Lesson Plan for your Student-Citizens--Election 2012

Wearing my "I voted" sticker.
by Ann Abbott

 Today is election day, and voting has a particularly important place in any community service learning course. We are educating our students to be informed and engaged citizens. To vote is one of the most important measures of our success.

I am so excited to be with my student-citizens today, and here is my lesson plan.

1. Share the picture I posted to Facebook after voting this morning. Ask them what is happening on their Facebook feeds regarding the elections.

2. Project the video of Jackie Kennedy's political ad in Spanish.

3. Divide the students in half. Using their own devices, half watch Mitt Romney's ad with son speaking Spanish, and the other half watch Barack Obama's ad in Spanish.

4. Pair students, each student watched a different video. Ask them to describe the video they watched to the other person then together answer the questions on Sarah Degner Riveros' blog post.

5. Education is political. Language is political. Is bilingual education political? Project the video of a local bilingual education teacher explaining how students--and schools--do not have to choose between English and Spanish.

6. Form groups of three, and ask students to read Obama and Romney's statements on language education. (Ignore the bottom half of the page.) Ask students to compare and contrast that information with the information in Luz Rio's video and what we have learned about languages, cultures and communities in general throughout the semester.

7. Conclusion: Find the place where you can vote. ¡Voten!

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