North Shore Community Action Program

History of Voting Video
This is a fast-paced, 3.5 minute video about the history of voting.

How to Watch a Presidential Debate
7 tips on how to watch the debates and what to listen for.

Mock Ballot for Massachusetts
A sample ballot that you can adapt for your state.

Mock Election Tally Sheet for Massachusetts
A simple way to keep track of the mock election results in your program. This sample is for Massachusetts but can be adapted for your state.

Pick Your Candidate
This multi-faceted lesson plan helps students to understand political campaign advertising and candidate's positions so they can make educated decisions at the polls.

Rock the Vote
An easy-to-use website that tells you how to register and where to vote.

RQI Voter Engagement
A series of activities, designed by The Right Question Institute, about how to ask the right questions to become an informed voter and community member.  Once you register on the website, you can access many more materials.

VERA Activities Schedule
A September-Election Day schedule, developed by our colleagues in NH, that programs can use to plan their VERA activities. The Power Wall activity mentioned on the schedule can be found here.

Where the parties stand
A chart that summarizes where the parties stand on key issues that affect adult students. Updated from the 2008 version.

You can find lots of teaching and learning resources to help you plan your VERA classroom activities on these sites:

The Change Agent's Democracy In Action issue is full of relevant and engaging articles and activities for the ABE/ESOL classroom. For example:

• Do You Vote? Writings by adult learners, pp. 8-9
• Let’s Get Out the Adult Education Vote! Strategies for teachers and programs, pp. 28-29
• History of Voting. An engaging and informative  classroom activity, pp. 30-32
• Is Voting a Right for Every Citizen?  A discussion of voting rights in the contemporary context, pp.  34-36
• Voting: My Obligation to Past, Present, and Future. A Native American adult learner’s view on voting, p. 37
• What Difference Does It make?  Rationale for voting, p. 51
• Politicalese: Spotting Election Campaign Tactics. Includes a matching activity, pp. 52-53
• Using the Media to Analyze Political News, p. 55
• How Do We Elect the President. Civics 101 lesson,  pp. 58-60
• Referendums: A Form of Direct Democracy. Another Civics 101 lesson, p. 63-64
• What is a Caucus? Another Civics 101 lesson, p. 65
• A Simulated Town Meeting: An Experience in Democracy. Instructions for a role play, pp. 72-73
• Howard Zinn on Democracy Requires Action, Organization, and Risk, p. 66
  
  

Civic Participation and Citizenship Collection
Annotated web sites and original materials.

Electing a U.S. President in Plain English


Election Protection Hotline
The Election Protection Hotline is run by a nonpartisan Election Protection coalition made up of more than 100 local, state and national partners. Its goal is to ensure that all voters have an equal opportunity to participate in the political process. They run two hotlines: 1-866-OUR-VOTE administered by the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and 1-888-Ve-Y-Vota administered by the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Education Fund.

Fact Check
FactCheck.org is a nonpartisan, nonprofit "consumer advocate" for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics. They monitor the factual accuracy of what is said by major U.S. political players in the form of TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews and news releases. Our goal is to apply the best practices of both journalism and scholarship, and to increase public knowledge and understanding. FactCheck.org is a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania.

Preparing for the Oath: U.S. History and Civics for Citizenship
This is an interactive and visually rich and engaging, new website that is an easy-to-use study guide to help immigrants prepare for the history and civics portion of the U.S. naturalization test.  It has 15 units on topics like voting, government basics.  It can also be used to teach the same content to US-born citizens.  Developed by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History, Preparing for the Oath: U.S. History and Civics for Citizenship is designed to help users better understand the naturalization process, and gain the necessary skills to be successful during the naturalization interview and test.

PolitiFact
PolitiFact is a project of the Tampa Bay Times to help you find the truth in American politics. Reporters and editors from the Times fact-check statements by members of Congress, the White House, lobbyists and interest groups.

To learn more about the NELRC, our workshops, or about submitting links and materials for this site, please contact Ben Bruno.