Electoral College Lesson Plan

Name: Amelia Jennings

Date: 10/26/2016 Content/Grade: Social Studies/Grade 5-6

DAY ONE:
Preparation to Teach
Standards:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.7
Integrate visual information (e.g., in charts, graphs,
photographs, videos, or maps) with other information in print
and digital texts.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.5.1
Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions
(one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse
partners on grade 5 topics and texts, building on others' ideas
and expressing their own clearly.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.5.2
Summarize a written text read aloud or information presented
in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively,
and orally.

ISTE 6
Students communicate
clearly and express
themselves creatively for
a variety of purposes
using the platforms,
tools, styles, formats and
digital media appropriate
to their goals.
ISTE 7
Students use digital tools
to broaden their
perspectives and enrich
their learning by
collaborating with others
and working effectively in
teams locally and
globally.

Lesson
Objectives:

--Students will be able to identify the function and selection of

the electoral college.
--Students will be able to describe the relationship of
individual and electoral college votes in presidential elections.
--Students will assess the fairness and importance of having
the electoral college with individual voters.

-Verbal/Logical/Naturalist

Essential
Questions:

--What is the electoral college?

--Is this system fair?

Materials:

--Pens/pencils
--Scrap paper squares
--Whiteboard and markers (optional)
Hardware
--Projection equipment (projector, Monitor, etc.)
--Computers/Smart Devices with Access to Google Apps
--Microphone/speaker device (for hearing and text to speech)

-Visual/Logical/Naturalist/
Existential
--Interpersonal/
Intrapersonal

Websites
--Google Forms
https://docs.google.com/forms/u/0/
--Popplet
http://popplet.com/
--Google Docs (with accessibility features)
https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/
--National Archives on the Electoral College
https://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoralcollege/electors.html (general information)
https://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoralcollege/map/historic.html#1980 (maps of outcomes in history
of elections)
--Ballotpedia on the Electoral College
https://ballotpedia.org/Electoral_College
Video Resources
--PBS Learning Media on the General Election
http://ca.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/7fdb872a-b4ec-4fe885de-b105c6974bf2/7fdb872a-b4ec-4fe8-85deb105c6974bf2/
--TEDed Video on Electoral College
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9H3gvnN468

Instructional Sequence

--Interpersonal/Existential
-Naturalist/Interpersonal/V
isual
--Verbal/Interpersonal
--Logical/Naturalist

--Visual/Musical

--Visual/Verbal

--Visual/Verbal/
Interpersonal/Existential

Anticipatory Set:
Instructional Strategy and/or Student Activity
Im thinking of Topic Intro Activity: November 8th

Rationale
Introduces the topic, shows the relevance to today

Show PBS Video on the General Election to introduce the

Electoral College (Pause esp. At first minute, question on
focusing on states instead of votes).
--Ask students to take note of things that surprise or interest
them. (picture, key words, phrases, etc.)

Visual and Verbal learning addressed in this image

and audio-rich video and note activity.

Formative Monitoring/Assessment
Ask at 1 minute mark why students think candidates would
focus on states instead of individual voters, referring to the
big issues and the importance of debates, etc.

Rationale
Introducing the issue for later -does your vote matter
if the electoral college is more state-focused?

Ask students to share from surprise squares.

Sharing gives Interpersonal learners a chance to talk

and relate to each others ideas.

Not hefty note-taking, but requires that the students

pay attention and decide what to note). Allows
Intrapersonal learners to make value judgements.

Instructional Input:
Instructional Strategy and/or Student Activity
Investigation Instruction
--Develop Research Questions (what do we wonder?
--Explore surprises and interests, but try to guide students
especially toward questions about how the college gets
selected, what the role of individual votes is, how those work
together, etc.
Investigation Modeling
--Blaze the trail by looking at maps of past elections
--Thinking aloud and writing on the board in bubble map form
OR directly projecting Popplet map while constructing it
--Determine a theme for the center bubble/Popple, from and to
which the other information will branch
--Note the color scheme and dominant color
--Note the facts about the popular votes and electoral votes,
consider any apparent discrepancies
--Record any judgement type questions related to findings

Rationale
Starting as a group atunes to Interpersonal
learners and promotes general sharing/pooling of
knowledge and questions.

Formative Monitoring/Assessment
Monitor student feedback, engagement.

Rationale
Verbal students will benefit from reading and
copying down the example, but Visual learners
will benefit from seeing the model, so assessment
can be varied.

Encourage/allow students to take notes, writing down or

creating a Popplet of their own after the example.

--Thinking aloud helps students see the process.

--Maps of past elections cater to Visual learning
--Popplet allows Naturalist mapping of
understanding.

--Consider the Visual itself to see patterns

(Musical) in the relationship between electoral
vote results and popular vote results.
--Encourages Intrapersonal engagement early

Guided Practice:

Instructional Strategy and/or Student Activity

Investigation Preparation
--Distribute information (QR codes or links) for National
Archives and Ballotpedia articles and remind students
of closereading strategies (assumed pre-knowledge for
this lesson) for navigating these chunks of text.
--Remind them of their goal of considering different
topics to meet their research questions. Ask for
example of approaching the text with goal of learning
about the voter/college relationship (or something like
that).
--Break class into work groups so they can divide up
work among members and collaborate on Popplet
online.
Investigation
--Students read text, construct concept webs in groups

Rationale

--Assumes pre-knowledge gained in this more

Verbal intelligence strategy. Allows them to focus on
summarizing and pulling out the information they find
is important.
--Reminds/prepares students to engage Logical
intelligence of reasoning through material to discern
the relationship

--Group work encourages Interpersonal learners to

engage and offers peer support
--Verbal and Naturalist strengths emerge in engaging
in the text and arranging concepts in maps. (still
group work, so also Interpersonal)

Formative Monitoring/Assessment
Monitor feedback, engagement during preparation

Rationale
Both monitoring and walking give a personal interaction to
assess what concepts and processes students are
grasping, and the proof of that is in the product of the
Popplets themselves.

Monitor group and individual progress 1) directly by

walking the room and 2) virtually by viewing student
Popplets (shared with teacher before completion)

Independent Practice:
Instructional Strategy and/or Student Activity
Investigation Interpretation
--Introduce the issues by showing the TEDed Video on Does Your
Vote Really Count?
--Ask for students to offer and record the issues/questions raised in
the video, or in research. (Write Questions in the Google Form)
--Allow students to take a stance on the questions, based on what
they have read in research, by completing the form on their own.

Formative Monitoring/Assessment
Students will regroup after completing the form and compare
answers, assessing their own answers in light of their peers as well
as weighing their peers answers.
Teacher collects/views all student answers from the form.
Closure:

Rationale

--The premise of whether votes count

engages Intrapersonal and Existential
learners on what is the value of voter
participation in the greater whole of the
election.
--The video format is Verbal and
Visual
--Intrapersonal activity of filling out
form on the important questions
Rationale
Regrouping gives Interpersonal learners a
chance to share, and peer assessment
gives students opportunity to self-assess.

Instructional Strategy and/or Student Activity

Low pressure survey (quiz) to review what we have
learned overall:
--Who/what decides how the electoral collegiates vote?
--What is a good reason to have the electoral college,
not just popular vote?
--How does the electoral college affect how candidates
campaign?

Rationale

Quizzes offer low stress, practicing building low

stress pathways in the brain for the information.
Questions engage students memory recall from
the lesson, along with asking them to make
judgements and inferences (Intrapersonal and
Logical).

Delivery/completion methods: Students get a Google

Doc with the questions, use accessibility functions to
read questions to students if needed and to convert
speech to text for students if needed.

Format is attuned to Verbal Intelligence, which

matches the mainly verbal input of information.

Formative Monitoring/Assessment
Activity itself is an assessment.

Rationale
Ending on a quiz gives a soft summative assessment.

DAY TWO:

Preparation to Teach
Standards:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.5.1
Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions
(one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse
partners on grade 5 topics and texts, building on others'
ideas and expressing their own clearly.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.5.2
Summarize a written text read aloud or information
presented in diverse media and formats, including visually,
quantitatively, and orally.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.5.4
Report on a topic or text or present an opinion,
sequencing ideas logically and using appropriate facts and
relevant, descriptive details to support main ideas or
themes; speak clearly at an understandable pace.

ISTE 6
Students communicate
clearly and express
themselves creatively for
a variety of purposes
using the platforms, tools,
styles, formats and digital
media appropriate to their
goals.
ISTE 7
Students use digital tools
to broaden their
perspectives and enrich
their learning by
collaborating with others
and working effectively in
teams locally and globally.

Lesson
Objectives:

--Students will assess the fairness and importance of

having the electoral college with individual voters.
--Students will hypothesize what the election
process/product might look like without the electoral
college system.

--Interpersonal/Existential

Essential
Questions:

--Is this system fair?

--What would happen if this system was not in place?

Materials:

--Pens/pencils
--Stickynotes, note cards
--Whiteboard, markers

--Interpersonal/Visual

Websites
--National Archives Image, Transcript of The Constitution
--Verbal/Existential
https://catalog.archives.gov/id/1667751 (Image)
https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/constitutiontranscript#toc-section-1--2 (Transcript)
--Visual/Logical
--Electoral College Prediction Map
http://www.centerforpolitics.org/crystalball/
--Interpersonal/Existential
--Quora Discussion Board on Popular Vote and Electoral
College Election Impact
https://www.quora.com/How-would-Presidential-campaignstrategy-change-if-the-election-were-decided-by-popularvote-instead-of-the-electoral-college
--FiveThirtyEight Prediction Report for 2016
--Visual/Verbal/Logical
http://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2016-election-forecast/
Hardware
--Projection equipment (projector, Monitor, etc.)
--Visual
--Computers/Smart Devices with Access to Google Apps
--Verbal/Interpersonal

Software
--Google Docs
https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/

Instructional Sequence
Anticipatory Set:

--Verbal/Interpersonal

Instructional Strategy and/or Student Activity

Return yesterdays quizzes, printed out (not marked, though
teacher may have graded them already when looking over
them)
Turn and tell a neighbor, sharing in pairs the questions and
answers that most interested them, and writing additional
information based on what partner shared.

Rationale
Builds direct tie with previous lesson

Sharing stimulates Verbal and Interpersonal

engagement, requires that students actually read
their responses from the day before.

Share as a class via volunteers.

Formative Monitoring/Assessment
Students self-assess by reading through quizzes with each
other

Rationale
See above

Instructional Input:
Instructional Strategy and/or Student Activity
Travel back in time
--Ask students to imagine they are the framers of the
Constitution, figuring out what kind of government to establish
--Consider the issues that relate to the election process for the
President (draw on assumed pre-knowledge from Unit on
American History, of fear of democracy as a system, of
intentions for republic, of fear that people would not make such
a very important decision well, of individual states concerns
about power in the electoral process)
--View the Constitution (Article II. Section 1) and see what they
decided based on what is written

Rationale
Existential exercise in thinking retrospectively to
think about reasons behind what is in place
today

Step back and assess

--Turn and talk with a neighbor: based on that discussion, what
did the founding fathers value? Why did they think this was
important? (record findings on sticky notes)

Intrapersonal exercise of viewing others values

--Interpersonal and Verbal aspects of sharing
and recording

Share as a class
--Pairs post notes on the board, lumping similar/same ideas
together and separating different ones.

--Naturalist activity of organizing information,

Interpersonal as a collaborative project

Formative Monitoring/Assessment
Monitor student feedback, engagement
Monitor pair work for contribution, success
Assess posted answers

Rationale
The goal is for students to talk to each other to
figure out the values.
The answers give a concrete measurement of
understanding

Guided Practice:

Instructional Strategy and/or Student Activity

Now imagine if it were different
--Ask students (Guided Discussion):If the
founding fathers had decided not to use an
electoral college, what would, could elections look
like?
Formative Monitoring/Assessment
Monitor student feedback, engagement

Rationale

Interpersonal discussion format

Apply understanding of how the electoral college
DOES affect the elections to then infer what it
would be like without it.
Rationale
Student participation of various forms is important since
this is a discussion.

Independent Practice:

Instructional Strategy and/or Student Activity

Students individually access Quora blog, read responses, write
up key word summaries of the different responses in Google
Docs.

Rationale

Interpersonal/Existential engagement
with a discussion that is already going
on in current society.
Verbal intelligence engaged in
Students brainstorm other possible outcomes, keyword them in reading/summarizing text.
Google Docs as well.
Share Docs with partner/group to compare and discuss
brainstormed outcomes.

Interpersonal sharing

Formative Monitoring/Assessment
Assess summaries as students write them (shared Doc with
teacher along the way), in addition to circling the room to
monitor and assist

Rationale
Both monitoring and walking give a
personal interaction to assess what
concepts and processes students are
grasping, and the proof of that is in the
product of the Docs themselves.

Students self and peer assess by comparing summaries and

especially ideas with peers

Closure:

Peer assessment gives students

opportunity to self-assess.

Instructional Strategy and/or Student Activity

Present students with prediction map, polls, etc., recap
the processes in the electoral college system that lead
to those predictions.
Close with quick reflect questions (posted on the board,
answered on Google Doc from earlier part of lesson OR
on note card) :
With the electoral vote and these predictions, why
would/would you not vote?
With these predictions, but without the electoral vote,
what do you think the impact of your vote would be?
Formative Monitoring/Assessment
Quick reflect questions offer personal assessment as
well as a written piece for teacher assessment.

Rationale

Logical exercise of reviewing cause/effect

reasoning in Visual/Verbal content.

Verbal process of composing written answers,

Intrapersonal/Existential activity of returning to the
value of the individual voter in the grand scheme of
the election.

Rationale
Personal reflection is part of the goal of the lesson, for
students to weight the importance of the individual voter
and the electoral college.
Written reflection requires knowledge that has been built
up over the lesson.