Visual: White screen with the Elections Canada logo in the bottom right corner. An animated blue line moves across the screen and turns into an X. The X turns sideways, splits and disappears from view. The title, Teaching Does Voting Matter? appears on a white background.
Visual: Live action begins with a medium shot of a woman standing behind a table speaking directly to the camera. On the table are several educational materials.
Rachel: Hi, my name is Rachel Collishaw, I’m a teacher and education specialist with Elections Canada. In this video I’ll be showing you how you can teach “Does Voting Matter?” Does Voting Matter? That’s the inquiry question that students explore in this lesson of the same name. They’ll consider the impact of voter turnout as they engage in a fun series of voting simulations. Then, they’ll hear from real Canadians who explain why voting matters to them.
Visual: The screen splits in two. Rachel is on the right side and remains there throughout the video. On the left side appears an image of the first page of the teacher’s guide, featuring the “Big idea.” This states that “in every election, whether voter turnout is high or low, one person is elected in each electoral district and ends up with the power to make decisions that affect all of us.”
Rachel: We start with a quick Minds On, the first part of the three-part lesson structure that’s embedded in all of our activities. These first five minutes help students connect their own experiences to the big idea of the lesson. In this minds on activity, students consider what issues they care about through a quick voting activity. As you ask each question, have students simply raise or lower their hands. This is really just meant to activate some thinking about federal responsibilities. In fact, you should make it clear that students should not share their opinion on these issues. You don’t want to get caught up in a class discussion here because you’ll need time for the activity portion of the lesson.
Visual: The left side of the screen changes to display the “minds on” section of the teacher’s guide. The animation zooms in to a bulleted list of questions under the header, “do you care if the government”. Some questions include: changes rules about immigration to Canada?; joins a military alliance that could lead to war?; and, changes prison terms for serious crimes?.
Rachel: Next, show the Dot-Voting Chart, Does voting matter to you? Invite students to respond anonymously on the scale of 1 to 5.
Visual: The left side of the screen changes to display a handout. It shows a scale, where 1 means voting does not matter to me, and 5 means voting does matter to me. Under each number on the scale are boxes.
Rachel: There are lots of different ways to do this, but make it clear that all responses are accepted. If they really feel that voting doesn’t matter to them, then they should vote that way. Ask what students notice about their poll results. Are there trends or patterns?
Visual: Two photographs are displayed, one after the other. Each photo features a hand-made version of the dot-voting chart, on chart paper. On the chart, students have placed stickers of different colours on the scale of 1 to 5.
Rachel: With the Minds On done, you can now move into the Activity phase of the lesson. This takes about 35 minutes.
Visual: The left side of the screen changes to display part 1 of the activity section of the teacher’s guide, titled Voting Simulation.
Rachel: Explain that students will elect a new class president today, and that there will be four rounds of voting. Choose four students to represent each of the four parties: Captain’s Party, Dinosaur Party, Wizard Party, and Zombie Party.
Visual: As Rachel mentions the party names, their colourful campaign posters appear on the left side of the screen. Each poster includes an illustration representing their respective parties: a pirate, dinosaur, wizard and zombie.
Rachel: Choose students who are comfortable reading out loud to the class. You can plan time to have them prepare reading their speech before if you like.
Visual: Two photographs are displayed of students in class, reading aloud at the front of the class. Each is holding one of the campaign posters.
Rachel: There are even language learner versions of the speeches on our website that you can download if you need them.
Visual: The left side of the screen changes to display a website. The screen scrolls to the bottom of the page, where a cursor selects a tab called “language learners.”
Rachel: When ready, have each candidate read aloud their speech, encourage them to really get dramatic! If you’ve got a smaller class, this activity still works but use only two or three of the candidates.
Once the speeches are done, have the candidates move to four corners of the classroom.
Explain that students will vote by moving to stand with that party. There will be three rounds of voting like this. In the first round, everyone can vote.
Visual: A section from the teacher’s guide is displayed, with instructions as explained by Rachel.
Rachel: Once all students have moved to their candidates, announce the winning party and have all of the students do the action of the winning party – the dinosaur roar, walk like a zombie, say “Abracadabra” or “Ahoy Matey!” Then, have students discuss, reflect and share. How did the outcome of the vote affect you?
Visual: The four campaign posters are shown on the left side of the screen.
Rachel: In the second round, the goal is to look at the impact of lower voter turn out. Randomly select up to 5 students to vote. If your class is smaller, select only 2 or 3 students. Once those students have moved to their candidates, announce the winning party and have all of the students do the winning action again. This can usually get pretty silly! Then, have students discuss, reflect and share their experiences in this round.
Visual: A section from the teacher’s guide is displayed, with instructions as explained by Rachel.
Rachel: For language learners, this could be a great time to work on vocabulary development. What are some words that describe those feelings? You could plan to pre-teach some “feeling” words before the lesson.
Visual: The left side of the screen changes to display the following two questions: For the voters, how did your vote affect the election? And for the non-voters, how did you feel about hot being able to participate in the vote?
Rachel: In the third round, we are looking at the effects of voter participation. Randomly select half the class to vote. Once those students have moved to their candidates, announce the winning party and have all of the students do the winning action again.
Visual: A section from the teacher’s guide is displayed, with instructions as explained by Rachel.
Rachel: After each voting round, the most important thing is that you have to make the students do the silly action of the winning party. This is the key to showing students the impact of voting. If they voted for the Wizard party, they probably won’t like doing the dinosaur roar! We do want them to get a little bit upset, especially if they weren’t able to vote in that round.
Just like in real life, the winning party makes decisions on your behalf, whether you voted or not.
You could ask students now if they think there is a better way to vote. Maybe a way that might reduce the peer pressure that they might have seen in the first three rounds. This is a good way to introduce the final round: a secret ballot.
Visual: A section from the teacher’s guide is displayed, with instructions as explained by Rachel.
Rachel: You can use the ballots that are pre-made for this activity, or make your own!
Visual: A handout of the ballots is displayed. On it, each party is listed beside an empty box where students can mark their vote. Then, a photograph of an adolescent girl filling out her ballot is shown.
Rachel: Announce the winning candidate and have everyone do the action of the winning party one last time.
Have one more discussion to wrap up all of the voting rounds.
Explain that this simulation helps us to understand how voting (or not voting) affects the outcome of an election. In real life, the decisions that elected officials make and the laws they pass could affect the lives of millions of people, whether they voted or not.
Visual: The following three questions are displayed on-screen: How was the outcome of the election the same as or different form the first vote? Did you vote differently knowing that your ballot was secret? Why or why not? Does voting matter? Explain.
Rachel: Next, you can show one or both of the Does Voting Matter? videos. These stories of Canadians explaining why voting matters to them really bring students back from the zany fun of the simulation to real-life impacts.
Visual: Two videos are displayed on the left side of the screen. The first is titled “Marie-Claire’s Story.” In it, a woman and her husband sit beside one another on a couch. She speaks to the camera, and shows family photos. The second video is titled “Marcie’s Story.” In it, a woman and her adolescent son sit together on a couch as she speaks to the camera.
Rachel: We have some questions that you can use next. I find these videos so moving, that it often feels more appropriate to have students write quietly and reflect individually, rather than enter into a class discussion right away.
Visual: The left side of the screen changes to display the following three discussion questions from the teacher’s guide: Did voting have an impact on their lives? How have their experiences influenced their attitudes to democracy and voting? How would they answer the question: “Does voting matter?”
Rachel: To consolidate the learning, students will now revisit the original poll and respond again.
Visual: Photographs of the dot-voting charts are shown once again.
Rachel: Like many of our resources, this one ends with an exit card. Invite students to reflect on the prompts and write their responses on the card. You should be able to see from their responses what they have learned about the impact of voting.
Visual: An exit card is displayed. It includes the following three statements, with space for students to write their answers underneath: One thing I learned is…; One question I have now is…; One action I will take as a result of this learning is….
Rachel: I love that we are also inviting them to ask questions and take actions – their participation in our elections and democracy can start anytime, whether they are old enough to vote or not.
We want to know if your students liked the activity. Share your experience and photos on our Twitter and Facebook accounts!
Visual: The screen fades to white and a clip art image of a student in a graduation cap is set against a blue circle. A speech bubble appears above the head of the student and a red heart appears in the speech bubble. The Facebook and Twitter logos appear on screen with the handle @democracyCA.