Voting and Analyzing Political Platforms

I’ve taught several courses in high school and college over the years that focused primarily on argument. I’ve used historical documents and presidential speeches at various times. January always provided an opportunity to examine an inaugural address or a state of the union speech. During the last decade, however, election content has exploded to a near constant experience. Social media and 24/7/365 news content has made elections a constant topic, so analyzing political messages as part of media literacy has become another means of analyzing argument. In an ideal situation, this can be coordinated with history, government, or civics classes too.

I incorporate basic voting information and comparison of political messages in classes focused on reading, writing, and analyzing argument during semesters that have a key election (e.g., primaries, mid-terms, gubernatorial, and/or presidential). This is not done to endorse a particular candidate or party. I don’t share how I vote with students. I do this for a few reasons:

• Providing basic information about voter registration and finding ballot information is a civic service. It is not partisan to provide information to my state’s voter registration or commonly known resources to find ballot and candidate information.
• Critical thinking should be applied to topics that affect our daily lives and current topics of interest. If we ignore opportunities to teach ways of evaluating information critically and discussing respectfully, we fail to prepare students to enter society and participate in our constitutional republic form of democracy.
• Information floods us at every turn. Developing critical thinking skills applied to media literacy is a vital skill for the 21st century.

I provide basic voter registration information for my state and timelines. I also provide links to the two major party platforms–this year at the state and national levels–and links to see their ballot and comparison of candidates and propositions.

• This year’s 2-page Canva graphic: https://www.canva.com/design/DAGRpIPVe6c/FkSXaRlakVieSUl3U3Q6sA/view
• I can support instruction for comparison and argument with these lessons that compare the preambles and key values of the state party platforms.
  • Critical Thinking and Voting 2024 – This version has all the resources and links I may use for the lesson.
  • Comparison of Platforms 2024 – This is the version I’ve used most recently in ENGL 1301. This semester I asked my students to vote on a theme for the course to engage their interests and fields of study; this section selected health, science, and nature. Based on previous class discussion, I excerpted sections from each platform regarding health.

“I have in mind the Founding Fathers’ idea of an informed citizenry. This is the basic principle that underlies our national system of education in the first place – that people in a democracy can be entrusted to decide all important matters for themselves because they can deliberate and communicate with one another.” – E.D. Hirsch, Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know

See the lesson resources on the Lesson page found here.