- Now that everyone knows which political party they lean towards, it's time to separate them into parties and give them a few issues to research and prepare to debate on. Based on their percentage of support for a candidate, separate students into democrats and republicans (be ready for some moans & groans - some of my former students were SHOCKED & angry to find out that they were opposite parties from their parents!)
- Since everyone is running for president at this time, we will do our debate on video (rather than in real-time).
- The debate format will be as follows:
- I announce the political issue that we will focus on for the first round and assign responsibility partners (same political party).
- Students determine their stance on it, based on their T-Chart and any new information they have. Based on their stance, students determine if they support their political party's stance on the issue or if they do not (here is a general guideline for Democrat/Republican stances on issues).
- Students explain their position on this issue on video (citing evidence & clear reasons). The more strong arguments made (with support), the more likely they are to move on to the next level. Since I do not give grades, but rather focus on improvement, students may re-record as often as needed before the voting takes place (they may need to do this on their own time).
- Students tag their video "Republican" or "Democrat" on YouTube. They title it based on the issue and their first name.
- This process will be repeated for several issues.
- Growth is valued most. So the first video is worth 1 electoral college vote, the second video is worth 2 electoral college votes, the third is worth 3, etc. The eight students with the most electoral college votes become their parties candidates before the primary. We will use a Google Form to vote. Here is the link for Democrats and here is a link for Republicans.
- We will create 3-4 videos before determining the brackets.
- Students need to post all of their videos onto a blog post using the title above.
- They should tag their post "Election."
- Reflection/Synthesis:
- Write a paragraph describing what you learned from this activity, what was hard/easy, and why other teachers should do this activity in their classrooms.
- Which issue did you connect with the most? Why was it important to you? Why do you hope our future president agrees with you on this issue?
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The 2016 Presidential Election Simulation
We're all running for president and there's no mention of Trump or Hillary! We're expecting it to be a fun ride! Archives
September 2016
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