Social+Studies,+Social+Media,+and+the+Election

In the high school history curriculum, the students need to study the elections and how they shape policy and government in the United States. To enrich and expand upon this normal piece of curriculum and authentically embed elements of reading and writing I chose to include the use of social media with my students.

Students will use Twitter as a part of our Election 2012 Projects. They will use Twitter to communicate with each other about the campaign, public opinion, and election night. Using Twitter they can follow real time news they will be required to include images from the campaign trail in their town. Students will have an opportunity to practice using Twitter with teacher supervision in an assignment a few weeks in advance of this assignment. I also included materials I believe will expand upon student understanding of the elections, while explaining the use of social media and twitter.

media type="youtube" key="PSjhU42ChUs?rel=0" height="480" width="853" align="center"

=My 15 resources included in this unit:=

5 text-based informational selections
1. Unemployment and the Future of Jobs in America - Handout from the Constitutional Rights Foundation. Readability - Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 7.2

2. Winning the Vote: How Americans Elect Their President Readability - Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 8.9

3. Political Campaigns and Political Advertising: A Media Literacy Guide Readability - Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 12.3 @http://www.amazon.com/Political-Campaigns-Advertising-Media-Literacy/dp/0313347557/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1358369086&sr=1-6&keywords=us+elections+and+social+media

4. Presidential Elections in the United States: A Primer. Kevin J. Coleman et al. Congressional Research Service. April 17, 2000. 53 pp. CRS Report RL30527. Readability - Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 10.0

5. The Making of the Presidential Candidates 2012 Readability - Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 13.5 @http://www.scribd.com/doc/81918415/The-Making-of-the-Presidential-Candidates-2012

5 web-based resources
1. Twitter (https://twitter.com/) - All students will need a twitter account.

2. Tweetdeck (http://www.tweetdeck.com/) - Tweetdeck app and training materials will be used in following Twitter

3. Storify piece on U. S. Election (@http://storify.com/Candacedempsey/u-s-election-24-7) - Storify will be used to review elements of the U. S. Election that were shared by people during the election.

4. USAtoday Election page (http://www.usatoday.com/topic/5c6e1f38-dba8-4faf-ae15-2fe7161db766/elections-2012/) - The Election page for USAtoday was selected because the reading level for USAtoday has been shown to be written at anywhere between the [|5th] and [|10th] grade levels.

5. Library of Congress website (http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/elections/home.html) - The Library of Congress website for "Elections…The American Way" was selected to provide students with another opportunity to use online multimodal information to learn about the election process in the U. S.

6. How Many Stephen Colberts Are There? Readability - Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 11.8 @http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/08/magazine/stephen-colbert.html

5 unique selections
1. Elections: The Maintenance of Democracy An Annenberg Video @http://www.learner.org/courses/democracyinamerica/dia_13/dia_13_video.html

2. Corp Constituency - Trevor Potter The Colbert Report @http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/386086/may-11-2011/corp-constituency---trevor-potter

Political Cartoons 3.

4. 5.

Posted by Ian O'Byrne on April 22nd, 2013