12 Essential Election Terms for Middle & High-Vocabulary Strategies

The purpose of this 18-page, standards-aligned, easy prep lesson, 12 Essential Election Terms for Middle and High School-Vocabulary Strategies, is for students to explore essential vocabulary so that they can begin to build their knowledge as they delve more deeply into the election. Every four years, citizens of our nation get to choose our next president.  Middle School and High School students are at the age where they begin to think of themselves as members of this country.  Many of them witness their relatives voting, but many do not, either because their relatives are not citizens or because their relatives are disengaged from the electoral process.  It is our duty as Social Studies teachers to engage our students in the electoral process so that they understand how our electoral system works and so that they see the value in participating in our democracy through voting.

Students will start the lesson by identifying which terms they are familiar with and how familiar they are with them in Road Signs to Understanding.. From there, they will complete a K.I.M. Vocabulary activity: (Knowledge, Information, Memory) and write an original sentence for each word. Finally, there is a vocabulary quiz which includes both a multiple choice part and a short answer part where they show how well they understand the meanings of the words. The 12 words are: ballot, candidate, citizen, democracy, election, government, political parties, propaganda, proposition, representative democracy, and vote

12 Essential Election Terms for Middle and High School-Vocabulary Strategies includes the following:

• a force copy google link so that you can easily edit this lesson if you need to

• About this Resource--a guide appearing at the beginning of the resource to orient teachers to everything in the document

• A hyper-linked Table of Contents

• An Essential Question: How do key election terms shape our understanding of democratic processes, and what strategies can we employ to navigate and utilize them effectively?

• Standards for Reading in History, Objectives and Learning Targets

3 Guiding Questions:

• How do citizens engage with the democratic process through terms like "ballot," "candidate," and "vote," and what role do these terms play in ensuring representative governance.

• What strategies can individuals employ to critically evaluate the influence of "propaganda" and "political parties" in elections, and how do these terms impact the formation of informed civic choices?

• In what ways do concepts like "representative democracy" and "citizen" shape our understanding of government structures and the responsibilities of individuals within a democratic society?

The following handouts and worksheets with keys

• Understanding Essential Election Vocabulary (Road Signs to Understanding Vocabulary)

• K.I.M. Vocabulary for Essential Election Terms and Key

• K.I.M. Vocabulary for Essential Election Terms Key

• Essential Election Vocabulary Quiz and Key

  ---

  This lesson pairs nicely with my review lesson: This lesson pairs nicely with my lesson: 12 Essential Election Terms: Color by Number Vocabulary Review for Middle School