Technology Connections. Election Resources and Your Students

by Ida Mae Craddock and Heather Moorefield-Lang, October 2020

It's 2020 and presidential elections are coming up in November. We as librarians, teachers, and administrators may feel many different ways about that but what about our students? As librarians we teach our students information literacy in seeking, finding, and verifying strong information and sources. We teach them to be good digital citizens and recognize appropriate and safe behaviors in a digital society. Along with both information literacy and digital citizenship comes the knowledge and understanding of our government and the election process. How do we aid young people to understand what is happening in society, to make their own decisions based on what is happening, and vote based on those decisions? This month we focus on digital resources that can help librarians and peer educators in the instruction of the electoral process.

Teaching Tolerance: https://www.tolerance.org/future-voters-project

Teaching Tolerance has an entire website section called the Future Voters Project. At the writing of this article it was still expanding for the 2020 elections. As a librarian or peer educator if you're looking for learning plans or classroom resources this is an excellent place to visit.

Rock the Vote: https://www.rockthevote.org/

Rock the Vote has been around for over thirty years. They have one goal and that is to get young people out to vote. Based on statistics from Rock the Vote, in 2020 Millennials and Gen Z will make up nearly 40% of voting-age adults. Getting them to the polls will be important. Rock the Vote offers a wide range of resources for young voters. They also offer great material for those who are too young to vote but want to be involved in the process. Our students are never too young to learn about this process and where they fit.

PBS Election Collection: https://unctv.pbslearningmedia.org/collection/election-collection/

PBS is always providing exciting content. For election time, they have given educators and students the Election Collection, complete with lesson plans, videos, documents, interactive lessons, and much more. Search material here for students in grades 4-12.

Youth Service America: http://ysa.org/vote/

YSA has a focus on supporting a global culture of engaged children and youth committed to a lifetime of meaningful service. Their site offers a wide range of information for youth service. YSA provides a resource titled Service Vote which offers twenty Ideas for 2020. It's a list of common excuses for not voting and counterarguments for young people who want to be activists for the voting process.

iCivics: https://www.icivics.org/

If you're looking for a game-based civics site for your students, then iCivics is the place to visit. This site brings civics to life through all types of game play. Learn about branches of government, arguing Supreme Court cases, and much more. For the election, check out Cast Your Vote, where players find out whether they are prepared for election time.

Teach and Learn: https://www.nytimes.com/spotlight/teach-the-2020-election

The New York Times offers writing prompts, challenges, lesson plans, and reading materials for librarians and peer educators to delve into on the topics related to the 2020 election. New material is continuously being added as events unfold. This is an exciting site to engage with as we move into November.

The elections can be exciting for everyone. Our students are never too young to learn about the importance of their voice and their vote. Young people can get involved in the election process at any age. It is never too early to care about the voting process. Try out some of these digital tools and find some to share with your community via your library webpage.