Lesson: It's Your Country: It's Your Voice

Grade: 5th grade

Before Reading

I. Motivation: (distribute the text packet).

Teacher: "As every November rolls around, signs of an election appear in your neighborhood, on TV, and in the newspapers. Your favorite sitcom is pre-empted by candidates' speeches and political ads. Oh no, you think, another election. Aren't they boring? Can't you just ignore them until you're an adult? No! Elections aren't boring. They make lots of things happen all over the country for more than a year, and you can be part of the excitement. As you'll see, you don't have to wait until you're an adult to take part in elections. In a democracy like America's, people have the right and privilege to elect the men and women who will govern them. Your right to vote is protected by the Constitution of the United States -- no one can deny you the right to vote because of your race, religious beliefs, or sex." (Granfield 4)

II. Prior Knowledge:

Teacher Note: Not all this material needs to be covered. By using what you know about the curriculum used in your school and what the students in your classroom already know about our country, please only use what you find necessary. There is a lot of information in this prior knowledge section. I intended it to be helpful for enhancing teacher knowledge as well as student knowledge.

America is a Democracy. You may ask yourself what this is. Don't worry, that is normal. Not everyone knows what a Democracy is. Democracy is a form of government where all the citizens living in that country have the right to vote or voice their opinion about how the country should be run. It allows the citizens of the United States their freedom and rights. Voting is a very important part of democracy.

Voting happens every November, where we elect many different types of leaders, such as governor and state representative. Sometimes these different leaders have terms longer than one year, but we will focus on that later. As I said before, elections are not boring. They can change the way our country works overnight. Even though you have to be eighteen to vote, you can still get involved in the voting process. Since election debates and processes begin months before the polls are open on the first Tuesday of November, many things have to happen that you can be involved in. You can pass out the flyers, put signs up around town supporting the candidate you would vote for, or wear a button supporting that candidate. Another way that students your age can be involved in the voting process is by casting a ballot through the Kids Voting USA organization. This program is operated through your school or community. The fun part about it is that if you go with your parent, grandparent, sibling, or guardian when they vote, you can go vote for your candidate of choice and put it into a voters' box designated for the Kids Voting USA organization. They will tally up the votes and put the results on a local website or television station. You are very fortunate that at your age you are able to take part in this voting process, because when our Constitution was signed about two-hundred years ago, there were many United States citizens who were not able to vote: called suffrage.

Women were not allowed to vote when the Constitution was first signed. This was called women suffrage: women because that was who could not vote, and suffrage because that is a ban on voting. Many women did, however, support politics and helped to lead movements towards ending slavery and making sure that United States citizens were not drinking too much alcohol. Some of the most influential women in this suffrage movement were Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Staton, Amelia Bloomer, and Susan B. Anthony. Does the name Susan B. Anthony sound familiar? Where does it sound familiar from?

Another ban on voting when the Constitution was first signed was on African-Americans. This was the time in our history when African-American men and women were still slaves to the white citizens in the United States. The only exception to this ban was when the Northern states allowed some free slaves to vote. This ended, however, after the Civil War, when the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution was signed, stating that "the vote would not be denied on the basis of race, color, or past enslavement" (Granfield 12).

As you can see, we have come a long way since the beginning of voters' rights. Now all citizens of the United States, regardless of gender, race, or background are entitled to vote. Voting is an awesome privilege in our Democratic country, and we need to be excited about it.

Teacher Note: A way to organize this information when giving it to the students is using a graphic organizer or chart.

III. Purpose:

Teacher: Since we are all American citizens, we need to understand and grasp the importance of getting your voice heard through voting. We are going to read a portion of the text from the book America Votes by Linda Granfield called "The Right to Vote -- Your Right to Vote." When reading this we are going to look for the responsibilities of the voter and the elected officials, and a more deeper meaning to the word "democracy." When we discuss our thoughts of this text after we read it, we are going to better understand why it is so important for United States citizens to have the opportunity to vote.

IV. Strategy Instruction:

Teacher: It is important to use what we already know, or think we know, to help us read and understand the text. Because of this, we are going to complete an Anticipation Guide for what we know about voting.

There are a few steps that you need to follow in order to use the anticipation guide the right way.

1. Think about what you already know, and read the statements listed on the paper.

2. Mark an X by those statements you agree with based off of what you already know.

3. Read the text thoroughly, keeping the statements you have just read in mind.

4. Go back to the anticipation guide and fill in the statements that were true from the information you learned in the text.

5. Compare the statements that you marked off before reading the text to those that were marked after reading the text.

Teacher Note: The following link is where you will find the pre-made Anticipation Guide for this activity.

Model:

Teacher: I want to show how to use an anticipation guide so that you know what I expect of you, and then if you have any questions, please feel free to raise your hand when I am finished with my demonstration.

Teacher: First, I am going to think about what I already know about voting while reading the statements. Sometimes it really helps me to think out-loud when I have to do two things at once.

Teacher: The statement is, 'Voting is a right of American citizens.'

Teacher: Well, I know that a right is something that I get because it is special. I know that voting is very special. I also know that because of our Constitution and many wars Americans have a lot of rights, or special exceptions. I know that voting is something that needs to happen every year because my mom and dad are always telling me about the different people running and how they help our country.

Teacher: Since I know all this about American's rights, I think that voting is and American right. I am going to put an X by this under the ME column because I agree with it.

Guided Practice:

Teacher: Now that I have demonstrated, or modeled, how I want you to think through each statement, let's do the second statement as a class.

Teacher: Could I have a volunteer to read the second statement?

Teacher Note: Allow a student in the class to read the statement: 'Only men can be elected as an official.'

Teacher: I need a couple people to share with the class what you already know about voting that either agrees with this statement, or disagrees with this statement.

Teacher Note: Allow the students time to tell the class what they know, followed with a class discussion on whether we agree or disagree.

Teacher: That was a great discussion. Now that we have decided to agree by marking an X/disagree by leaving it blank, I want you to finish the remaining 3 statements by yourself. Please put your pencils down to show me that you are ready to move on to reading the text.

During Reading

Teacher Note: This will help you to decide if the text is appropriate for your students. There are alternate texts listed in the differentiation section, just following this section on readability.

Readability:

Granfield, L. (2003). America votes: how our president is elected. The right to vote -- Our right to vote. Kids Can Press: Toronto. Text read aloud by teacher.

Readability of Text: 7.3

Defending the level: The drawbacks of using a readability formula are well-documented, so the cuing system and other readability factors should be considered. Even though I am teaching at the fifth grade level, I feel confident that this text is appropriate because I am presenting the text as shared reading rather than independent reading. By guiding the students understanding of the text, I, as the teacher, will be sure to guide comprehension of the text in an age appropriate manner. This text is very relevant to the lesson, and has a lot of valid materials in it. Those materials can be found by dissecting the cues of the text:

1. Graphic: The graphic cues in this book are great. They are cartoon-like drawings that make the reading fun and exciting, and at the same time they provide a deeper understanding to the text.

2. Semantic: The semantic, or meaning, features of this text are structured so that children can understand what is being taught. This book is not out to trick anyone. The authors did a great job of defining many of the new vocabulary words and phrases within the text.

3. Syntactic: The sentence structure of the text is simple to follow. There are very few complex sentences, or sentences that contain more than one challenging word.

4. Schematic The text uses points of interest that will allow most, if not all, children to access prior knowledge about election times. They use television interruption examples and outdoor signs to describe the hype of election time and the importance thereof. They also use what should have been addressed in previous curriculums for the early elementary grades.

5. Text Structure: The text structure is easy to follow. There are small paragraphs that are marked with a star to signify a new idea. There are other parts of the text that are broken up into outline form. The new headings are symbolized with large bold font which is easy to find. Finally, there is just the right amount of white space left over. When a student looks at this text, they will not be discouraged by a complex-looking format; instead, they will be drawn into reading the text by the pictures and the overall structure of the written text.

Differentiated Instruction Accommodations

There are many options to provide for children with special needs, from children with disabilities to children who are talented and gifted. When accommodating this lesson for children with disabilities, the teacher may find alternative texts in order to provide a deeper understanding for the material. Some of these texts move outside of the expository text, and into the fiction and picture book genre of literature. Children with disabilities, depending on the individual need, require alternative modes of looking at the "big picture." It is the teacher's responsibility to make these options accessible to their students with disabilities.

Some of the alternative texts include, but are not limited to:

1. Vote! by Eileen Christelow

2. Woodrow for President: A 'Mice' Way to Learn About Voting, Campaigns, and Elections by Peter W. Barnes

3. America: A Patriotic Primer by Lynne Chenney and Robin Preiss Glasser

4. D is for Democracy: A Citizen's Alphabet by Elissa Grodin and Victor Jahasz

5. Meet Our Flag, Old Glory by April Jones Prince and Joan Paley

There are also many other ways to accommodate for children with disabilities. This is a list of some brainstormed methods:

1. Pair the student up with a child in the class who is not struggling and will be patient and supportive enough to help the child

2. Use a resource teacher, if available, to reiterate the concepts in the lesson, using literature and different comprehension strategies

3. Because all teachers should recognize the multiple intelligence's, offer the child the opportunity to be exposed to the text in other modes besides just reading, such as: tape-recording the reading, making sense of the concepts using action with the words or phrases, associate mnemonic devices for easier recall, and meeting with small groups to talk over the meaning of what was read

To accommodate for children who are gifted and talented, the teacher could use:

1. Have those children pair up with other children in the class who need a little extra guidance. Teaching what you have learned is the most effective way of learning.

2. Research and present a more complicated topic that was presented in the reading, but not elaborated on. A topic could be history of Abraham Lincoln.

3. Read a higher-level text in order to provide a deeper meaning behind the concept of voting.

V. Text Structure:

Teacher Note: This portion of the lesson plan is suppose to help guide you through a during reading comprehension strategy. Sharing the structure of the text and ways to comprehend that text with the students is a good idea. Please feel free to incorporate into your lesson.

Teacher: The structure of the text is expository. It uses prior knowledge and description to teach the components and importance of voting.

A strategy to support comprehension during reading is SQ3R.

Please follow this link to the BDA strategies for reading comprehension. There you will find guidelines for executing this strategy for this lesson.

VI. Vocabulary:

Teacher note: These are the new vocabulary words for this lesson. They can be added to a word wall to help the students remember how to spell them and review their meaning. They should be introduced before the reading, reinforced throughout the reading, and practiced after reading. It is crucial that the students understand these words in order to understand the text. The students should be instructed to use context clues to help them predict and practice using the words and their meaning.

Critical vocabulary words:

1. pre-empted: "Your favorite sitcom is pre-empted by candidates' speeches and political ads."

2. political: "Your favorite sitcom is pre-empted by candidates' speeches and political ads."

3. democracy: not used in the text, but useful in understanding the concept of voting.

4. suffrage/franchise: "Our right to vote is called suffrage, or our political franchise."

5. election: "Elections aren't boring. They make lots of things happen all over the country for more than a year..."

VII. Content:

Teacher Note: This link will take you to the national standards for grades 5-8 in social sciences. The content that the students should know before is located in the standards for K-4. I have also prepared a thorough section on prior knowledge that the students need to be familiar with before beginning this lesson.

http://www.education-world.com/standards/national/soc_sci/civics/5_8.shtml

After Reading

VIII. Questioning:

Teacher Note: The questioning method used in this lesson plan is Question-Answer-Relationships (QAR). The teacher needs to first model the approach, by answering the question and following it up with where the answer came from. The children will then have to answer the questions that follow the four types of questioning methods (Right There, Think and Search, Author and You, On Your Own) and then identify where they found their answer.

For example: (taken from selected text for this lesson, The Right to Vote -- Your Right to Vote)

Text Explicit: What do we expect from our elected officials? (To answer for their actions. The answer is Right There because the texts says, "In America, we expect our elected officials to answer for their actions.)

A helpful online source that guides teachers through teaching QAR is:

http://www.nifl.gov/partnershipforreading/publications/reading_first1text

IX. Writing to Learn Activity

Teacher Note: Since this lesson is part of a unit on democracy, the lesson itself will take longer than a day. For a writing activity, journaling would be beneficial to see growth in knowledge over time. I would have the students reflect on the concepts daily so they can familiarize themselves with the overall theme of democracy and voting.

Some suggestions for daily journal entries for this lesson on voting are:

1. Have you ever voted for anything before. If so, what was it and how did the outcome of the vote make you feel?

2. Interview someone over the age of 18 who has voted before on their experiences voting, and write up a paragraph summarizing what they said.

3. Find an article about a candidate running for office. Try to summarize his/her reasons for running, what he/she is running for, etc. (Can only be done during election time)

X. Closure

Teacher: Now that we have learned about voting, and the importance of it shaping our country, we are ready to be responsible citizens in our country that is a democracy.

Teacher: Now that you have finished reading the text and answering the comprehension questions, I would like you to work at your table and mark off the statements in the TEXT column that agree with the information we just learned in the text. Please discuss what you thought before we read, and compare it to your new knowledge. Do this with your table partners to that you can talk through what you thought before we read and what you have now learned after we read.

Teacher: Now that we understand the importance of voting and how it affects our country, you can use your new knowledge to understand all the elections and political races that happen every year. Use your new eyes to examine what the candidates want to provide. Ask yourself, what do you believe in? Who, to you, seems right? With these answers, you are part of a proud democracy that relies on the people to shape the country.