Whitesville Elementary School 5th-graders got to learn about the election process with an interactive experience that was also designed to build knowledge around the roles and responsibilities of good citizenship as it relates to being an informed voter.
A dozen books were chosen as “candidates” for the project. The 5th-graders learned about the process of campaigning for a primary as they considered their target audience: 4th-graders. After the 4th-graders votes were tallied, the 5th-graders campaigned for the general election.
WES instructional coach Jessica Doughty said through their hybrid schedule, students worked toward a common goal of understanding what influences people to vote for one particular candidate over another through campaigning.
“In a time when kids are so engrossed in technology and families may be concerned with the amount of screen time their child is spending, either at home or in class, this book election allowed the space for our students to engage in conversations outside of that realm, focused on good old fashioned reading,” Dougherty said. “Not books selected by their teachers, but books personally chosen by them due to their levels of interest, entertainment values, or simply because they felt drawn to the topics in a meaningful way.”
All 4th-graders were invited to the gym, where they sat socially distanced to hear from both 5th-grade classrooms on reasons why they should vote for their chosen book candidate.
The 4th-graders were asked to check in at designated tables with their student IDs to mimic similar practices at the poll for voter requirements in the national election. They also received “I Voted” stickers and used ballots to vote.
The winning book was “Dog Man: Grime and Punishment.” All 4th- and 5th-graders received a copy of the winning book to take home, making their vote and the results even more important for both grades.
“Allowing our students the freedoms and opportunity to debate, as well as discuss the merits of these texts, is something I found myself humbly thankful for,” Dougherty said. “What better way to instill a love for reading, than to hear about it directly from your trusted peers? I can only hope this experience will encourage them to consider their voice an instrument, their right to vote invaluable, and the pursuit of becoming a life-long reader a worthy task to continue.”
