If you’re looking at this guide, you’re likely weighing options for how to address an upcoming election. Mary Ehrenworth, Pablo Wolfe, and Marc Todd know how challenging it can be to teach responsibly in an election year and they have created this guide to help you tailor the core ideas in their book, The Civically Engaged Classroom, to the unique challenges of teaching during an election.
Perhaps you’re designing a grand election unit every four years, one in which kids track politicians and parties, and trace the big issues and candidates’ positions on those issues; perhaps you’ll even have a mock election. Or perhaps you’ll want to include a strand in your curriculum that studies breaking news and the electoral process in action. The suggestions in this guide can form the basis of an election unit, or you can use the suggestions as necessary to address particular issues and ideas as they arise. Mary, Pablo, and Marc have included essential questions as well as specific teaching ideas to help your students engage with the electoral process and to help them see their role in how we choose those who serve in our government now and in the future.
