Hello colleagues, This week I decided to explain the electoral college to students in my beginning level ESL class. My goal is for them to understand the red and blue election results as they are reported on November 8. The candidate with 270 electoral votes will, of course, win the election. The lesson involves having the students work in small groups to do research online to find out how many electors each state has. They will then present their findings to the class. We are focused on the Speaking & Listening Anchor 4 on presenting.
Students will also predict who they think will win each state as well as who will win the presidential election overall and then observe on election eve to see if their predictions prove true.
Please see below for the rubric I created for the students to evaluate themselves on their presentations. I will also give feedback to students using a similar rubric.
I welcome a discussion about how others are drawing upon the election to teach the standards. Comments and questions on my lesson are welcome!
Cheers, Susan Finn Miller
Moderator, College and Career Standards
Comments
Hello colleagues, I taught my lesson on the electoral college this week in my beginning ESL class. We drew from The National Archives and Records Administration government website which includes maps of previous elections as well as a feature that allows individuals to predict the outcome of this election in each of the 50 states plus Washington DC. There are several similar websites, but this one is pretty cool.
Students now have a pretty good understanding of how our US presidential election system works. While listening to the results of the election on November 8, they will be able to understand how states are determined to be red or blue and what the significance of 270 electoral votes is.
Comments welcome!
Cheers, Susan Finn Miller
Moderator, College and Career Standards CoP