Lesson Plans
The Importance of Voting
Students consider the importance of voting as they analyze primary sources and the poem “One Vote” by Aimee Nezhukumatathil. They then learn more about the connection between poetry and the woman suffrage movement. After, students may investigate a contemporary politician or activist advocating for voting rights and present their findings to the class.
National Anti-Suffrage Association
Students analyze primary sources to investigate creator purpose and arguments against woman suffrage. After, students explore a current suffrage issue, such as felon voting rights or lowering the voting age to 16, and create an image to convince viewers to support or oppose the issue they investigated.
Suffrage Strategies: Voices for Votes
Students examine a variety of primary source documents related to the women's suffrage movement to identify different methods people used to influence and change attitudes and beliefs about suffrage for women. Students then create original documents encouraging citizens to vote in current elections.
The Constitutional Amendment
Students analyze a primary source, focusing on author purpose and audience, to deepen their understanding of enfranchisement and the debate leading up to the passage of the 14th amendment to the U.S. Constitution. After, students investigate the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact and use what they've learned to create a poster that supports or opposes the compact.
Who Gets the Vote?
Students review the amendment clause of the U.S. Constitution, then analyze primary sources to deepen understanding of how constitutional voting (suffrage) amendments expanded the electorate and the rights of Americans. After, they'll research a current voting rights issue and write a letter to their U.S. congressman about their informed view of the issue.
Predicting & Inferring About Woman Suffrage
Link non-fiction literature with primary sources to build background knowledge of what it was like to be a suffragist and discover how women persistently fought for over 100 years until they were granted the right to vote. After, ask students to share a time when they showed persistence.
Around America to Win the Vote
Pair the picture book, Around America to Win the Vote, with primary sources to have students practice research skills, evaluate sources, and deepen understanding of voting rights, in general, and woman suffrage, in particular. After, students can consider the pros/cons of lowering the voting age to 16.
Science & the Suffragettes
Students evaluate historical claims and the evidence to support them and consider their applicability to today.
Voting: Rights and Responsibilities
In this three-part lesson students use primary sources to explore voting rights in the United States. In Part I, students analyze two sets of documents to gain a deeper understanding of how suffrage has been both expanded and suppressed, developing claims about how voting rights impact equality. In Part II, students further analyze one of the documents from Day One before taking on the role of a congressional committee charged with amending (or not) the Voting Rights Act to require compulsory voting. In Part III, students write their answer to the Essential Question, informed by class discussion and primary source analysis.
The Impact of Voting
Students analyze primary sources to review their own understandings of voting rights in the United States, learn how voting rights have changed over time, and gain a better understanding of how the right to vote has impacted equality. After, students use their learning to create a teen voting information campaign.