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Teachers play a critical part in shaping young people’s understanding of their role as citizens and future electors. In fact, the work of the teaching profession helps to guide the democratic development of our nation. This section provides teaching ideas, lessons and resources to assist you in introducing your students to the electoral process in the Caribbean. Here you will also find great ways for students to get involved in local politics, like holding classroom debates and mock elections. The lesson plans listed below are designed to tie to national and regional standards for civics, social studies, history, mathematics, language arts and citizenship education.
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- Syllabus Conections
- Learning Resources
- Primary Plans
- Seondary Plans
- Classroom Items
- Useful Links
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Smart Art |
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This activity asks students to examine and practice the art of political cartoon-making by focusing on how and why they are so effective in making a political point.
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If I Were President |
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Make a class book about what your students would do if they were president. |
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Budget Making |
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Introduce students to budgets, expenses and savings; learn about government services and basic expenses; and create pie charts representing government spending priorities. |
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Download Election Material
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Run an election in your class. Resources include manifestos, party logos, posters, ballot papers and role play cards. |
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Why Vote? |
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Learn about the important public services that government provides, and by extension, the importance of voting in local, state and federal elections. Create a public service campaign to encourage adults in your community to vote. |
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Learning About Elections: Campaigning and Voting Lessons |
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It’s election year. Do your students know how to campaign for a candidate? If you think they need help in understanding election basics, try this classroom project. |
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Why
Vote? A Public Debate Awareness Campaign |
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Students will learn that towns include people whose jobs contribute to the quality of community life. |
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Access, Analyze, Act: A Blueprint for 21st Century Civic Engagement |
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Discover the power of social media while promoting your students’ civic engagement |
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Political
Polls |
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In a society which surveys everything from soap used to political preference, it is essential that polls are neither feared nor revered. Students must know polls are statements of short term probability that may easily be skewed. They are a tool to help man make rational decisions. |
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Campaign
Ad Critique |
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Students analyse current campaign TV ads and literature. They identify the ad by "type." They learn to look beyond the ad to understand its intended purposes and its real content. |
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Download Election Material
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Run an election in your class. Resources include manifestos, party logos, posters, ballot papers and role play cards. |
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Learning Through Elections |
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"Learning Through Elections" includes lesson plans, activities and background information designed to support teachers across Key Stages 3 and 4 in bringing the concepts of citizenship and democracy to life. |
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Election Time using a Database |
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Students, working in groups, use various resources to answer prepared questions about the candidates. Students will enter their data into a prepared database. With teacher guidance, students will learn to use the database to find information. |
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Reading newspapers: Editorial and opinion pieces |
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A learner's guide to identifying, reading, and understanding editorial and opinion pieces in historical newspapers. |
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What Matters Most? |
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Most students are too young to vote, but they can still participate in the election process by sharing their views. This lesson plan includes some activities to encourage students to articulate their opinions. |
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Campaigning For Change
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In this lesson, students select a school issue of importance to them, the faculty and the administrative staff, and devise a proposal for mounting a campaign around the issue. |
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Persuasion and Political Debate |
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This lesson gives students a chance to participate, observe and discuss the rhetorical strategies that best suit a presidential debate format.
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Writing a Political Speech |
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Students practice the writing process in small groups while researching the platforms of political parties for speeches to be made in the same venue. Each group creates its own standard for assessing its political speech, which is, in turn, used by an audience to assess that group's speech and to corroborate the instructor's assessment of that speech. |
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Analyzing Political Ads |
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Students will view current political ads and learn how they make use of various commercial ad appeals. Students will also develop familiarity with basic videography terms.
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Political Commercials: Leading or Misleading Voters? |
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Students analyze commercials and look for logical fallacies. They then use a storyboard template to make their own commercial for a fictitious candidate, using the techniques and fallacies they've learned. |
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Creating Video Public Service Announcements |
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Students will identify ways increased voter participation could impact the issues of concern to their communities and write, shoot, and edit a 10-30 second public service announcement on the importance of voting. |
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Political Polling in Your Community |
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Students read about how polls are written, conducted, and used by candidates, and about problems inherent in political polling. |
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Voting |
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By brainstorming, developing, and implementing an action plan for boosting local voter registration or participation, students can analyze voter participation statistics and make inferences for why voter participation has decreased. |
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Get it on the Ballot |
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In this real-life, hands-on activity, students will research referenda/ballot initiatives in their areas, choose something to put on the ballot, and compose a petition and gather signatures. |
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Voting Rights: What Age is Too Young? |
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Students will construct a timeline of voting rights in the US, perform biographical research on someone important to voting rights, and finally write a letter to their US Representative taking a position on lowering the voting age to 16. |
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Political Satire |
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Students get to take a serious look at a funny subject and understand better how political satire is used during an election. |
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Elections
Around The World
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Database with results from elections around the world. Also
provides vital statistics for many nations.
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Elections
and Electoral Systems Around the World
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Provides links to a variety of electoral and election
result pages.
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Political Database of the Americas |
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The PDBA offers centralized and systematized information about institutions and political processes, national constitutions, branches of government, elections, political constitutional studies and other subjects related to the strengthening of democracy in the region. |
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The
Journal of Democracy |
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The Journal of Democracy has an Election Watch |
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Our Vote, Our Voice |
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Peer training about elections by people with learning difficulties. |
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Idea Generators |
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These tools give citizens a method for collectively identifying critical issues and sharing possible ways of addressing them. They provide extensive background information on the issues in addition to soliciting public opinions. |
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National Mock Election Game
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Play the game "The Road to the Capitol," which simulates a presidential candidate's campaign from start to finish. |
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Youth Noise
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Youth Noise is an online community for youth social and political activism, with opportunities to learn, share ideas and take action. |
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Youth Media Exchange
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This site allows youth to upload videos and other media related to global issues. Users can react to uploaded media with ratings and comments and can also post media as a response. |
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HeadsUp |
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HeadsUp is an innovative website where under-18s and parliamentarians debate the issues of the day. The site is a non-partisan, cross-party educational resource that provides a secure, structured and student-centered discussion platform. |
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Hands Up! - exploring decision-making and action in our place |
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Hands up! – Exploring decision making and action in our place – is a series of hands-on activities for primary and intermediate students working at levels 1 to 4 which explores identity, groups, decision-making, political structures and social action. The Hands up! teacher resource includes a conceptual overview, background information for teachers and students, activity materials and assessment suggestions. While Hands up! is designed as a complete unit, its activities will work standalone or as part of another unit with a related focus. Hands up! will adapt easily for use at higher levels. |
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Elect! - running elections for learning |
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Elect! helps schools (or anyone else) run authentic elections and referendums. It can be used in its entirety as a significant study unit, “cherrypicked”, focused or scaled to suit any learning, administrative or electoral context. After a comprehensive introduction for teachers, modules cover: the role of elections; franchise; electoral systems and electorates; running elections and election day; the roles of parties, candidates, lobby groups and the news media; counting and analysing votes; getting the elected body to work or decision implemented. |
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