About This Lesson
In this 180 minute (2 day) lesson, students will develop SEL skill of self-awareness, social-awareness, and relationship building while analyzing the major trends in the expansion of voting rights in the United States. The students will begin the lesson completing a KWL graphic organizer to assess their prior knowledge. The students will engage in a voter simulation game where they get to vote on a popular artist’s concert they will get to see. Some of their votes will not count in the game, to illustrate the struggles of historically disenfranchised groups. Students will reflect on the feelings they had while playing the game, and draw parallels in their analysis of history. Students will study a timeline of events, and cooperatively become experts on one of the suffrage amendments. Groups will create posters to express the historical background on the struggle for each amendment. Students will present their work to their classmates for a discussion and critique of what they have learned. In addition to building student presentation skills, students will focus and be assessed on being a good listener and audience member. The lesson will wrap up with a reading for homework about the women’s suffrage movement (two different readings for differentiation). Students will write a reflective paragraph on whether or not they can empathize with the emotional struggle women had to endure while fighting for their rights. The lesson includes handouts, teacher guides and rubrics for all activities. This lesson is aligned to the Common Core Standards for History/Social Studies and the Ohio State Standards for American Government.
