Check the Mates

Who were the candidates in the 2008 US Presidential election and where did they stand on important issues? Use a resource that offers an opportunity to go back in time and examine candidates and issues involved in that election year.

Register, establish a platform, make campaign speeches, and design campaign advertisements with a study of presidential elections. Young citizens engage in various activities that mimic the election process.

After reading an interesting article comparing the disputed presidential election of 1877 to a similar event in the year 2000, kids blog a response. They read the article, check out the embedded links, then respond to four related...

The modern presidency is defined by the development of television—including the use of televised debates in the campaign. Using debates going back to the first one between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon, young scholars evaluate...

Scholars assess how word choice and linguistic patterns affect a presidential debate. They examine candidates' words for repetition and analyze what this repetition means. Then they locate countries that fit the expression free world. In...

Hilary Clinton may have been the first woman to run for president on a major party ticket, but she was only one example of an historic candidacy. Class members use video clips curated from C-SPAN to examine historical firsts in...

Political ads flood the airwaves each election cycle. An activity including more than a dozen political ads from iconic presidential campaigns helps learners unpack how the sausage gets made during election "silly season." Using the...

Find the acceptance speech of John F. Kennedy as he accepted the nomination as the Democratic presidential candidate in 1960. In it he gives his vision of a New Frontier.

Archived Material. Who are the 2008 presidential candidates and what are their views on today's most important issues? This site offers a comprehensive overview of the question "Which candidate would make the best President?" The topic...

Impress upon your learners the importance of researching candidates in an election and considering not only which issues are most important to them as voters, but also which issues are most important to the candidates.