Featured Products: Elections

Use original documents and photographs as well as letters, maps, cartoons, and posters to help students explore the past. Primary sources provide unique insight into the lives of people in different time periods.

Each kit includes:

• 16 photographs and primary source documents
• photo cards with background information, discussion questions, and suggested activities printed on the back
• CD with photographs, other primary sources student activity sheets, and extension activities
• 80 page Teacher's Guide including lesson plans, background information, a wide variety of student activities
• A document-based assessment section to help students prepare for essays found on many standardized tests

Plus, each kit meets the NCSS standards for primary source documents and this series has received the 2003 Distinguished Achievement Award from the Association of Educational Publishers EdPress.

Photographs: "Dewey Defeats Truman" newspaper; John F Kennedy and Richard Nixon on a television debate; Geraldine Ferraro TIME cover; Ronald Reagan at the 1988 Republican National Convention; A donkey and an elephant about to race to Washington, D.C.; Door flyer reminding people to vote; and The Bush family campaigns together.

Primary Sources: Newspaper coverage of an election; sketch of a voting machine; Electoral college maps; Gerald Ford campaign schedule; Propaganda for local elections; Campaign spending political cartoon; Poster, buttons, and bumper stickers from national elections; Background documents on President John F. Kennedy.

Improve understanding of the election process and enhance history and civics programs by introducing and exploring national, state, and local elections.

• Expose students to primary sources and promote critical-thinking skills
• Run a simulated presidential election in the classroom or study specific parts of the process with flexible, self-standing lessons
• Provide interactive opportunities through discussions, simulations, and extension activities
• Challenge students at their individual thinking levels using the differentiation ideas provided within the lesson
• Teacher Resource CD includes reproducibles and primary sources

This integrated approach to active learning encourages educators to immerse students in simulations, debates, discussions, and other activities that encourage personal connections while relating historical events to current issues. Students discover that the field of social studies is a reflection of human motives, conflicts, decisions, and actions.

The content is flexible enough to use with any social studies topic. The author presents numerous strategies in each of the following categories:

• Brainstorming
• Art integration
• Discussion
• Language arts integration
• Deductive reasoning
• Primary sources

Andi Stix, Ed.D., is an award-winning educator and author as well as a frequent speaker and consultant. Her inspiring, yet practical, guidelines for active learning are based on extensive research. In this book, she provides extensive assessment materials and rubrics designed to help educators evaluate student achievement resulting from diverse learning activities.

Notebook has 304 pages plus a resource CD with modifiable student pages and assessment materials.