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Debate 2012 Teaching the 2012 Elections,
an HNET Workshop

• Teaching, Literacy, and Leadership
• Hofstra University
• October 1, 2012
• Andrea S. Libresco

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What are the most important topics to address
when teaching about the 2012 elections?How
should we address them?

• Content Issues
• Getting Elected Governing
• Skills
• Background information you have an opportunity to
  teach
• Principles guiding your instruction
• CHECK OUT SSYL

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Principles guiding your instruction

• If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, it
  expects what never was and never will be.
  -- Thomas Jefferson
• We dont need more voters. We need more
  informed voters. --
  Dan Rather
• To know is to care to care is to act to act is
  to make a difference. --
  Harry Chapin
• A democracy is more than a form of government
  it is primarily a mode of associated living, of
  conjoint communicated experience.
  -- John Dewey

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Principles guiding your instruction

• In the 1956 presidential election, Adlai
  Stevenson, former Governor of Illinois, was
  running against President Dwight Eisenhower, who
  had defeated him soundly in 1952. At one
  gathering during the 56 campaign, a woman rushed
  up to Stevenson and said Governor, this time
  you will surely get the vote of thinking
  Americans.
• Stevenson responded Thats not good enough,
  Madam, Ill need a majority to win!

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What does meaningful instruction about voting and
elections look like in primary classrooms?

• DOs
• Conduct voting activities that scaffold thinking
• Different people have different ideas.
• My choice might not be selected by the group, but
  I abide by the outcome.
• Deliberation provides knowledge before we make a
  choice.
• Future votes offer future opportunities to
  campaign for change.

• DONTS
• Dont vote for actual presidential candidates.
• Dont vote for favorite flavor of ice cream.
• Dont make assumptions about vocab knowledge
  (e.g., vote, majority, most/least).
• Dont allow children to vote without giving a
  rationale for their choice.

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What does meaningful instruction about voting and
elections look like in primary classrooms?

• Which block shape is best for building a tower up
  to the ceiling?
• Rectangular solid Its big and you can stack
  it flat. Its larger and bigger. You could
  use it for stairs.
• Triangular solid You can lay them on their
  sides and go up. You can turn each one a
  different way to make a design.
• Cylinder Ohhhhhhhhhhhh, as it crashed with the
  third piece.

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What does meaningful instruction about voting and
elections look like in primary classrooms?

• Votes are a kind of choice. Sometimes we need to
  know more about something in order to make a
  good choice.
• "Tell, not yell."
• Next time we can
• When is the next vote?
• Betty C. Mulrey, Ann T. Ackerman, and Patricia H.
  Howson

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Do you allow the candidates or the media to set
the issues agenda, or do you research to decide
which issues are worthy of discussion?

• Brainstorm issues compare to news
• Jobs and the Economy Health Care
• Environment/Energy War in Afghanistan
• Foreign Policy Education
• Immigration Taxes/SocPrograms
• Supreme Court justices National Debt
• Poverty Income Inequality

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"What is the most important issue to you in
deciding how you will vote for president this
year? (Conduct your own poll)(CBS/NYT 9/8-9/12,
1170 registered voters)

• Economy and jobs 37
• Health care 11
• Budget deficit/National debt 4
• The President/Barack Obama 4
• Education, Taxes 3 each
• Abortion, Medicare/Medicaid 2 each
• Women's issues, Misc. soc. iss. 2 each
• Other 20
• Unsure 10

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Are you able to avoid the horse race in favor
of thoughtful research and discussion of a few
important issues?

• Pairs research an issue Pro/con
• Fishbowl - Deliberative Discussion
• Posing thoughtful questions
• Using the Internet to locate information
• Listening to other voices and other opinions
• Trying on another persons viewpoint
• Making deliberative and informed judgments
• Forming an opinion and explaining it to others
  orally and in writing

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Is the media able to avoid the horse race in
favor of discussion of issues?

• A study of local TV news by the Lear Center and
  the University of Wisconsin found an alarming
  lack of substantive policy coverage of the
  presidential election.
• Monitoring 10,000 broadcasts from top-rated
  evening news shows at 122 stations across the
  country for the seven weeks before the 2004
  election revealed that only 44 percent had any
  campaign coverage of any kind. Of the shows that
  did cover elections, over half of the stories
  were confined to horse race and strategy pieces.
  In two thirds of the stories, no candidate said a
  word, only the anchor or a commentator.
• The average story was 89 seconds within that 89
  seconds, the average candidate sound bite was 12
  seconds. (http//www.localnewsarchive.org/pdf/LCL
  NA110102.pdf)

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Do students select candidates based on their
stands on issues?

• Vote Chooser A 10-question quiz to find out
  which candidates views most closely match your
  own.
• Vote Match Quiz A 20-question quiz to find out
  which candidates views most closely match your
  own.
• Candidate Match Game (USA Today) An 11-question
  quiz to find out which candidates views most
  closely match your own. This quiz allows you to
  assign a weight to each issue.

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Do students use a variety of sources to research
candidates positions?

• Candidates websites
• Romney
• Obama
• Green Party Jill Stein
• News organizations websites
• Party platforms websites
• Republicans
• Democrats
• TFK
• Debates

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Do students need help visualizing the political
spectrum?

• Radicals Liberals Moderates Conservatives
  Reactionaries
• Role of Government in Economics
• ------------------------Role of Government in
  Social Issues

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Do students understand economics?

• Economics is the power to choose
• You fix the budget
• What are your priorities?
• What can Oreos tell us about priorities?

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Do students approve of how their parents taxes
are allocated?
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What do students need to engage in the election?

• VOCAB Brainstorm and post a list of vocabulary
  that students believe are connected to elections.
  Have different students define and illustrate
  the words as they come up in research and
  discussion.
• DOCS to PIQUE INTEREST Use a current events
  document (political cartoon, letter to the
  editor, photo, op-ed essay, speech, graph, map,
  news article, TV excerpt, political ad, comedy
  excerpt) at the beginning of a lesson to raise
  questions.
• CHALLENGES Use two conflicting C.E. documents
  to raise questions Have one half of the class
  read one candidates claims, another half read
  another candidates claims, and have each side
  argue based on what theyve read. Then switch
  articles, and see what students think. How can
  they find the truth?

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How will students find understand the media?

• Newspaper scavenger hunt
• Local, national, international news
• Opinionseditorials, op-eds, letters, cartoons
• Compelling photos
• Polls
• Electoral maps
• Read about the same event in a news article and
  in an editorial what are the differences?
• Find 3 different types of pieces in the news that
  address the same issue.
• TV news programs Which programs cover national
  election news?
• What information would you like to see that is
  largely missing from the news?

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How can students analyze the media?

• Compare coverage of the campaign headlines,
  amount of space given, level of factual
  information, nature of editorials, sources cited
  in the same time frame. For newspapers, TV, or
  the Internet, you should do a comparison the same
  day. For magazines, the same week. Be sure to
  examine at least 4 sources in the same medium.
  Present your findings to the class.
• Display a variety of election data on an
  interactive bulletin board, inviting students to
  respond with other data that supports or refutes
  claims.
• Compare what you think of as the five most
  important issues in the world today to those in
  the newspapers over a week assess their
  coverage.

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What is/was going on in Political Ads - Then and
Now?

• Use the stellar site, The Living Room Candidate,
  to see what techniques were used in previous ads
  and whether they are used effectively today.
• Great lesson plans (on language, film techniques,
  children in ads, evaluating information in 2012
  ads, Internet ads, and how ads are produced) as
  well for HS teachers, but you can pick and
  choose for elementary and middle.
• (This is my favorite site!)

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How do you know if ads are accurate?

• Check out a non-partisan site
• Factcheck.org sponsored by the Annenberg Center
• Politifact.com sponsored by the Tampa Bay Times

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How much attention should we pay to polls?

• Swing state polls are the ones to check
• NYT
• Break down stats into different groups Gallup
• And dont forget some quirky polls involving
  Halloween masks, coffee cups, burrito bowls

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What should be the role of the media?

• Should the media repeat what both sides say or
  investigate and report on the reliability of each
  campaigns statements?
• Rob Corddry on the Daily Show
• How fair and balanced are certain sources?
• Last week vs. This week at the end of the
  Conventions on the Daily Show

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What should be the role of the media?

• JON STEWART Heres what puzzles me most, Rob.
  John Kerrys record in Vietnam is pretty much
  right there in the official records of the U.S.
  military and hasnt been disputed for 35 years.
• ROB CORDDRY Thats right, Jon, and thats
  certainly the spin youll be hearing coming from
  the Kerry campaign over the next few days.
• JS Thats not a spin thing, thats a fact.
  Thats established.
• RC Exactly, Jon, and that established
  incontrovertible fact is one side of the story.
• JS But isnt that the end of the story. I mean,
  youve seen the records, havent you? Whats your
  opinion?
• RC Im sorry, my opinion? I dont have
  opinions. Im a reporter, Jon, and my job is to
  spend half the time repeating what one side says,
  and half the time repeating the other. Little
  thing called objectivitymight want to look it
  up some day.
• JS Doesnt objectivity mean objectively weighing
  the evidence, and calling out whats credible and
  what isnt?
• RC Whoa-ho! Sounds like someone wants the media
  to act as a filter! Listen buddy not my job to
  stand between the people talking to me and the
  people listening to me.

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Analyzing Political CartoonsWhat makes a cartoon
effective?

• Look through the newspaper and brainstorm issues
  that you think a cartoonist might focus on, about
  which people may have strong opinions.
• Anticipate the people who might appear in
  cartoons, find a photo of each person, and
  determine which features of each person that
  cartoonists might emphasize or caricature.
• List symbols that might be depicted in cartoons
  (e.g. America, peace, democracy, death, power,
  justice, liberty, greed) and draw a picture to
  represent each.

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How should we analyze Political Cartoons?

• What do you see? Identify setting, people,
  symbols, words, action taking place
• What does it mean? Connect what you see to an
  issue in the news.
• What is the cartoonists message about the issue
  portrayed? Look for evidence in the cartoon of
  how the cartoonist feels about the issue.
• What is your opinion? Do you agree or disagree
  with the cartoonists position?

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How should we use Political Cartoons?

• As DBQ prep Students make up questions at
  different levels of Blooms taxonomy for
  cartoons, then exchange with others and answer
  each others questions.
• As accountability for staying up on the news
  through cartoons. Give weekly 10-minute cartoon
  quizzes with a choice of 4 cartoons. Students
  must identify
• symbols
• meaning refer to specific event
• cartoonists message give evidence from the
  cartoon
• Have students draw political cartoons their
  cartoon may be on the quiz!
• Come up with an issue that you care about.
• Decide what people and symbols you will use to
  address the issue.
• Create the setting for the cartoon.
• Convey your opinion via drawing (expressions,
  size, paradoxes) captions

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Cartoon websites

• Getting cartoons
• Cagle cartoons
• Analyzing cartoons
• National Archives Sheets

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How to highlight the Voting Process?

• Make a timeline of the election process from
  beginning to end illustrate it with pictures,
  political cartoons.
• Collect articles about voter turnout predictions
  this year.
• Collect articles about voter suppression.
• Discuss whether convicted felons who have served
  their time should be reinstated to the voter
  rolls.

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Electoral CollegeHow does it work?

• Baseball analogy helps explain winner-take-all
  system (e.g., you can score more runs overall in
  the playoffs popular, but unless you win each
  game electoral, you dont win the overall
  series).
• Most Runs Scored Giants
• Winner of the World Series Angels
• D

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Electoral CollegeHow has it worked in the past?

• Check out and visualize historical results to see
  how someone can get the highest popular vote but
  not win the election
• 2000
• 1888
• 1876
• 1824

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Electoral CollegeWhy do Swing States matter?

• Check out the NYT interactive map
• Number of electoral votes is based on population.
• Which states are swing states?
• How can either candidate put together a winning
  majority?

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Electoral CollegeWhat to do the Day After?

• On election night (and the next morning), make
  maps that illustrate the swing states that added
  up to victory.
• Discuss
• Should the Electoral College be kept or
  abolished?
• How likely a prospect is it that the Electoral
  College will be abolished? (Amendment process
  aint easy)

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How will you analyze the debates?

• Avoid won/lost discussions in favor of issues
  discussions The Commission on Presidential
  Debates provides good questions.
• What did you learn about the candidates or issues
  that you did not know prior to the debate?
• What topics or issues discussed in the debates
  were most useful or informative?
• Were there any issues raised that you considered
  irrelevant or unimportant?
• What issues would you like to see discussed in
  subsequent debates?
• How did you like the format?

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How will you analyze the debates?

• Assess reliability of information
• What information do you think requires a
  fact-check?
• Where can you go to assess the reliability of
  information?
• Assess leadership qualities
• To what extent did the candidates exhibit what
  you consider to be leadership qualities?

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How will your students move beyond reading about
current events issues to acting on them?

• Recommend certain sources to fellow students, to
  family members, to friends based on their
  accuracy.
• Create your own op-ed pieces, cartoons and
  publish in or out of the school.
• Write to candidates, legislators, newspapers,
  blogs about your well-researched views.
• Express your well-researched views in school
  forums.
• Work for a candidate or cause based on your
  research.

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Why dont election discussions end when the
election is over?

• Analyze election results and statistics. Census
  data is amazing! Create graphs.
• How was turnout compared to previous elections?
• How did turnout vary according to race, class,
  gender, education, etc.?
• For whom did various types of people (race,
  class, gender, region) vote?
• Why do you think the candidates appealed to those
  constituencies?

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Why dont election discussions end when the
election is over?

• Analyze the fairness and accuracy of election
  results.
• Were there equitable numbers of voting machines
  in populous, poorer areas?
• How long were the lines?
• Any voter suppression issues?

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Why should we analyze the presidents first
actions andhold his feet to the fire?

• Are the Cabinet appointments in keeping with
  campaign promises?
• Are the first acts in keeping with promises?
  (T-chart)
• How does this presidents 1st hundred days (or
  2nd term) compare with other presidents recent
  and the gold standard FDR 1st hundred days (or
  2nd terms)?

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Background information you have an opportunity to
teach

• Democracy vs. dictatorship
• Parse democracy (the people rule).
• Discuss the Thomas Paine quote, In the Old
  World, the king is the law in the New World, the
  law is king.
• Discuss the social contract between rulers and
  ruled by examining Declaration of Independence
  language, consent of the governed, and right
  of rebellion.
• Representative democracy
• Simulation Vote in your class to elect table
  leaders, who will then vote represent their
  tables at a class Congress.

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Background information you have an opportunity to
teach

• 3 branches of govt. - Checks balances
• Simulation (holding a book with 1 pencil vs. 3
  pencils) and Diagram
• Look at newspaper headlines for examples of each
  branch exercising its powers
• Be sure to discuss the role of the president in
  appointing Supreme Court justices FOR LIFE, as
  well as the age of the current justices.
• Infer what qualities are needed in a president
  based on the roles.

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Background information you have an opportunity to
teach

• Civilian vs. military leadership
• Photos of both
• How to address President Washington Your
  Highness? Your Excellency? General?
• History of voting rights
• Have different pairs of students read the
  following timeline of voting rights in American
  history to select what they think are the 8 most
  important advances in voting rights to research,
  illustrate, act out, etc.

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Background information you have an opportunity to
teach

• The (strategic?) location of all of the places
  the United States is militarily engaged
• Have students play the interactive Middle East
  map game during free time
• Voting for legislation
• Supermajority (60 votes) needed in Senate to
  stop a filibuster effect on governance
• How the U.S. goes to war
• Read Art I, sec 8 Congress has power to declare
  war Compare to Art II, sec 2 president shall
  be Commander in Chief of the Army/Navy of the
  United States, and of Militia of the several
  States.

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What skills did students employ?

• Posing thoughtful questions
• Using the Internet to locate information
• Reading newspapers/magazines
• Assessing the accuracy of information
• Distinguishing between fact and opinion
• Categorizing information
• Prioritizing information

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What skills did students employ?

• Comparing and contrasting candidates and
  parties positions, how different media cover the
  same issues
• Analyzing political cartoons
• Analyzing and conducting polls
• Forming an opinion
• Being able to try on another viewpoint
• Having a civil discussion
• Expressing a view orally in writing
• Making deliberative, informed judgments

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Why immerse yourself and your students in the
elections?

• Youll still be teaching literacy and social
  studies and math, so you wont be missing your
  Common Core curricular demands.
• Just because you do not take an interest in
  politics doesnt mean politics wont take an
  interest in you. -- Pericles

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Want to know about more programs and resources
like this?

• Join HNET www.hofstra.edu/HNET subscribe
• Our annual spring conference is March 2nd mark
  your calendars
• Want to attend election programs at Hofstra?
• Go to Hofstra homepage and click on Debate 2012,
  then Events.
• Want more resources on elections and other
  primary sources?
• Go to my website and click on web links
  http//people.hofstra.edu/andrea_s_libresco/

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Democracy is not a spectator sport

• Last day to register in New York State is October
  12th
• To know is to care to care is to act to act is
  to make a difference. -- Harry Chapin