Process

Students will work in a group as a campaign team to elect the first woman president. The campaign team should consist of four students. There are several ways that the group can be created. A team could consist of two boys and two girls. Teams of all boys or all girls could provide an interesting perspective. Consider grouping your students based on their learning styles. The tasks involved in this WebQuest can appeal to visual, auditory and kinesthetic learners. It will be exciting to observe how your diverse learners work together on the various projects.

Once students are in their group, they will learn about points of view by surveying their schoolmates. Each student will use the Presidential Survey form to interview 5 different students from other classes. Students will ask two questions: What are the important qualities of a President? Can a woman be President?

To facilitate this survey, arrange a time with your fellow teachers that your students could interview their students. They could go into another classroom to interview five different students. An alternative to this format would be to get permission for your students to interview other schoolmates during lunch or recess time.

Once students conduct their five interviews, they will return to their team and compile their results in a presidential qualities survey chart and a vote survey chart. The survey task will take one day with the group going out of the classroom for approximately 20 minutes and compiling their data upon return. The goal for this task is for students to understand that everyone has different opinions. Students will take the compiled information and apply it to their decision-making process in nominating a candidate for their team.

On Day 2, students will learn about campaign posters and start to research historical women. First, students will learn about campaign posters.

Print a campaign poster for the group of students. Students will develop their own opinions about the poster.

Using a point of view graphic organizer, students will determine what they like and dislike about the poster. (If your school has Kidspiration software, you can download the graphic organizer template for students to complete on the computer. You can also download a free, 40-day trial of Kidspiration software.)The goal of this task is to reinforce point of view by asking the students to determine their likes and dislikes. They will also have a chance to view a campaign poster. This will help them later when creating their own poster.

Next, students will research a woman from history. You will assign each team member one of four historical women: Rosa Parks, Susan B. Anthony, Harriet Tubman and Abigail Adams. Students will use the provided links to research their historical woman. Students should research some basic information about these women and identify the qualities that would make each a good president. Students should refer to their compiled list of qualities (from surveys) to make a decision about which woman would be a good president. As a team, students will decide which woman they will nominate as the candidate for the office of President.

The research task could take one to two days. Students should have time to research their candidates and discuss their findings. Students who need help with the Internet may require additional time to compile their research.

The team will decide on their candidate and start working on their campaign.

The first step in the campaign is to design a campaign button. Students will use provided links to review campaign buttons from the past. The campaign team will then design buttons to promote their candidate. Print the button template for the group. The team can use various media, including technology to design and create the button. Students can wear their buttons using safety pins or tape.

The campaign button task will take one day. Once the button is created, the team will create a campaign poster and a campaign speech. These tasks will take two days. Students can divide this work amongst the group. All four students can work on the poster and the speech, or two students can work on the speech while two students work on the poster. Students will focus on designing an appealing and creative poster and an interesting and brief speech.

If time permits, allow the students to present their speeches and their posters to their classmates. Students can wear their buttons and hang their posters in the classroom.

Variations: Divide the class into different teams of four students each and assign each team different women to research. This eliminates the possibility that all of your groups will nominate the same woman. If this variation is implemented, allow the students to vote in a mock election for their candidates. After the teams give their speeches, provide ballots to the class and allow them to vote. Instead of limiting the election to your class, why not extend it to the entire school? Students could hang their campaign posters throughout the school, wear their buttons and give their speeches to the entire student body. Conduct a mock election and tally the votes from the entire school.

This WebQuest requires Internet exploration. Teachers should be familiar with downloading documents and printing from the Internet. Teachers should also establish an organized way for students to conduct their surveys.