Slide deck for teachers - Geography of elections | Elections Canada's Civic Education

Slide	Title	Text
1		Geography of Elections
2	Inquiry Questions	What is my federal electoral community? How does it compare to others?
3	Minds On	Turn and Talk What communities are you a part of? [Teacher's note: If students are stuck, prompt them to think about their school community, neighbourhood, city, cultural group(s), faith community, online communities, sports teams, etc.]
4	Minds On	Did you know that you are part of a community that elects a representative to Parliament? It’s called: an Electoral District, or a Riding, or a Constituency. [Teacher's note: You may want to ask if students know who their federal representative to Parliament is, to help them make the connection.]
5	Activity	We will be examining maps to help us understand: What is my electoral community? How does it compare to others?
6	Activity	Map Literacy What is the purpose of this map? Who published it? What does this map show? What does this map not show? Does anything surprise you? [Teacher's note: Divide your class into groups, and have them switch maps after a few minutes so that they can look at both large maps. You may wish to give each group a few sticky notes to label the map features.]
7	Activity	Map Literacy Where is our electoral district? What do you notice about our electoral district? [Teacher's note: Invite students to place a sticky note or pin on the large map(s) indicating your school’s electoral district.]
8	Activity	Examining our Electoral District In your small group, read aloud your fact sheet. Which facts are surprising or unique? Which facts do you have questions about? How do you think our electoral district will compare to others?
9	Activity	Finding Other Electoral Districts Find your new electoral district on the large maps. Show us where it is! [Teacher's note: Distribute a new fact sheet from a different electoral district to each group. We recommend that each group examine a different fact sheet to allow for a richer discussion in the consolidation phase. You can invite students to show where the new district is with a sticky note or a pin.]
10	Activity	Examining Another Electoral District In your small group, read aloud your new fact sheet. Which facts are surprising or unique? Which facts do you have questions about? How does it compare to our electoral district?
11	Activity	Comparing Electoral Districts Complete the comparison chart with your group. Place similar features in the middle section Place different features in the outer sections [Teacher's note: Distribute one handout to each small group. You may need to clarify that things should be similar, but don’t need to be exactly the same, to go in the centre of the diagram. Also, students do not need to put all the information on the diagram, but can select three to five facts that show the uniqueness of each district.]
12	Consolidation	Comparing Electoral Districts Share with the class: One or two interesting or surprising similarities and differences.
13	Consolidation	Class Discussion Do you know: How many people these districts each send to Parliament? How many districts do you think there are? Of the two districts you compared, which one is the easiest to represent? Why?
14	Consolidation	Reflection What new information did you learn to answer the inquiry question: "What is my electoral community?" How does your electoral community compare to others? One thing I learned is… One question I have now is… [Teacher's note: You can use the provided exit card handout which has these questions printed on it.]