Big Apple Social Studies: Political Party Project

Political Party Project

I use this project with my Participation in Government classes to engage the students in the development and role political parties play in the United States government system. Particularly of interest now since the State of the Union Address just occurred and the 2018 midterm elections are quickly approaching. This project calls for students to come together in groups of four or five and develop their own political party. Each group is charged with developing a political party name, slogan, logo, press release, party platform and stump speech. One member of the group will also act as the party's presidential candidate. This person will participate in a class debate positioning each of the party candidates against one another to discuss their party's position on key policy issues. After the debate has concluded, each candidate is given time to read their stump speech and ask for their classmates vote. The class is then provided with a link to a google form to vote for the candidate they most resonated with.

My students love this project. Their engagement is through the roof with this project and the students really get into the role of designing their own political platforms based off of their beliefs. Many of the students have shared with me that this project helped them to better understand political parties and the process of campaigning in the United States political system. The logos, ideas and speeches these groups have shared are so creative. It really is great to see a project captivate a class in such a way where the students are able to easily apply it to their own personal lives. Below are some pictures of previous logos created by some of my students and also a preview of the project itself. If you want a copy of the materials, it is available in my store on Teacher Pay Teacher (TpT) by clicking on this link (https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Making-Social-Studies-Great-Again).