It is officially election season across the country and a presidential election year as well. What a momentous time to teach students about the election process, democracy, and the right to vote. It is also important to include the infamous history of voting in the United States and the struggle for the right to vote that certain populations of people had to endure. Need help identifying high-quality, digital resources that you can use in the classroom on this timely topic? INFOhio has digital content on voting, the election process, and the presidency that is appropriate for grades PreK-12. 

Elementary Resources for Election Day

BookFlix

BookFlix, one of INFOhio’s most popular digital resources, offers 3 pairings of fiction and nonfiction eBooks that engage readers on the topics of voting, elections, and the presidency. Watch the fictional story together as a class and then read aloud the nonfiction eBook. Compare and contrast the two stories to what is happening in current events today. 

In the pairing Duck for President by Doreen Cronin and Election Day by Patricia J. Murphy, join Duck as he holds an election on the farm and learn about what actually happens on election day in the nonfiction companion text. Learn about the job of a president in Madam President by Lane Smith and What Does the President Do? by Amanda Miller. Experience election time at Barkadelphia School in Otto Runs for President by Rosemary Wells and learn about the voting process in Let’s Vote on It! by Janice Behrens.

Help students understand:

• what it means to vote.
• what will happen on election day, November 3.
• what the job description is of a president.

To learn even more about how to integrate BookFlix into your classroom instruction explore INFOhio Learning Pathways, self-paced, online, professional development class: BookFlix.

Highlights Library

When doing a keyword search for “president” in Highlights Library, our newest digital resource to the INFOhio collection, several nonfiction eBooks about the lives of presidents are available. 

The reading level of the titles are available for each eBook by clicking on the i button when hovering over each title. If you have a range of reading levels within your classroom you could easily differentiate based on student reading level. Each title also features a read-aloud option and a comprehension quiz that students can take after reading the book. In addition, some of the titles include speaking, listening, and thinking activities to support a deeper dive into the text.

Encourage students to:

• read two books from different historical time periods that focus on an aspect of the presidency and compare.
• identify 3 facts from their nonfiction presidential book and share with the class. 
• use the read-aloud feature to help with their understanding of the text.

Gale In Context: Elementary

Gale In Context: Elementary has a special section dedicated to the topic of voting. There is an informational text article on voting and the process involved. Below this article are quick facts and even more book and magazine articles, news reports, biographies, pictures, and related topics. Using the accessibility features within this resource, including the read-aloud option, will be helpful to many students.

As a class, create a KWL chart on the topic of voting and find out what students already know about voting and what they want to know. Find a variety of KWL charts in INFOhio's Go! Ask, Act, Achieve.

Have students:

• find the answers, in Gale In Context: Elementary, to the questions from the "Want to Know" section of the class KWL chart about voting and elections.  
• explore the digital content within Gale In Context: Elementary to seek out new information.
• use the highlighting and notes tool to uncover unfamiliar words and create a classroom dictionary.

To learn even more about how to integrate Gale In Context: Elementary into your classroom instruction explore INFOhio Learning Pathways, self-paced, online, professional development class: Gale In Context: Elementary.

Middle and High School Resources for Election Day

Digital Video Collection

INFOhio’s Digital Video Collection features several videos that discuss the history of voting. In this particular video, Who Can Vote? from Politics on Point, middle and high school students will be introduced to the reasons why voting is important.

Use this short, informative video to get your students thinking about the upcoming election and start a discussion with the following questions:

• Why do you think voting is seen as one of the most important rights as a U.S. citizen?
• How have voting rights changed over time?
• Are there other ways that citizens can participate in the political process besides voting?

World Book Student and World Book Advanced 

When doing a keyword search for “voting” in World Book Student, a digital encyclopedia resource focused on content for 5th-10th grade students, there are over 4,600 results. These results include speeches, historical maps, tables, videos, websites, and resource guides. The resource guide includes over 20 specific articles on the history of voting and elections. This digital content can be emailed or easily shared to Google Classroom by clicking on the gear icon and share button within each article. World Book Student also offers a read-aloud option to help students with comprehension. Use the Lexile reading level measure available to share specific articles with specific students to differentiate reading passages for your students.

World Book Advanced, a digital encyclopedia resource focused on content for 9th-12th grade students, offers a webquest, World Book Advanced Webquest: Elections and Voting. This webquest on elections and voting includes activities that require exploring the digital resource to find the answers. 

The webquest includes:

• true or false, matching, fill-in-the-blank, and discussion questions. 
• a writing prompt: "If I were elected president, I would...,which directs students to use text evidence from the resources within World Book Advanced.
• an extension activity that gives the steps needed for the class to hold their own election. Have your students hold an election on a topic that is of importance or interest. What about having students create a mock election for a classroom president or a classroom mascot?

To learn even more about how to integrate World Book Student and World Book Advanced into your classroom instruction explore INFOhio Learning Pathways, self-paced, online, professional development class: World Book Student and Advanced. 

Points of View Reference Center

Points of View Reference Center, a resource that provides multiple perspectives on many important topics and issues within our society today, has a Voting & Elections category, with many related topics.

Have students:

• choose one of these topics and explore the different points of view.
• write an argumentative paper to support the perspective that they agree with using evidence from the texts.
• debate their topic with classmates that selected the same topic.

To learn even more about how to integrate Points of View Reference Center into your classroom instruction explore INFOhio Learning Pathways, self-paced, online, professional development class: Points of View Reference Center.

Educator Tools

Are you looking for quality instructional resources on the topics of voting and elections? Educator Tools offers resources to support Ohio's Learning Standards and align inquiry skills with current educational trends and practices. You can search or browse by subject, grade level, or instructional trend to find articles, videos, lesson plans, best practices, flyers, tip sheets, and more. When doing a keyword search for “voting,” over 250 resources are available and 60 of these are lesson plans. The lesson plans are from reputable organizations such as ReadWriteThink, EngageNY, Center for Civic Education, and more. Grade levels range from 1st grade all the way up to 12th grade. To limit your search results to a specific grade level, check the boxes of the grade levels that you teach. This will give you lesson plans geared toward your specific student audience.

To continue your learning about how to use Educator Tools to find quality instructional resources explore INFOhio Learning Pathways, self-paced, online, professional development class: Educator Tools.

Election day is on its way. Prepare students to be informed citizens and understand the importance that voting is to our society by using INFOhio’s high-quality, digital resources that can be used in remote, blended, or in-person learning environments.

If you need support with any of INFOhio’s digital resources, please, reach out to support.infohio.org. We are always happy to help.