03.+Issues

//Objective//
 * [|What are the important issues?]**

Students determine the most important issue of the current campaign. Students follow a multi-step voting process to determine the most important issue(s) of the current campaign. They document the final vote on five important issues by graphing the results. **[|Google Trends]** (Recommended for: Middle Schoolers and up) Keep track of interest in the candidates and the issues by learning which search terms are most popular on Google.com.

**gas prices** **iraq**  **health care e** **Learning activities** Did you find this tool helpful? [|Let us know]. **[|Google Elections News]** Access current and archived content from over 4,500 news sources to give students multiple perspectives on the candidates and the issues. **Learning activities** Did you find this tool helpful? [|Let us know]. **[|Power Readers]** (Recommended for: Middle Schoolers and up) Check out articles that political journalists and the candidates are reading.
 * Search to see what the candidates are saying about the issues, and examine the differences in how they speak about them.
 * Check out how frequently the candidates talk about specific issues, and discuss what this means about what the candidates and voters care about most.
 * Get up-to-date information on where the races stand.
 * Read the most commonly cited quotes from the candidates by searching for their names.
 * Examine which issues the press pays the most attention to, and compare to [|polls] about what voters feel are the most important issues in the election.

**Learning activities** Did you find this tool helpful? [|Let us know]. **[|Letters to the Next President]** (Recommended for: Students ages 13-18) //Letters to the Next President: Writing Our Future// is an online writing and publishing project that invites students ages 13-18 to write about the issues and concerns they want the next president to address. Did you find this tool helpful? [|Let us know]. **[|Google MyMaps]** (Recommended for: Students ages 13 and up) MyMaps lets you and your students draw and add placemarks, photos and more to Google Maps, and share the results with others.
 * Create a video that expresses your views on the issues and candidates.
 * Collaborate with others to create, record, and upload a political discussion, or use the video medium to examine the competing words and ideas in this election.
 * Learning activities**
 * Working alone or in a group, build a presentation on an election issue or candidate.
 * Create a presentation that explains the differences between candidates' positions on the issues.

** [|Activity: Learn about the candidates' position by analyzing their campaign ads.] **
//Objectives//

Students will...
 * learn about the role advertising plays in presidential campaigns.
 * analyze one candidate's campaign ads (provided in text format) for such elements as major issues and themes, postivitity or negativity, fact and opinion, and the power of the ad to sell voters on their candidacy.

** Students analyze vote counts from each state to determine which candidate got the most popular votes in each state. They create maps with a color key to show the popular vote results. Older students use the maps and a chart to determine how many electoral votes each candidate received.
 * [|Election Scavenger Hunt]

**Resources for Teens About Issues in the News**
These websites provide pertinent information about current issues, news, and culture, written with a teen audience in mind. These nonpartisan sites also provide aggregations of news and editorials from various content partners.

http://www.c-span.org/questions/week175.asp
 * //C-SPAN: Where does the term "lobbying" originate?//**

[|FactCheckED] [[image:http://www.nwp.org/img/icons_a/dkgrey_white_10px.png]]
FactCheckED aims to equip students with reliable sources and the skills they need to obtain trustworthy information on the Internet. Students will find links to credible informational sites under "Straight from the Source," "Lesson Plans" and "Tools of the Trade" to help guide their analysis of current events. The site provides a "Dictionary" to help decode political jargon.

[|NewsHour Extra] [[image:http://www.nwp.org/img/icons_a/dkgrey_white_10px.png]]
A comprehensive news source that provides national and international stories for young people. The site features videos as well as traditional text and graphics, and includes a section titled Student Voices—essays and editorials written by students.

[|OpinionSource] [[image:http://www.nwp.org/img/icons_a/dkgrey_white_10px.png]]
The "Today's Newsletters" feature at OpinionSource allows students to explore diverse—and international—perspectives on the latest political news. The site provides summaries and links to some of the day's top editorials from renowned news sources in the US, the UK, China, the Middle East, and India.

[|Pop+Politics] [[image:http://www.nwp.org/img/icons_a/dkgrey_white_10px.png]]
A nonprofit blog that provides a forum for discussion and debate among young people on current politics and culture. Based at the USC Annenberg School for Communication, Pop+Politics is one of 150 blogs officially credentialed to cover the upcoming Democratic National Convention.

[|Think] [[image:http://www.nwp.org/img/icons_a/dkgrey_white_10px.png]]
MTV's Street Team '08, comprising of select young journalists from around the nation, reports on local issues that are important to youth and the election. Students can navigate the site's peer-produced video clips, commentaries, and forums by topic.

[|WireTap] [[image:http://www.nwp.org/img/icons_a/dkgrey_white_10px.png]]
The Webby-winning national news and culture magazine whose targeted audience is young people. In addition to providing daily content to over 60,000 monthly visitors, WireTap's articles and youth commentary are syndicated weekly by its partners at The Nation, Rock the Vote, the Chicago Sun-Times, and various college newspapers.