THE ROAD OF A CAMPAIGN:
Politics is a livings science, constantly changing and moving with the rise and fall of people's ideals and needs. As this Unit is focused on demonstrating how political parties were formed and work within American politics, I can think of no better way to conclude it than with a simulated Presidential Election in our class. When I was in High School Civics we did a similar project and was not only a great hands-on learning experience with American politics, but it was also some of the best fun I ever had in a class. |
Breakdown of our Project:
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What You Need to Campaign
Formation: Here Lies Your Starting Point
Congratulations, you are a Party Head Nominee. It is your privilege and responsibility to craft foundation of a political party, however you want and whatever you want. For taking on this opportunity, you do have some extra work from the rest of your classmates, but you will earn 5% extra credit on this project. What you need to produce for your party: a party name, a symbol, a political alignment, an economic stance, and two major issues from CNN Student News you want to address. This will be the starting point from which you will gain supporters to build a party. This worksheet will help you organize and align the party's features, and will serve a guide when you present to the class your party. A brief presentation, no more than three minutes, will be allowed so you can rally supporters for your party's cause.
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Rally Your Party: Group Collaboration and Party Expansion
Now that the class knows your name and the party, people will join the party. You may have up to three people sign up to join your party. Once everyone has signed up, its time to expand your ideas positions. Work together and elaborate on you Political Party Worksheet until everyone feels he have a solid understanding of each part.
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Advertisements: Get Your Name and Message Out There...
Stickers and Buttons
For your group's party, you will need to make either buttons or stickers for your parties campaign. Both can be simply made and open to creativity. Buttons can be made out with a safety pin glued onto a piece of cardboard and stickers can even be post-it notes. What you need to have on it: your name, party, office, and a symbol. Each part is worth One Point and you may do either the sticker, the button, or both. <<< Snoopy went simple and patriotic with his campaign button |
Poster
Posters are image based messages to express the feeling and idea of your party. Here you can be as creative as you want, the goal of this piece is to make an impression on voters. You may use whatever materials you have, construction paper or poster sheet is fine. What you need on your poster: your name(1 pt.), an illustration (7 pts.), and creativity (2 pts.). Normally, I would not grade on creativity, but a campaign poster needs to leave a lasting impression to be effective. <<< Puns is really silly, but good luck not remembering than I am "Koalafied." |
Primary: Group Presentation and Party Mergers
There are currently eight parties with their own nominee, so now it is time to gain power with additional supporters. Each group will now negotiate with other groups to work out a deal for an election campaign, deciding on a Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates. This is where politics will get a little tricky, as there is bound to be at least one people will disagree on in group pairs. Each student will have to complete a worksheet describing the actions of their party merger and. This included the two candidates and the four current events they are addressing, but the focus is one what the merger changed about their parties for better or worse. Each individual will have to assess what the change meant to them.
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Party Debate:
Now that everyone has merged into major parties, with a President and Vice-President Candidates, it is time to put your parties’ beliefs and standings to the test. The class will gather into their party groups and begin a four-sided debate on the major issues everyone has addressed. I will act as the mediator to direct the discussions and keep everyone on topic in a timely manner. Our debate will begin with each party’s President and Vice-President Candidate introducing themselves, their party, and a quick description of where they stand. From a bowl, I will pick and announce each current event that your parties have selected. Then, the Presidential Candidate will express why there is an issue and how they plan to solve it. After they have stated their position and proposal on the current event, the previous Vice-President will present a counter that explains why their party either disagrees with the position or thinks the proposal will not work.
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Campaign Commercial:
One of the major contributors to a campaign’s support comes from commercials. In fact, were campaigns find the most impact in swaying voters to their cause is with the use of commercials and mass media advertising. Similar to our advertising assignment, this is meant to be fun and creative. There are two major requirements for the party members: everyone must play a part, and at least three issues must be addressed from the merger worksheets. This commercial can be recorded, by a video camera or cellular phone, or it can be staged live before the class.
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Election Day:
This is it, the final day of our class project and big pay off for all our hard work. everyone will be sectioned into rows and one student from each row will come to the front of the class to cast their vote. On the board, each party name is written boldly in a different color. Students will take turns drawing a tally mark under the party they most favor, the one with the most points the election and each member is awarded a piece of candy. One would assume we are done, but we have further scenarios to play our with this elections. Remembering back from our Electoral College Reform activity, there are several different ways an elections can be counted. For the rest of the day, we have a class wide discussion about the project as we manipulate the elections numbers to reflect the objectives of the different reforms we debated earlier in the semester. As the election scenarios play out their results, We will open the floor to asking bigger questions about the project and our work in Civics, opening new ideas and possibilities to the class. After all, with everyone here soon to become a citizen voter of our democracy, we best start thinking about what kind of democracy we want to participate in for our society.