As the excitement builds this fall with the upcoming election, teachers and parents will want to have good resources at hand to help gifted students understand the election process. Here are just a few resourses. If you have other good resources to share, please list them in the comments area of this blog entry.

 

 

Rutherford Public Schools in New Jersey has developed curricula for their gifted program, grades 7–8. The information is very general and includes objectives, course outline, curriculum content standards, assessments, resources, and activities.

 

One of the resources used in the Rutherford Public Schools curriculum is the Interact simulation The Presidential Election Process. Interact recommends this curriculum for grades 5–8. If you scroll down on this page, you will see that Interact materials were recommended in my June 28, 2008 blog entry.

 

The Center for Gifted Education at The College of William and Mary offers The Road to the White House: Electing the American President for gifted students in grades 6–8. The concept of systems forms the basis for this exploration of American government that focuses on the election of the president within its constitutional context. Students investigate the chronology of the campaign and election, and study documents and statistics related to presidential elections in American history. In addition, the unit explores the concept of leadership as it emerges both in the process of being elected and in the context of being a president.

 

 

The U.S. government's Electoral College site explains the Electoral College system, presents historical election results, and contains links to many teaching resources.

 

Background information provided by Trenton Public Schools includes the history of the campaign to date and links to major party and candidate Web sites.

 

The Library of Congress learning page on elections is filled with the history of elections and political movements in the United States. There are also lesson plans on women’s suffrage.

 

Fact Monster from Information Please explains how a president gets elected. Follow links on the left side of the page to find extensive information on Campaign 2008, presidential conventions, and facts about U.S. elections.

 

FactCheck.org monitors 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.com rates the accuracy of candidates' statements on their records, attacks on opponents, and organizes statements by issue/topic.