... have your class take one!) Jim Crow. Grandfather Clauses. SNCC. Freedom Rides. NAACP. VRA of 1965. Viet Nam War. Conscription. "Old Enough to Die, Old Enough to Vote." Kent State Massacre. 26th Amendment. (Side bar: my grandfather, an officer in the Ohio National Guard at the time, and involved in the response, did explain how the National Guard did NOT want to respond to the riots, and struggled with the events on May 4th.) Surprisingly, when considered on whole, the issue of suffrage is far more controversial then most people think. It is constantly in the news, but does not make it above the fold most days. So I go to great lengths to present this topic in the light of three major conflicts. Should the federal or state governments oversee voting requirements? Should there be more concern over the security of the ballot or the access to the ballot be safeguarded? Is this a partisan issue or not? We start class off with an overview of voting requirements; most of which are set by the states. I make note of the fact that the Constitution grants limited authority over ballot access to voters; namely through a handful of amendments that require access for all despite race (15th), gender (19th), age (26th), and ability to pay (24th). Yet states routinely classify the constituency into groups eligible and ineligible to vote under the pretext that these classifications are reasonable. This includes:
as well as barring individuals from voting dependent upon:
So, are these reasonable classifications? In order to do so, we categorize efforts on the federal and state level into one of two categories. Either efforts to ensure access to the ballot or efforts to ensure security of the ballot. (pardon my shutdown discussion with the GOP bigwig pics in the middle). The final step in this introduction is to listen to the first 24 minutes of this interview on Fresh Aire of PA State Rep Daryl Metcalfe and his efforts to pass a Voter ID law. The second half of the interview is of Columbia University's Nate Persily.
I have a supplemental audio guide available for purchase and download on my store... |
Jen's bookshelf: nerdcation
I want to start by thanking Mr. Snowden and Mr. Greenwald for their uncompromising dedication to giving the NSA violations air time and transparency.
I wanted to share some of the most important things I have learned from this book bef...
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nerdcation
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nerdcation and to-read
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nerdcation and to-read
tagged:
nerdcation and to-read
AuthorI lovgov. LOVE IT! I love teaching government, learning about it, debating, discussing, asking questions about government. And not the standard boiler plate questions, but the hard ones that are NOT in the books. Archives
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