The Teacher Resource Page
by David Cain
Highland Springs High School
Highland Springs, VA
Please feel free to use these materials to create your lesson plan for your students.
1.Introduction
This webquest was designed to introduce students to the candidates for their respective parties nomination for President.
2. Aim
The aim is to have students become more involved citizens and be more aware
of the potential candidates for 2008.
3. Rationale
My webquest is going to require my students to learn about the declared
candidates for President for the 2008 election. The main objective
for this activity
is for the students to become better informed voters. I also would
like them to learn about the key issues as identified by the candidates.
Most
of these young people will be voting in their first Presidential
election in 2008; therefore I want them to have an opportunity to be better
informed and to choose someone that they feels best represents them.
I also want them to also begin to learn the difference between fact and opinion. If they see something online that they are not sure about then they need to be able to find other sources of information to either verify or refute what they have found. One of the items we often discuss in class is that the family is the number one factor in how a young person votes. I want them to be able to give me clear, concrete reasons as to why they would support one candidate over the others. The statement that “my father or whomever is voting for them” is not making them become informed voters.
There are several Virginia State Standards of Learning that this activity will support. SOL 12.6 b & c refer to the election process and being informed about candidates running for office. SOL 12.18 e & f refer to the student becoming a citizen and participating in registering and voting for officials for public office. One of the main complaints we hear from young people is that they do not know who is running or what their beliefs on the issues are. This project will have them see issues of concern to the candidates.
4. Learners
This assignment is aimed at all level of learners. I teach both AP Government
and regular level government students. At out school they take this as a
12th grade course. This assignment could be modified for other public offices
as well as other Presidential election years.
5. Prerequisites
I think some knowledge of the candidates helps, but is not necessary. This
could possibly even be an AP summer project. There should have been some class
time spent on Democrats and Republicans and possibly discussing key issues
of the day. In terms of programs I would want them to be familiar with Word
( or another word processing program), PowerPoint (or other presentation program)
and/or Movie Maker (or other movie program).
6. Subject Matter for this webquest would be the Presidency, elections and
campaigns. In my county's curriculum current events also are covered.
7. Goals and Objectives
I want the students to learn about the candidates for their respective parties
nomination in 2008. Also it would include current events in the form of the
issues that face the nation at that time. These would cover Virginia SOL 12.6
b & c which refer to the election process and being informed about candidates
running for office. SOL 12.18 e & f refer to the student becoming a citizen
and participating in registering and voting for officials for public office.
8. Instructional Plan
See the Assignment page.
My instructional setting is currently a block schedule. We have a 7 period day on Mondays and then alternating odd - even days with 90 minute blocks. This webquest was designed to last over 2-3 days for student group and individual work. The fourth day of the project would be the group presentation of their promo/ad. Then I would give them the issues chart with all the candidate information combined on it and assign the writing of their position paper which would be due in two more class periods.
9. Materials
The students will need access to computers. This could either be as a homework
assignment or in the computer lab.In my situation we have laptops assigned
to the students for their school use.They should have access to the Internet,
a word processing program, and presentation program
like
PowerPoint
or
Windows MovieMaker. A projector to show the student created promo's will
allow all students to view the ads.