Scenario

Congratulations! KidsTV has hired your group to prepare a news program about the upcoming presidential election. The presentation will be videotaped and shown to other students. The viewers of the program will learn about:

• the requirements and responsibities for the office of the Presidency
• the election process
• the factors that inluence voters
• the main candidates of the 2012 election and their stands on important issues

Essential Question: How do American citizens decide whom to vote for in a presidential election?

Task and Product

Your team of news reporters will be responsible for researching and presenting information on the following topics:

• the requirements and responsibities for the office of the Presidency
• The election process including:
  • Main political parties - Democratic, Republican, Independent
  • Primary election process
  • Campaigning
  • General election voting / Electoral College
• Ways voters get information and are influenced to make decisions
• Main 2012 candidates (Mitt Romney and Barack Obama) and their stands on 3 issues.

Research and present your information in a TV news format. The research can be divided and worked on by different group members and then presented by the reporters. Your news show should include a guest appearance by the 3 candidates in which they discuss their stands on issues.

Your teacher may decide to assign an alternative type of presentation, such as a pamphlet, poster, newspaper article or power point slide presentation.

Assessments

• Research Scoring Tool
• Oral Presentation Scoring Tool
• Group Work Scoring Tool

Question

Essential Question: How do American citizens decide who to vote for in a presidential election?

Jump start questions:

Requirements and responsibities for the office of the presidency

• What are the requirements needed to become a US President?
• What are the responsibilities of this office?

Election process

• What are the main political parties and their general beliefs?
• How do primary elections determine the main candidates running for the general election?
• What do candidates do on the campaign trail?
• How does the Electoral College work in the voting process?

Influences on voters

• How does the media influence voters in making their decision?
• What are other factors that influence a person's voting decision?
• Which factors present information in a biased way? Which are most objective?

Election 2012 candidates

• Who are the candidates (president and vice president) for each political party?
• What are the views of these candidates on important issues, such as the economy, foreign affairs, education, and health care, and homeland security?

Gather and Sort

Gather information from a variety of sources.

Complete a note-taking sheet ( Microsoft Word format or PDF format ) to answer the questions for your topic. Be sure to avoid plagiarism and keep track of your resources for a bibliography.

If Word format is selected, you can save the note-taking sheet and take notes on your computer. If you wish to take notes by hand. select the PDF format.

Organize

Analyze your completed note-taking sheet ( Microsoft Word format or PDF format )

Synthesize your findings by writing the information into a speech for your topic that you will give as you report for the news.

• What new insights have emerged?
• Which facts should you include to inform your audience about the election process or the candidates for this election?
• Create your speech in your own words and practice reading it.

Evaluate the effectiveness of your research for the task.

• Have you gathered sufficient details about the topic in order to write your speech?
• Is your research reflected in the speech?

Conclusion

You are now ready to share your information with your group before you share it with the audience. Ask your group members for feedback. Decide upon the group order for your TV show presentation. Make any final changes and practice before the videotaping.

Reflection:

• From your group's presentation, what information do you think will be most helpful to the other students when voting in your school's Kids Vote?
• How well did you contribute to your group's project? Complete the Group Work Scoring Tool.

Extension - You may want to research information about the past 44 presidents of the U.S. from a variety of Internet sources.