Election... It's a Dirty Word and Classroom Topic

I try to stick to the facts as much as possible, and I was adrift when Nate Silver left FiveThirtyEight pretty abruptly along with many of my most trusted poll watchers.

Anyway, he's reemerged at Substack https://www.natesilver.net and his free posts put the election in perspective and provide some interesting nuggets to talk about with students.

This hasn't come up for me just yet but if it did and if I was digging for resources - I'd definitely check Facing History and the Council on Foreign Relations for some reliable materials on the issues. 

Ebony McKiver in my school the DEI team designed a lesson implemented in advisory groups led by students facilitators. Prior to this lesson, teachers received a list of resources that help navigate political discussions. One of them was Facilitating Challenging Conversations in the Classroom.  Students took The World's Smallest Political Quiz and once everyone has completed the quiz, the facilitator discussed the different categorie (e.g., libertarian, progressive, conservative, etc.) and what they mean in a broader political context.

I am eager to attend the live event on civil discourse and learn from our collective wisdom.

 Laura Massa , I thought the Smallest Political Quis sounded interesting. I have used all kinds of paper versions, but I thought this might be a nice update.

I took the quiz, then it wanted me to create an account and sign in for my results. Not cool. But I did.

Then it asked me to take the quiz... what was the point of letting me take the quiz in the first place? 

Did I do it incorrectly? What kind of luck have you and your students had using this tool?

 Donnetta ElsasserI took the quiz a while ago and I did it again to check if I had to include my email. I did not sign in and got the results. You can still take the quiz without signing up. Creating an account allows you to save your results and track your progress. Our students had no problem accessing the quiz. 

Hm... I'll have to check it out again later.

I think my students would benefit from this. Thanks for going the extra mile, Laura Massa .

We are pretty much banned from talking politics in school but if i student says something I often say, "Why do you say that?  What's your source or evidence?"   and if they have one I try to get them to find the counter point.   It leads to some intelligent conversations and I try to get them to see both sides.

In Indiana, we are required by law to complete five instructional periods of election coverage in the two weeks prior to the election.  We stick to the five topics outlined in the actual law [Indiana Code 20-30-5-4 – Sec. 4.]: (1) the system of government in Indiana and in the United States; (2) methods of voting; (3) party structures; (4) election laws; and (5) the responsibilities of citizen participation in government and in elections.

We developed standard lessons so that all high school teachers are teaching the same basic material.  We got most of our stuff from iCivics.  They've got loads of stuff.

We try to avoid political ideology stuff and stick to the historical aspects so for the party structures lesson we cover the history of political parties in the US and for election laws we talk about who is able to vote and when.

Ebony McKiver This week we had a school convocation with a local journalist, Jim DeFede, who spoke about the importance of responsible journalism in a democracy. He emphasized how crucial truthful and ethical reporting is for keeping the public informed.

Our students were very interested and asked questions about bias in news reporting, the two amendments on our state election ballot, the election of judges, and other aspects of local and general elections. Although no specific political candidates or partisan views were discussed, the presentation encouraged students to reflect on the importance of fact-checking and considering diverse perspectives to form their own conclusions.

I’m curious to know if others have had similar experiences and how they went.

Hey Ebony, follow up on this - our superintendent just sent out an email to all faculty and staff that basically said we have to remain politically neutral in our classroom.  Students are asking questions, but not very much (surprisingly?).  I'm trying to approach by way of media literacy, and how we engage with information we get online.  I also use this media bias chart created by Ad Fontes Media.