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January 10, 2008

The election season is upon us and while we at the NewsHour try to focus on the issues and what’s at stake, it’s hard not to get caught up in the horserace of who’s ahead, who’s up, who’s down.

That said, here’s what we have in mind: Our first lesson plan is about the candidates and what they stand for.
map.jpg
Stay tuned for more lesson plans that try to wade through the muck and highlight what matters. Your ideas/suggestions are always appreciated!
Meanwhile, we have also partnered with NPR to create a pretty nifty map and created a series called the Big Picture, which includes trips to towns and cities across the nation to learn what the voters are thinking about on local and regional levels. For the first trip (Viva Las Vegas!) we focused on growth issues and how rapidly changing cities are dealing with resource management, social services and quality of life.

While in Las Vegas, we recorded a series of student voices from some amazingly insightful students who provided an unique view of what it’s like to be at the nexus of immigration, youth culture and economic change

Although we’re proud of the candidate-based lesson plan, cool map and Big Picture mini-series, we’re still in the planning stage for the general elections and I want to talk about what you as teachers need and what the students are drawn to (if anything)

You have the regular youth-election suspects: MTV, a new national student newspaper called SCOOP ‘08 the anti-Party alternative, Unity ‘08 .
Do these help you engage your students? What would be your ideal election resource? We are hoping you will use the comment section of these blog entries to offer feedback, let other teachers know about links and resources and help us make our upcoming lessons and activities have more impact in your classroom.
And finally, how do you as educators teach the elections? Is your goal to inform? To make connections to history? To look at the modern issues affecting our society? Or are elections teachable moments about democracy and civic engagement?

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