Teaching Resources: the Election and Indigenous People's Day

This week a college friend asked over Facebook how her social studies teacher friends were thinking about addressing this election season. I've been thinking for a while about how to approach it, given that my students don't have the background knowledge about our government and how elections work here. There is a whole lot to cover, and a challenge for me is always to cover the essential information while not over-complicating and getting bogged down in details. And viewing it all from a social justice perspective. Never mind the fact that I have to keep in mind using English vocabulary that is accessible to my students. 

Anyway, I turned to some of my favorite resources to help me. Sure enough, Teaching Tolerance has a unit that approaches the election by having students think about civility - something that seems to have been lost this season. I thought I would share this and other of my favorite resources. The first list is about the election; the second is for teaching about Indigenous People's Day - adopted in lieu of Columbus Day in our town this year, thanks to the activism of some students and their teachers. You'll notice some repeats from my go-to websites: tolerance.org and readwritethink.org. Many of these are great for all students, not just ELL students. Good luck!

​(Copy and paste links into browser)
Election resources: 

http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/calendar-activities/today-election-20614.html

http://www.tolerance.org/election2016

http://www.tolerance.org/blog/teach-2016-election-our-fall-issue

https://www.icivics.org/curriculum/politics-and-public-policy

https://newsela.com/students-vote-2016/   
(readings that can be differentiated by level) 

http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/09/15/reader-ideas-teaching-the-2016-election/

Indigenous People's Day:

http://teachinghistory.org/nhec-blog/22951

http://www.tolerance.org/blog/reconsider-columbus-day

http://www.nea.org/tools/lessons/columbus-day-grades-k-5.htm

http://zinnedproject.org/2011/10/rethinking-columbus-day/

​http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/cyberspace-explorer-getting-know-126.html

https://thinkprogress.org/movement-to-celebrate-indigenous-peoples-day-is-spreading-f5405a9a126c#.xfebpsw1g