This past academic year, we took on the challenge of teaching about the presidential election in our diverse 5th grade classrooms at Echo Lake Elementary School in Shoreline, Washington, where Karen and Allan are teachers. Recognizing the contentiousness of the 2016 election, we were mindful that students could become disillusioned by the election process and the lack of civil discourse.
We decided to employ the Storypath approach, a powerful tool for teaching about social studies. The approach uses the story structure of setting, characters, and plot to organize a social studies topic. Each student becomes a character in the Storypath and plays a role as the plot unfolds. For the presidential election Storypath unit that Margit wrote, students were either candidates or workers in the campaign headquarters—the setting for the story.
We didn't focus on the Republican and Democratic parties and their candidates. Instead, we split the students into groups—and each group formed its own political party, including Nature Lovers, World Peace, and New Frontier, the last of which had a campaign slogan, "Don't Hate. Appreciate." After establishing the parties, students considered their roles in the campaign. With guidance, students learned about the necessary qualities for both presidential candidates and campaign workers, such as knowledge of the issues, and the importance of effective speaking, listening, and writing skills. Students even completed job applications and created visual representations of their characters.
Then the primary campaigns began. Echo Lake had five presidential candidates for each party in the primaries. Candidates developed campaign speeches, made signs, and highlighted issues that were important to voters. (Students also learned about registering to vote. For many students whose families are recent immigrants, this was an important lesson for school and home.)
After this preparation, primary candidates presented speeches to students in their own classrooms and explained why they should be elected. Then, the primary elections took place.
With one candidate chosen per party, the campaign heated up. Campaign advertisements, financial support and management, and press releases all came into play. As election day neared, members of the campaign staff prepared the candidates for their debates by researching background information and compiling data. Our classes viewed examples of former presidential debates and added words such as rebuttal, articulation, and claim to their academic vocabulary. Then students took part in debates as an opportunity to challenge party platforms and statements made by opposing candidates.
The students also learned about the tricky concept of the Electoral College. We assigned other upper-grade classrooms with state names and corresponding Electoral College votes to help students understand the process. The candidates made speeches in each classroom, and students voted for their candidate of choice.
In the classrooms where the Storypaths took place, we specified that the students didn't have to vote for the candidate whose campaign they worked on but should pick the one they thought best represented their views. We were pleased that students thoughtfully considered the issues. Because we had intentionally set a climate of civil discourse, each candidate thanked his or her opponent and noted the importance of that candidate's platform—without prompting!
As part of a statewide civics initiative, we received a special invitation to visit our state capitol's Temple of Justice for an inauguration ceremony. The Chief Justice of the Washington State Supreme Court conducted the oath of office ceremonies. The president-elect from each classroom selected the book on which she wanted to take the oath—one choosing the Bible and the other the Koran. Following the swearing in, each president gave a speech to the assembled audience, which included the state's governor, legislators, and state Supreme Court justices.
In her acceptance speech, President Enaaya's statement about civics education perhaps said it best: "I think learning about elections and government is important. I believe we as citizens cannot actively contribute to the progress of our country without the awareness of these elements. People's options will be ignored, and there will be no justice in the absence of democracy and government."
This article is part of a Special Section on Connected Classrooms in the November2017 issue of Educational Leadership.
Three projects that aim to deepen students' experience of politics in action.
A Presidential Election Storypath by Margit E. McGuire, Karen Nicholson, and Allan Rand
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