The lesson plan below is intended to work with elections covered by ProCon, but may be adapted to work with other elections.
Objective:
Students will read and write a report about a candidate’s book.
Students will:
- read a political nonfiction book
- analyze the contents of the book
- write a book report
Resources/Materials:
- ProCon.org election coverage
- Books by the candidates (alternately: candidates’ articles or social media feeds)
Preparation:
- Teachers should choose whether students will read books, articles, or social media feeds to complete the assignment.
- Teachers may want to create a course packet with book chapters, articles, or portions of social media feeds for students.
- This assignment should be completed as homework or over several days of in-class work.
Activity:
- Have students read the ProCon.org candidate biographies then select one candidate to profile.
- Assign students to write a report on the candidate’s book (or selected chapters). The report should include information about what issues the candidate speaks about, what life experiences the candidate discusses that could inform their campaign, and formal conventions such as writing style. Have students consider what image the candidate is trying to project of themselves.
- Plan Variations:
a. Have students select an article by a candidate to evaluate.
b. Have students select articles by multiple candidates on the same topic, or comparable chapters from multiple candidates’ books to compare/contrast.
c. Have students evaluate the Twitter or Facebook (or other social media) feed of a candidate within a certain timeframe. The feed could be compared and contrasted against news events or another candidate’s feed during the same time.
Evaluation:
- Reading comprehension
- Ability to distill information into a report
- Quality of writing
