A Brief History of Who Can Vote in the United States

This 26-page lesson, A Brief History of Who Can Vote in the United States, is Lesson 5 in my unit, Every 4 Years...The Presidential Election Unit. It provides students with a brief and engagingly written overview of the history of voting rights and includes voting during the pandemic, the aftermath of the 2020 General Election, and the new attempts to introduce voter suppression laws in 28 states. The lesson includes a detailed lesson plan with objectives and learning targets aligned to the Common Core standards along with the reading and an answer key

As with any text, there are many ways to have students dive in and read and answer questions.  It depends on whether you are also focusing on certain reading strategies while teaching content.  The reading is formatted in two ways depending on how you want to approach teaching this text.  The first is formatted in columns so that students can annotate the text or “talk to the text” to practice the reading strategies of clarifying, questioning, connecting, inferring, and evaluating. The second is formatted traditionally across the whole page. 

Here is a summary of my whole unit: Every Four Years...The Presidential Election Unit is designed using the Into, Through, and Beyond model of lesson planning. This lesson can be taught independently, but it does set the foundation for future lessons in the unit. Every lesson includes the following: an Introduction, Objectives, Learning Targets, Standards (California Common Core Standards), detailed Directions, and when applicable, charts, readings, questions, and answer keys. Some lessons include summative assessments and rubrics. Opportunities for students to reflect on what they know are built into this unit and those can be used as formative and/or summative assessments.d inferring and evaluating. The second is formatted traditionally across the whole page.

• Into Lessons: Creating Schema

The following lessons: Lesson 1: Anticipation Guide: Essential Statements about the Election; Lesson 2: Understanding Essential Election Terms; and Lesson 3: What Are Your Political Viewpoints Survey?

• Through Lessons: Learning the Content

The following lessons: Lesson 4: Major and Minor Political Parties; Lesson 5: A Brief History of Who Can Vote; Lesson 6: The Nuts and Bolts of the United States Presidential Election; Lesson 7: Propaganda and Political Campaigns; and Lesson 8: Where Do the Candidates Stand on the Issues. 

• Beyond Lessons: Summative Assessments

Finally, the culminating projects, Lesson 9: Argumentative Letter to the Editor on a Candidate or on Mandatory Voting, and Lesson 10: Election Group Project.

The lessons can be used independently as a supplement to what you already teach or as a whole.  During non-election years, most of these lessons are appropriate for a unit on the Constitution.

26-page lesson plan

Detailed lesson plan with objectives and learning targets aligned to the Common Core standards

Engaging reading

Thoughtful questions

Answer key