Podcast Civics Lessons for the 2020 Elections

Podcast Civics Lessons for the 2020 Election

The November 2020 election may be one of the most consequential in U.S.history. The election offers an excellent opportunity to integrate civics lessons into the curriculum and develop students’ understanding of how our democracy operates. The issues of the day are especially significant, including complications associated with holding elections during a pandemic.

The Listenwise library contains many relevant audio stories, including recent current events, as well as historical perspectives on the electoral process in the United States.

Explore the civics lessons themes below, as well as our earlier blog post on promoting civic engagement with your students and additional resources from other educational organizations.

Facilitating online discussions about these stories is a good way to engage students in remote or hybrid settings. We will continue to add current events about the elections in the weeks ahead. Explore the Listenwise podcast collection by topic:

Civic Education Professional Development

Civics Lessons: 2020 Election

• Increasing Young Voter Turnout
• Focusing Youth Activism on Elections
• Concerns about the 2020 Election
• Getting Ready for Voting During a Pandemic
• Kamala Harris Makes History as VP Nominee
• NBA Teams Offer Polling Places
• Debate: Should Voting Procedures Change During a Pandemic?

Civics Lessons: Voting 

• The Power of the Voting Rights Act
• The History of Voting Rights
• Why Many Americans Don’t Vote
• Voting Laws Cause Confusion About Who Can Vote
• A Pioneer for Women Voting
• 19th Amendment Protects Women’s Right to Vote
• Debate: Should the Voting Age be Lowered?
• Debate: Is Smartphone Voting a Good Idea?
• Debate: Should Former Felons Be Allowed to Vote?
• Debate: Are Caucuses or Primaries More Democratic?

Civics Lessons: Disinformation 

• Campaign to Fight Election Disinformation
• Debate: Should Political Ads be Allowed on Social Media?
• Russian Propaganda and the U.S. Elections
• Mueller Report Findings
• Hearing from a Fake News Creator

Civics Lessons: The U.S. Political System

• The History of Our Two Party System
• Understanding the Electoral College
• Gerrymandering and the Constitution
• Ensuring Election Security
• Debate: Should political spending be limited?
• The History of the U.S. Postal Service
• Barriers to a Female President

Other Resources

• Elections and Democracy from ShareMyLesson – Lessons curated from a variety of sources 
• My School Votes from When We All Vote – Resources for engaging K-12 students in getting out the vote
• Election Headquarters from iCivics – Civics lessons and interactive learning games
• Teach and Learn with the 2020 Election from the New York Times Learning Network – Lessons based on news stories
• Seven Engaging Civics Lesson Plans from PBS NewsHour Extra – Video-based lessons that are relevant to the elections
• Interactive Electoral Decoder from PBS LearningMedia – An interactive “cartogram” that enables exploration of electoral history and simulation of electoral results
• Election 2020 Collection from Newsela – News stories at different Lexile reading levels that pair well with Listenwise audio stories (requires login but collection is free) 
• Voting Rights in the United States from Facing History and Ourselves – Teaching ideas related to the history of voting rights

Republished with permission from Listenwise.