Steps
In Selecting A President
Topic
Instructional Objectives
Background Information
Activities
Evaluation
Extension Ideas
Topic
Students use a flowchart to understand the process of electing the president
and vice-president.
Instructional Objectives
By using the activities of this lesson, the students will:
- use a flowchart to analyze the steps in selecting an American president;
- relate the information in a flowchart to the 2000 election;
- develop an original flowchart that reflects some aspect of American
government.
Background Information
Flowcharts can help students understand a multi-step process or complex
idea. The inauguration of a president is the final step in a long process
that begins almost two years before it is completed. The students should
become familiar with the flowchart as well as the organization chart,
since they often appear in government textbooks as well as in computer
and business applications.
Flowcharts help outline the steps in a process. In this case, the electoral
process has been outlined. Help the student use all the parts of the chart,
including the title, boxes, and arrows, to gain information and draw conclusions
on the basis of that information.
Activities
- Ask students to brainstorm a list about presidential elections. What
do they know about the steps involved? List items first, then try to
place them in sequential order. Why were many people upset with the
process during the 2000 election?
- Research the presidential election process by visiting the following
Web sites:
Compare the information presented in these sites to assemble a comprehensive
picture of the election process.
- Print or reproduce the flowchart
related to this lesson. Have students answer the following questions:
- How does this flowchart compare to the information gathered in
the students' research? Is it oversimplified, as accurate, or more
detailed than what they found elsewhere? What would they add or
subtract from it?
- At which step in the chart did Al Gore and George W. Bush become
the choice of their political parties?
- Two steps in this chart involve the voters of America. Which two
steps include the voters?
- Who casts the official votes for the president?
- What is the final step in the electoral process?
- Create a time line for the 2000 presidential election that reflects
the steps in this chart.
- Find newspaper and magazine articles, as well as Web pages, that contain
the specific electoral event listed in each step of the chart. Create
a larger version of the chart, and paste the articles near or on the
step where the event in the article took place. The final result should
be a pictoral-headline version of the flowchart.
- Have the students create their own flowchart on some aspect of American
government, such as one of the following topics:
- How a bill becomes a law
- The impeachment process
- Checks and balances of the three branches of government
- The process to amend the Constitution of the United States
- Selecting Cabinet members
Evaluation
The lesson may be evaluated through the following measures:
- the student's ability to build on prior knowledge of the election
process, both in oral discussion and in graphic representation (flowcharts);
- the student's ability to compare information on the election process
presented in several different online sources;
- the student's ability to transfer understanding of flowcharts to describe
another government-related process.
Extension Ideas
- During the 2000 election, the electoral college came under scrutiny.
For more information about the electoral college, visit http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/features/election.html.
Ask students to research the electoral college. Why was it created?
Is it out of date? Debate this topic, create community surveys, and/or
write op-ed pieces.
- Create a board game or an online game for younger students that explains
the electoral process.
- Compare the process of selecting a national leader in several countries.
