PBS Election Central
For this election year PBS Education has created tools, resources and creative solutions to introduce students to the political process. Topics explored are the process and history of elections; the local impact of national issues; and the Electoral College. Tools also include fast facts and an interactive, activity-based electoral map.
Included in Election Central you’ll find:
Citizens, Not Spectators
Citizens, Not Spectators is a program from Center for Civic Education that provides voter education to students in grades 4-12. Its curriculum teaches how to cast a vote, how the voting process works, how to become an informed voter, and why it is important to vote.
Win the White House
iCivics presents game based learning that takes students through the process of running for president. They will manage their presidential campaign by raising funds, polling voters, launching media campaigns, and making personal appearances. The map helps keep track as the students battle over electoral votes and popular support.
Election Process: How Elections Happen from Ben’s Guide to the U.S. Government
The election process for Federal officials, specifically the President and Vice President, Senators, and Representatives, is explained.
Campaign 2016 from C-Span Classroom
Developed by 2015 Summer Teacher Fellows, the material presented provides explanations of the election process for President of the United States. Ten main topic areas are supplemented with related video clips, discussion questions, handouts, and activities.
Teaching and Learning with the New York Times
The New York Times has assembled a significant number of teaching materials to cover this year’s presidential election, and houses them on a blog page. The page will continue to be updated up until the actual election in November. On the site you will find lesson plans and units, student opinion questions, classroom handouts, and articles with guided reading questions.
Letters to the Next President 2.0
L2P 2.0 is a national project hosted by the National Writing Project and KQED that helps give young people a voice on issues that matter to them. Middle and high school students are invited to choose an issue and write a letter about it to the next president. The letter can be created in any format : text, video, audio, multimedia etc. Students post their letter to the L2P 2.0 platform where it is available for all students to explore.
The L2P 2.0 platform also hosts ideas for teachers as well as election-related curriculum resources.
Media Breaker/Studios: Break the Election
MediaBreaker/Studios is a free online learning tool to help students understand how media impact elections and the media. With Break the Election, students remix and critique political commercials, news coverage and more to learn about techniques of persuasion, bias and misinformation. Break the Election helps students learn and practice media literacy skills.
Newsela: Students Vote 2016 Toolkit
Newsela presents a toolkit created in partnership with educators, think tanks, civic groups, and news organizations on a 9-month program that helps engage students with the 2016 presidential election.
How do you visualize democracy? Cosponsored by ThinkTV and Wright State University’s College of Education and Human Services, Visualize Democracy provides students the opportunity to express their democratic ideas. All Ohio students are invited to submit original expressions of life in a democracy in one of the three categories: Visual Art, Poetry, or Video/Film.
Submissions must be made by a teacher or school principal. Submission deadline is October 15, 2016. The students’ original visual artwork, poetry, and video/film will be exhibited in an online gallery hosted on the WSU-ThinkTV Election Hub beginning in late October 2016.
Voters Ed offers historical presidential election data as well as a map for predicting the 2016 presidential contest.
The Youth Leadership Initiative
The Youth Leadership Initiative is presented by the University of Virginia Center for Politics, providing free civics education materials and programs. YLI programs are designed to help students to understand and take responsibility as citizens, becoming lifelong participants in democracy with lesson plans and activities, each program includes simulations and hands-on projects that connect students with the political process.
ThinkCERCA: Teach the Election
ThinkCERCA is an online platform designed to personalize literacy instruction across disciplines. It has been developed by literacy experts and an academic advisory board of teachers. They offer resources to help students think critically about this election season.
CSPAN offers free primary source material for social studies classrooms, including lessons on the Road to the White House.
CSPAN also provides an archive of the debates, both Presidential and Vice Presidential.
Election Resources for Elementary Aged Students
PebbleGo Vote for Elementary Students
PebbleGo Vote is a website with free educational content about the 2016 election targeting kindergarten through second grade. Among the resources available for download are e-books, articles and lesson plans.
Scholastic News Election 2016
Scholastic News offers an election website with resources for elementary school teachers.
You Choose – from PBS Kids
PBS Kids helps you introduce Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton to elementary students.