Strategies
When my students hear anything having to do with government they start to shut down, become disinterested, and complain that it is boring and it has nothing to do with them. So I have to have a very hands-on approach to teaching these "boring" topics. Many of my students struggle with reading so sitting and reading line by line would guarantee many of my students would not pay attention. To get all the students on board I will have the students create their own visuals documents so they have a vested interest in the topic before actually learning about the primary documents. Students in my class are responsible for knowing how to interpret political cartoons. I have implemented an activity introducing an easy graphic organizer to help them interpret cartoons. Learning how to argue your point takes practice so the inner circle/ outer circle activity is a fun yet effective way for students to better their ability to debate.
Many of my students have a lot of energy so anything that has them up and moving gets them more invested in the topic. The students will create their own campaign advertisements, commercials, and cartoons, for a presidential campaign. The students will create these by using the techniques they learned through previous lessons. Any time the students are able to be out of their seats they enjoy the activity that much more, so for learning and understanding political party differences the activity of walk to plank is an interactive way of showing the students how to explain why they believe something and learn about party platforms.
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