E pluribus unum – part duo

I was up late last night. Well . . . it was really early this morning. If you haven’t grasped this already, I’m an election nerd. I love the data crunching, the strategy, the pundits, the conversations about policy . . . heck, I even love the ads. (Granted, I live in Kansas. Not exactly a swing state so anytime we actually get a political ad, it’s a big deal.)

So I was up late / early. My wife and daughter spent much of the time with me watching the results come in and listening to pundit reactions. But neither made it to Governor Romney’s or President Obama’s speeches.

Lightweights.

Technology and 21st century elections

Negative ads. Political mud-slinging. Character attacks by supporters of various candidates. Dirty tricks. Personal insults. Outrageous newspaper editorials. Predictions of national collapse and disunity.

Yeah. Elections can be rough. Imagine if it was this bad in 2012, rather than the election of 1800. John Adams was running for re-election against the challenger Thomas Jefferson. And it was not pretty. But the election of 1800 is interesting not so much for its ugly of its temperament or even the change in the Constitution that it caused.

It’s interesting to me because this was one of the first elections in which new technology, the use of newspapers as a part of the campaign process, became widespread.

And while the mudslinging hasn’t really changed that much, the technology has. It’s a different world than Jefferson’s – one full of social media, internet ads, Twitter, texting, email / online campaign contributions, and instant video are creating a different sort of election process. The infographic below highlights some of these changes.

Fact, opinion, bias, media literacy and the need for democrats with a lower case D

It may be one of the most important things we do as social studies teachers. But it seems as if it’s often one of the first things pushed to the side in our frantic attempt to “cover” all of our content.

What’s it?

It is what we do when we teach our kids to distinquish between fact and opinion, to recognize bias, to identify propaganda and misleading statements – providing the opportunity for our kids to develop strong media literacy skills. These are skills that we should not teach in isolation as simply part of some lesson plan in the back of our supplementary materials. These are skills that prepare your kids to be democrats.

We need more democrats. And I’m not talking Democrats as in the opposite of Republicans.

How to watch a political debate

For a poly sci major and long time social studies guy like me, presidential elections are the Final Four, Super Bowl, and World Cup all rolled into one. You’ve got the qualifying rounds, the underdogs, press conferences discussing strategy, insider information, accusations of illegal recruiting, poor officiating, and every once in a while some actual game action.

Tomorrow is the first presidential debate between President Obama and former Governor Romney – the first real game action. As a poly sci guy, I know that the debates will probably not really matter that much. The number of people who have already decided one way or the other is pretty large and the number of actual undecided voters who might make a difference in the Electoral College is pretty small.

Some would suggest otherwise but debates make for great television and they’re part of the action so . . . of course, I’ll be watching.

Even if you’re not a poly sci guy (and chances are your students aren’t either), the debates are great teachable moments. They provide an opportunity to discuss and argue about a whole variety of things – systems of government, bias, impact of media and constitutional law not to mention . . . you know, basic stuff like what candidates believe and how they would govern. So don’t blow them off.

The question:

How do I watch a debate? More importantly, how do I use the debate series in my classroom?

There are some handy resources out there:

• I would start with a quick Five Things to Watch in the Presidential Debate from the Yahoo News folks.
• Then I’d move over to the The League of Women Voters site and their great set of resources and suggestions. They also have a video from 2008 that still plays pretty well.
• This guide to debates from the California Secretary of State is pretty handy for teachers – questions, activities, and handouts.
• The MiddleWeb people have put together a nice article titled Presidential Debates are Teachable Moments. It includes a sweet downloadable PDF for kids to use while you show debates highlights in class.
• A nice scorecard and instructions from Lynn University.

You don’t have to love politics as much as I do but getting your students involved in the process is not something to blow off. We need to take this whole democracy, government by the people thing seriously and it starts by getting kids engaged in the actual doing of it.

Give it a try and let me know how you integrate your election coverage!

Tip of the Week – 2012 Constitution Day resources

It’s that time of year again.

Constitution Day 2012 is next week and you may be scrambling a bit to find a few useful resources.

Constitution Day is an American federal holiday that recognizes the ratification of the United States Constitution and also recognizes all who have become citizens due to either coming of age or naturalization. It is always observed on September 17, the day the U.S. Constitutional Convention signed the Constitution in 1787.

The law establishing the holiday was created in 2004 with the passage of an amendment by Senator Robert Byrd. Before this law was enacted, the holiday was known simply as “Citizenship Day.”

Part of the law passed in 2004 requires all schools receiving federal funds to provide some sort of US Constitution instruction on that day. To help as you plan your activities, I’ve put together a short list of goodies.

Center for Civic Education
A variety of lesson plans for all grades

National Constitution Center
Lessons, video clips, resources searchable by grade level

Constitution Day Portal
EDSITEment | Resources, Interactive, Documents
Lots of resources and materials including many available in Spanish

iCivics
Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Conner founded iCivics back in 2009 to help teachers and students better understand the workings of American government. Lessons and resources including some awesome video games and sims.

National Council for the Social Studies
Lessons, links, resources for teaching the Constitution

National Endowment for Humanities
This year, the NEH will celebrate Constitution Day by honoring the Constitution together with another pivotal document from U.S. history: the Emancipation Proclamation. From the NEH’s Emancipation Resource Portal, you can access resources and learn more about planned events. Not to be missed?

• A live, streamed performance on Constitution Day. A panel of Civil War scholars will “recreate the national scene and the dilemmas facing Americans on Sept. 22, 1862.” Students will be able to submit questions via Twitter or email. (Register your “watch party” here.)

Constitution Day
TeachingHistory | Resources, Interactive, Documents
A large collection of Constitution related goodies.

Here’s a few more that might be useful!

• MileStoneDocuments
• National Archives
• Library of Congress
• Constitution Facts
• Scholastic
• Annenberg Classroom
• Student rights under the Constitution
• Justice Learning – Constitution Resources
• The Constitution for Kids
• Civic Ed – Lessons for Constitution Day and Citizenship Day
• U.S. Constitution Teaching and Learning Resources
  
• EdGov – Commemorating Constitution Day and Citizenship Day

Have fun!

Tip of the Week – Campaign ads

I normally don’t have much control over what shows up on the family TV – there’s typically so much Netflix streaming, Pysch watching, Apple TV playing going on that I rarely have much to say on what appears. But there are two times in my house when I get full dibs on the big screen.

March Madness and presidential elections.

Non-negotiable.

So the last two weeks have been great. Speeches. Cheering. Ballon drops. Signs. Campaign slogans. Pundits. Loud pundits. Stupid pundits. Loud and stupid pundits. You know. Typical national convention stuff.

And . . . campaign ads. Lots of campaign ads. So this week, I started poking around for useful campaign ad teaching sites. The good news – lots of great sites. The bad news – lots of great sites. So to help out a bit, I’ve cobbled together some of the best websites focusing on the art of the campaign ad.

The Living Room Candidate
This is the place start. The Museum of the Moving Image has put together a database of 300 campaign ads from 1952-2008. Ads can be browsed by election year, type of commercial, or issue, and each ad is accompanied by a written transcript.  The site also features commentary, historical background, and election results. And it has a great set of lesson plans.

Propaganda Techniques in Literature and Online Political Ads
Students explore the similarities of the propaganda techniques used in the literary text and in the online political ads to explain the commentary the text is making about contemporary society.

The Ultimate Presidents Sale
Students will research and examine candidates’ background, policies and messages. The saturation of television political advertising that permeates students’ channel surfing lends itself to scrutiny, and this lesson can help them sort through the medium to see the method and message.

Electing the President: How Do You Make Up Your Mind?
Students will understand that choosing a President will require thoughtful analysis of their personal preferences, who is telling the truth, complicated issues, and their willingness to look for answers.

The Science of Campaign Ads
Using psychology to create more effective ads.

Five Myths About Campaign Ads
Do ads work? Are they as nefarious as their reputation suggests? Two decades of research has exposed several myths about campaign advertising.

Political Ad Tracker
Political Ad Tracker takes a closer look at ads from candidates, parties and outside groups and allows you to rate whether an ad is believable and how it impacts your views on the candidates and issues in the 2012 campaign.

FactCheck
A nonpartisan, nonprofit “consumer advocate” for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics. We monitor the factual accuracy of what is said by major U.S. political players in the form of TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews and news releases.

Politifact
Every day, reporters and researchers from PolitiFact and its partner news organization examine statements by anyone associated with American politics. We research their statements and then rate the accuracy on our Truth-O-Meter – True, Mostly True, Half True, Mostly False and False. The most ridiculous falsehoods get our lowest rating, Pants on Fire.

Mad Money: Tracking TV ads in the Presidential Campaign
Watch the latest campaign ads in the 2012 presidential race and track ad spending during the primaries and general election.

SuperPac App
Uses audio fingerprinting technology to listen to actual political ads and matches them up against the ads in their database. Then highlights who create the ad and factchecks them.

Have fun!