Learner Description:

Fourth and fifth grade Special Education students from the Learning Disabilities and Behavior Disorders Self-Contained classes worked together to plan and execute a mock presidential election for Sullivan School.

Overview:

What will be taught?

The students will learn about all kinds of elections and voting and reasons for having an election. They will learn about the two major presidential candidates and the views of each. The students will learn about the election process, from the beginning to the end.

How will it be taught?

This will be taught through many different strategies:

• direct instruction
• cooperative grouping
• problem-solving
• technology

Rationale: Purpose of the unit as a whole

This is a Presidential election year. There is a need for the students to learn the significance of and the process of an election. It is also important for the students to begin to understand the political process.

This project qualifies as an engaged learning project because the students will be simulating an actual election. They will be actively involved in registering the voters, making the ballots and voting booths, running the election, and collating and reporting the results.

We will be using technology to look up information on the candi-dates, take digital pictures, make hyperstudio presentations, and making graphs to explain the election process and report the results.

This project will be meaningful because they can relate it to cur-rent events and the voting process. It will be especially meaningful for our students because it will enable them to take a leadership role in the school. The project will be challenging because the students will be learning how to use many new technology tools. It also offers them the unique opportunity to take ownership of their learning. In addition, it will give the students a sense of pride that they have orchestrated a school wide learning experience.

Why is technology an important part of this unit?

Technology will be a very important part of this unit.

Students will:

use word processing for the purpose of communicating with other classes in the school

make a Hyperstudio presentation

learn how to use the digital camera and scanner

learn how to make presentations for others

Goals-Content, Cognitive and Social:

The goal was to effectively put together a unit where the students would plan, set up, and run a school wide election. We expect the students to learn how to participate in group work, and gain an understanding of how an election works.

New knowledge the students will gain:

how to use technology and apply it to enhance presentations

writing, listening and communication skills

group interaction

organization skills

public speaking skills

Learning Activities:

The students met together and talked about what they knew about elections. They talked about different things they had to do in order to run a mock school-wide election. The students had to come up with different ideas on how to make the entire school aware of what they were doing, and how they had to do it. The classes were meshed as one, and groups were formed for various jobs depending on what they each wanted to do.

Student Assessment:

We spent one meeting session making a rubric to use for grading. The teacher and student will each fill one out, then have a conference. Group make-up often changed due to mainstreaming schedules, so it was difficult to have groups score each other.

Resources:

Internet, pictures, books, newspapers, TV, other students and teachers, spelling aces, parents, computers, e-mail, digital cameras and regular cameras.

Unit Evaluation:

What was effective: What worked?

The students already knew each other because we switch students for some academic classes. They became more comfortable with each other and the teachers, since it was a more casual atmos-phere. The writing that did need to be done in order to communicate with the other classes was not too difficult for their academic levels

What wasn't effective?

Scheduling was very difficult since both classes have students going to mainstreaming at all different times. This made it impossible for us to keep the original groups/jobs. However, they did learn to be flexible because the students just joined a group that needed help when they walked in the room. If they had to leave for a class, some-

one else took over their spot. We had to be careful at times (depend-ing on who was in the room at any given time) not to put certain stud-ents who have trouble working together into the same groups.