#ElectionDay2016

Well, this week just keeps chugging along and I'm still along for the ride so I guess there's something to be said for that!

Recently, I've been trying to make the election relevant in my classroom without creating an environment for students that is not conducive to learning. Some of my students have brought up the election, which leads me to believe that they are interested in learning about it. I mean, the election is responsible for shaping the next 4-8 years of the United States' future! So naturally, I think we are all interested/curious/invested in the American election process.

I found this really cool Scholastic page that provides a plethora of resources and activities you can use. There are many resources for a variety of grade levels, although its seems that the upper elementary grade levels might be able to benefit the most from this kind of lesson. I think that is because more concrete history and government concepts are taught; especially in fourth grade. 

When I was reviewing these resources in hopes of finding one to use in my clinical classroom, I noticed that there was a great deal of integration to be done with election day festivities. For example, there is obviously a history tie-in, but you could easily do something with math when talking about numbers of votes and such. You could also integrate the election in with language arts studies by having students write a campaign speech. If you're not using a prescribed spelling/vocabulary program, you could even incorporate election terminology into weekly vocabulary for students to learn that way. This idea of integrating the election is especially good for me, because we don't have a prescribed time slot to teach social studies or science.

You also have to be careful not to stray too far from the original intent of your lesson/unit. For instance, I'm teaching fourth grade. North Carolina's social studies curriculum contains a  lot of history standards pertaining to North Carolina, so I it might be a really good idea for me to teach about the election when I'm teaching 4.H.1.3- Explain how people, events and developments brought about changes to communities in various regions of North Carolina. This would be an excellent way to help make students see that connection of how the standard affects them as a person. 

Once you've got your ideas down and they connect with what you're teaching, another step that it very important is to never, ever, ever push one political affiliation over another. I think sometimes we can get carried away and not realize that our ideologies that we have in the classroom mimic those of a political party, but it is okay for our students to disagree with us as teachers. Many of my students like to talk about the candidates and what their parents, media, and other outlets tell them. I want to use classroom time, even if I'm not teaching a social studies lesson, to educate them on the political process of choosing a candidate and how it affects the whole country. I feel that this connects with NCTCS Standards 2(respecting values of diversity) & 4 (facilitation of learning).