Voting Rights Lesson Plan: Civic and Political Institutions

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This lesson accompanies the BrainPOP topic Voting Rights, and supports the standards associated with recognizing the rights and responsibilities of citizens, such as electing our representatives.  Students demonstrate understanding through a variety of  projects.

Step 1: ACTIVATE PRIOR KNOWLEDGE

Ask students: 

• What do you think are some rights and responsibilities of U.S. citizens?
• Why are they important?

Step 2: BUILD KNOWLEDGE

• Read aloud the description on the Voting Rights topic page.
• Play the Movie, pausing to check for understanding. 
• Assign Related Reading. 

Step 3: APPLY and ASSESS 

Assign the Voting Rights Challenge and Quiz, prompting students to apply essential literacy skills while demonstrating what they learned about this topic.

Step 4: DEEPEN and EXTEND

Students express what they learned about voting rights while practicing essential literacy skills with one or more of the following activities. Differentiate by assigning ones that meet individual student needs.  

• Make-a-Movie: Produce a mini-documentary explaining the impact of voter suppression and identifying examples from U.S. history.
• Make-a-Map: Create a timeline identifying acts and amendments that protect voting rights. 
• Creative Coding: Code a museum exhibit with artifacts and figures to represent the history of voting in the U.S. 

More to Explore

Related BrainPOP Topics: Deepen understanding of voting rights with these topics: Women’s Suffrage, Civil Rights, Fannie Lou Hamer, and Voting.

Teacher Support Resources:

• Pause Point Overview: Video tutorial showing how Pause Points actively engage students to stop, think, and express ideas. 
• Learning Activities Modifications: Strategies to meet ELL and other instructional and student needs.
• Learning Activities Support: Resources for best practices using BrainPOP.