How to Teach Your Kids About the Presidential Primary

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The time for the presidential primary is almost upon us. I would like to share the materials I have found for my homeschool to teach my kids about the whole election process. If your child is in Government & Economics right now, this article will provide a few resources for you to use as a supplement of to plan a whole course. Older teens can use these resources for independent studying. You will be well on your way to creating relevant assignments to teach about the Presidential Primary and the election process in general.

Newsela is a current events and news site for students and teachers that offers many articles to help you get a good foundation.

Create an Account and Start Assigning

The site offers the ability to create your own classroom for your homeschool students. You can enter your information to create a teacher account, then create a class and add your students. 

You simply send students an invitation link that they can use on any device; school computer, or in the app on their phone or tablet.

I chose a few articles about the foundation of the American system of government to help us leading up to the primary elections. Each article you assign your students has a short writing assignment to show understanding, and a four question quiz questions for reading comprehension checks. This makes it very easy to assure the reading is getting done. I usually schedule the reading weekly and have the questions due on Thursday.

U.S. Primary Elections Guides

As parents, getting the latest news and headlines in a format that is both age and grade level appropriate for our children is always a challenge. Next, we must also consider the sources of the article. During the election season of 2020, we tried to help our children learn to become discerning by watching coverage from several different news outlets. Newsela helped us gather news in one place and decide what articles we wanted to assign to our readers.

When diving into the elections, Newsela makes it easy to find material in their drop down menu at the top of the page. From there you will find plenty to read and to assign to your students. I have recently started to screen cast from my iPad to our home TV so we can read as a class. You can access the site on your smart TV as well to make it a more appealing presentation for your older students.

Get Started Right Now with These Two Lessons

Issue Overview: How the U.S. Elect its Presidents This is a beginning article for understanding the premiss of election basics. In Newsela you can choose the Lexile Reading Level (from 620 – 1210 or roughly 3rd through Sr High) and the article will reflect not only in the reading level but also in the delivery of the content and even the maturity of the subjects matter.

The Election Primer Unit contains all of the information that students will need to know in order to understand the long road to electing a president. In this Unit, students learn about voting rights, the rights and responsibilities of citizenship, the role of the Electoral College, the implications of money in politics, and many other important aspects of the presidential election.

Each of these articles are accompanied by lessons that can help your students learn about the political process.

Newsela also has a great unit on Media Literacy . It Is designed to help facilitate the discussion about using discernment while reading news from social media sources.

Ready for You – Lesson Plans & Video

C-SPAN Classroom offers many lessons surrounding Campaigns & Elections. Each Lesson Plan contains several video clips to watch together, related article links and vocabulary terms. You can read the descriptions to determine if the material covered aligns with your curriculum’s assigned lessons to use as a supplement or build your own lesson plan based on the lessons offered in these resources. Using video is a great way to help teach presidential primary and election facts in a different format.

Ready Made Questions to Assign

Under the Procedures section you will find a Graphic Organizer for you to print for your students. This has an opening question, Review Questions for each video clip, questions related to the background articles and a place to define vocabulary words. This is a great already done for you resource. Your teens can use these as a weekly current events companion. Elementary students can grasp the concepts and push to learn more.

Advanced Studies for Challenges and Research

Jigsaw Activities offer an opportunity teach your kids to dig deeper in the selected clips and answer a reflection question based on the presentation. There are also Research and Comparison to help your students extend their research skills.

C-SPAN is a cable supported network site, and though it may fall far right or left of your personal views, I believe it is vital for our children to hear the voices of all sides of the political argument and learn to articulate their views with intelligence and facts. This is the only way we will raise a generation whose voice will be heard where it matters.

Add Quick Lessons Easily for Transition Times

C-SPAN offers Bell Ringer Video Assignments that are 5 minute video clips with leading discussion questions to help you both articulate your views. You can sent your older teens the link. They are so phone savvy! Make them use it for school .

Want to dig deeper? You can use the related article links to take your class room discussion further.

Learn About Presidents Throughout History

The Presidential Primary Source Project a great resource. It teaches about elections and the presidency. It’s easy to sign up for the PPSP, a free service, which is a partnership between Internet2, the National Park Service, and the National Archives.

With the Presidential Primary Sources Project (PPSP), your homeschool class, co-op or small group can engage in live, interactive discussions and use primary source documents to understand our nation’s presidents. Transport your kids to places that helped shape past presidents’ lives.

You can watch archived lessons on their YouTube channel. Sign up to watch the 2022 presentations with your students live as they are presented each Tuesday and Thursday at 11am or 2pm (EST) REGISTER TODAY!

Talks From National Park Service
Rangers

See historical sites without leaving homes. Park Rangers will present live from historic sites about presidents like Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and George Washington.
Your family can share the presidents’ stories with your students through primary source documents and interactive live video.

The 2022 Presentation Schedule:

11am-12pm and 2-3pm ET

• Jan 18 The War of 1812
• Jan 20 “The Johnson Treatment”: LBJ’s 1964 Campaign
• Jan 25 Roosevelt and the World Today: Issues Then and Now
• Jan 27 Lights, Camera, Action: 75 Years of The State of the Union on Television
• Feb 1 Understanding Conflicting Primary Sources: When Hoover Met Hitler
• Feb 3 Learning About President Ford and the 1970s Energy Crisis through Primary Sources
• Feb 8 President Grant and Civil Rights
• Feb 10 Lincoln’s Evolving Legacy in Washington, D.C.: Places as Primary Sources
• Feb 15 President Kennedy and the Bill of Rights
• Feb 17 Civic Literacy: Article II and The Presidency
• Feb 22 Presidential Legacy through Portraiture
• Feb 24 I Like IKE: Election Icon
• March 1 1986 Immigration Reform
• March 3 Memorializing Young Abraham Lincoln
• March 8 Theodore Roosevelt’s “First Family”
• March 10 How RBG Came to Be: The Process of Appointing a Supreme Court Justice
• March 15 The Constitution and Presidential Powers
• March 17 7th Street Challenge: Lincoln’s Commute
• March 22 Rosalynn Carter: Partner-in-Chief
• March 24 Who Started the Cold War?
• March 29 Becoming Eleanor Roosevelt
• March 31 Young Teddie
• April 5 The Role of the First Lady