The Electoral College
Author: Rebecca Moe
Date: November 2012
Grade level: 8
Topic: The Electoral College
Time required: 3 (to 4) 40-minute periods
Objectives and Goals:
Students will:
- examine the Founding Fathers' reasons for establishing and arguments for keeping the Electoral
College using several primary source documents
- determine whether or not the Electoral College system is still a valid system for electing our president
today and write an argumentative essay to support their opinion, using the documents studied
Common Core Standards:
Reading:
- Reading Informational Text 8.2—Write an objective summary of text
- Reading Informational Text 8.6—Determine an author's point of view and analyze how the author
acknowledges and responds to conflicting evidence/viewpoints
- Reading Informational Text 8.8—Trace/Evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing
reasoning and relevance of evidence to support claims; recognize irrelevant evidence
- Reading Informational Text 8.9—Analyze two or more texts that provide conflicting information on the
same topic and identify where the texts disagree on matters of fact or interpretation
Writing:
- Writing for Type and Purpose 8.1—Argumentative: Write arguments to support claims with clear
reasons and relevant evidence
8.1a: Introduce claims, acknowledge opposing/alternate claims, organize evidence/reasons
logically
8.1b: Support claims with logical reasoning and relevant evidence, using accurate and credible
sources
8.1c: Use words, phrases, clauses to create cohesion among claims/reasons/evidence
8.1d: Establish and maintain a formal style
8.1e: Provide a concluding statement or section that follows form and supports the information
Anticipatory Set:
For homework the night before the lesson, students will look up and define the terms on the lesson
vocabulary sheet. Before beginning the lesson, definitions will be checked to confirm that students both
have correct definitions and understand their meanings. As a class, watch the 4-minute video "Electoral
College and the National Archives" found at http://youtu.be/hC6FYpxTYR4 .
LESSON ONE:
Direct Instruction:
Investigate why the Founding Fathers created an Electoral College by:
-Reading July 17th portion of Notes of Debates in the Federal Constitution of 1787 by James
Madison that pertains to election of a National Executive (second half, after vote to confirm
Executive would be a single person) together as a class, outlining their basic argument and
reasons for not allowing the executive to be nominated by popular vote
-Reading both Madison's (Federalist Papers #10) and Hamilton's (Federalist Papers #68)
arguments in favor of the electoral system to determine their basic argument
-Reading and discussing changes to system as outlined in Amendments XII and XIV
Guided Practice:
Read relevant passages in the Constitution (Article II, Section I) and its amendments (XII and XIV) to
determine how the system was set up, prepare a short written explanation of both section and
amendments
Closure:
Come back together as a class to discuss what we learned.
Independent Practice:
Prepare a basic outline for a paragraph explaining why our Founding Fathers decided on the Electoral
College system based on the day's lesson.
LESSON TWO:
Anticipatory Set:
Review previous day's material, allowing students to use their outlines for discussion. Upon further
reflection, do students believe that the system that they devised is a good one? Why or why not? (Brief
discussion of their ideas.)
Direct Instruction:
Examine the question of whether or not the Electoral College system should still be used today by:
- reading and comparing two different points of view found in the articles "Don't Get Rid of the
Electoral College" and "It's Time to Abolish the Electoral College"
- discuss each author's point of view and how they respond to conflicting evidence/viewpoints
- evaluate each author's evidence for their arguments; how well supported are their ideas?
Guided Practice:
- write a short summary of each article's arguments
- create comparison chart showing where two author's opinions differ; determine whether
differences are a matter of fact or opinion
Closure:
As a class, discuss their findings. Which argument do they feel was better supported, and why?
Independent Practice:
For homework, create an outline for an essay that answers the question Should we still use the Electoral
College system to elect our presidents today?
Required Materials and Equipment:
- lesson vocabulary sheet (attached)
- online video "Electoral College and the National Archives" http://youtu.be/hC6FYpxTYR4
- transcript of Notes of Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787 by James Madison for July 17
http://teachingamericanhistory.org/convention/debates/0717.html#32r
- transcripts of Federalist Papers #10 and #68 http://thomas.loc.gov/home/histdox/fedpapers.html
- portions of the U.S. Constitution that deal with election of the President and Vice-President (Article II,
section 1; Amendments XII and XIV) http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution.html
- article "Don't Get Rid of the Electoral College" by Rachel Alexander
http://www.rightwingnews.com/liberals/don%E2%80%99t-get-rid-of-the-electoral-college/
- article "It's Time to Abolish the Electoral College" by Taylor Brodarick
http://www.forbes.com/sites/taylorbrodarick/2012/11/04/its-time-to-abolish-the-electoral-college/
Assessment and Follow-Up:
After reviewing their outlines and discussing them with students individually, have students write their
final paragraph on the Founding Fathers' purpose in creating the system as well as the essay giving their
opinion of its relevance today. Each writing assignment is to be assessed separately for a grade. Grading
criteria is based on interpretation of the texts and student's ability to write a paragraph and essay that
fulfills their given purpose and is appropriate for its type (summary of text, argumentative essay).
Writing should also show evidence of class discussion as well as teacher input from writer's conferences.
Name: ____________________________________________________ Class: _______________
SHOULD WE KEEP THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE SYSTEM? LESSON VOCABULARY
Define the following, using language that you personally understand:
gerrymandering: _______________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
lobbyist: _____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
conservative: __________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
liberal: _______________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
tyranny: ______________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
aggregate: ____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
faction: ______________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
suffrage: _____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________