In this lesson, students examine defining issues in the race for the White House and evaluate important issues in several of the swing states. Students then create and administer a poll in their community and make predictions by analyzing the data. Demonstrate their knowledge of important issues in the presidential election and develop poll questions to gather data in their community. Summarize important issues in several swing states that may determine which candidate earns their electoral college votes. Make predictions about the presidential race by distributing and analyzing a poll in their community.
Students share their answers.
Then, brainstorm on the board a short list of three to five questions that may be used in a poll of voters in your community with regards to issues that are important to them in the 2000 presidential elections. Each group then reads the portion of the article pertaining to their assigned swing state and creates a poster. On the left side of the poster, students illustrate the polling results in their assigned states as discussed in the article. On the right side, they write down defining issues in that state for the presidential election. Students share their results with the class.