Join a Campaign
By Mira Cohen

Overview

This lesson can be used in any middle school or high school classroom. Students will engage in a "hands-on" campaign project. They will volunteer on a campaign, keep a journal of their activities, and create an oral or written report for the class. If using in a middle school classroom, you may feel it is necessary to obtain parental signatures of permission slips.

Objectives

Students will:

  • Gain "hands on" knowledge of work on a campaign
  • Develop a campaign journal of their experiences and reflections
  • Present a comprehensive report to the class

Time Required

The time involved varies but you will want to devote about twenty minutes to distribute and explain the project in class. Allow at least one hour of class time for presentations. Students will need to spend about five hours of their own time volunteering for the campaign and another 2-3 hours preparing the journals and presentations. You may want to increase or decrease the amount of time students are required to spend at a campaign office.

Materials

  • Notebook
  • List of candidates' headquarters in your area

Initial Motivation

There are a number of choices. You may want to show the film The War Room to expose students to campaign work. You may want to bring in campaign materials such as buttons, signs, or leaflets and ask students the following questions:

  1. What am I holding up?
  2. Describe what it looks like. (Answers may include, "big, bright, you see a person's name, like an advertisement")
  3. What is the purpose of this material? (Answers may include, "to advertise the candidate, to attract attention, to share the candidate's views with the public, to defame the candidate's opponent)
  4. Who do you think created this material? (Answers will vary).
  5. Explain to the students that they will be working on a campaign themselves. They will learn about what types of tasks need to be carried out in order to help a candidate run for office.

Procedures

  1. Distribute the student handout and answer student questions. Allow the students approximately one-two months to complete the assignment. ( Click here to access the student handout.)
  2. Provide students with a list of candidates in your area. You can find this by contacting the Voter Information, the Democratic and Republican parties.
  3. Monitor the students' working experiences throughout the period by asking questions and providing time at the beginning of class to answer student questions.
  4. Students will work on campaigns.
  5. Students will create journals.
  6. Students will present reports.

Assessment

You can use steps 1-7 from the student handout as a checklist for your assessment. Just a reminder, steps 1-7 include:

  1. Where you volunteered
  2. Sample selections from your journal reports
  3. How you initially felt about volunteering
  4. How many hours you participated
  5. What you did when you volunteered
  6. What you now think about working on a campaign after completing the assignment
  7. Any additional information you would like to include

Make sure also that students have obtained appropriate signatures and kept their journals.

Mira Cohen teaches government and United States history at Beverly Hills High School in California.

Student Handout: Join a Campaign

Welcome to the world of political participants! I hope you will enjoy the experience in which you are about to take part. I have listed below the requirements for you volunteering project.

Journal

  1. You will need to keep a journal or a record of your thoughts and experiences. Each time you help out on the campaign, just jot down what you did, who you helped, and your thoughts about your day at the office.
  2. You may purchase a special notebook in which to keep your journal or simply staple together a few sheets of notebook paper.
  3. Make sure you begin each entry at the top of the page.

Report

After you have completed your working experience, you will need to create an oral report. The report needs to include:

  1. Where you volunteered
  2. Sample selections from your journal reports
  3. How you initially felt about volunteering
  4. How may hours you participated
  5. What you did when you volunteered
  6. What you now think about working on a campaign after completing the assignment
  7. Any additional information you would like to include

Bring in any campaign literature or material you collected on the job.

You need to volunteer at least five recorded hours.

Due Date: ________________

Read an interview with four student volunteers