Activities to Engage Students in the "Authentic" Work as U.S. Senators About Voting Rights Issues

Abstract

In this article, we utilize resources mainly provided by the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate along with other primary and secondary sources to discuss a unit plan for students to research voting rights issues in modern American society. First, a brief historical overview of voting rights issues in the United States is given. Next, our focus shifts to give a short literature review on the importance of teaching public issues as well as the significance of class discussions with topics some may deem controversial. Finally, the steps and resources of our unit plan are discussed. The unit plan is framed for the middle school social studies classroom and draws on relevant indicators from the C3 Framework by the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS).

Keywords:

• Voting rights issues
• teaching public issues
• Congress
• teaching controversial issues
• C3 Framework