K-12 Government/Election Teaching Materials

The time frame for the unit is 8 weeks, although it may not take you as long, depending on how many class hours you devote to it. I suggest that you divide the project into a Democrat and Republican team using two classes, but it could be done within one class. Classroom teachers will need access to computers for the project.

The number of voters under 30 in the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections remained stagnant at just 17 percent. Teens become apathetic because politicians are unresponsive, politicians become indifferent to teens because they are apathetic and don't vote.
The way to break this cycle is to make teens feel like they have a voice that politicians will listen to. Politicians have been reaching out to youth by holding events on social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook. CNN even held the YouTube debates, allowing users to submit questions directly to candidates. Making politicians answerable to young people forces their interests to be considered.\n\n

This is a really good compilation of books appropriate for many grade levels related to elections.

An outstanding compilation of resource books for elections. They are for all ages and most of them are available for purchase online, but 3 of them are available to be read online.

List of links specifically examined for use in ELL/ESL classrooms

Karen McMillan's List: Election 2008 - This list is a collection of websites concerning the upcoming presidential election. It is geared toward lesson planning and research for lesson planning.