Media + election = new lesson

klbeasley — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 00:20:48 +0000

Monica (Grade 3) comes into my lesson after lunch and says, “Mrs Beasley, can I share with you something I’m really proud of?”

“Of course, I’d love to hear it,” I reply.

“Barack Obama won the US election and he is the first black president of the United States!”

Well, when you have passion like that, you can’t just ignore it! I popped the MSNBC website I’d been following up on the IWB and we checked out the results. When we looked, it was Obama 333 and McCain 156 (if memory serves me correctly). It updated while we were looking at it, and that was even more exciting for the class.

Politics – Political News & Updates- msnbc.com via kwout

Not having any firsthand experience with a US election (what with being a Kiwi and all), I nabbed our teacher librarian Katie for an expert opinion.

She directed me to the common craft video below, so we played that to get a general understanding. It linked well to the MSNBC site, as it made sense of the ‘value’ of each state, and the numbers that each candidate had to their name.

Midway, our (British) Vice-Principal walked in and shared his thoughts on the election. He emphasised the historical nature of Obama’s victory and the significance of him being the first black president of the USA.

What I loved about this day was the ability to go with the children’s interests, draw upon the expertise of other colleagues and find something to help illustrate the event at a moment’s notice. It certainly wasn’t what I had planned for the class that day, but hopefully by going with the teachable moment, the students will look back on this historical day and remember where they were and what they were doing at the time Obama became president.

Tip of the Iceberg » election

Media + election = new lesson