Title: TEACHING NOTES: Section 1
Course: US Election 2016-Leuphana Copy > Section: 1. The Electoral System

[fa-info-circle] This is only visible to teachers. Take a look at this introduction when preparing this part of the project for your students.

As a thematic introduction to the topic of U.S. Presidential elections, this section gives an introduction to the U.S. electoral system. This includes major terminology and procedures of the election process. This is a necessary prerequisite for your students to understand why it makes sense to focus on individual U.S. states and their role for the outcome of the election later in the project. However, it is also easy to get lost in the technicalities of the electoral system, which is why we propose a systematic approach here.

[fa-list-ul]   The section includes two task cycles:

- ★ TASK: Electing the U.S. President
- TASK: The Electoral System – Step by Step

★ TASK: Electing the U.S. President

The ★ TASK: Electing the U.S. President introduces the electoral system with two videos explaining the major procedures in a condensed way. As a systematic form of scaffolding, a viewing guide is provided for each video. They can be filled out while viewing the videos and serve as a guide for the subsequent classroom discussion. Task outcomes can be documented by posting them in the Project Journal and by defining the core terminology in the glossary Election Lingo.

[fa-gears]   Tech tips

- Individual web-access is not required here; show the videos in plenary mode and make enough copies of the viewing guides.
- Have students summarize the main contents for the Project Journal and glossary Election Lingo either during the lesson or as a homework assignment.

TASK: The Electoral System – Step by Step

As an extension, the TASK: The Electoral System – Step by Step asks students to analyze the individual phases of the electoral cycle with additional resources in group work mode. Students are supposed to form expert groups on the topics (1) primary elections, (2) political party conventions, (3) Election Day, (4) after the election. Based on their research, the expert groups present what happens during their phase, who is affected, and what the consequences are. They can present their results in a jigsaw puzzle or a brief poster presentation, or online in a forum discussion (in the Course Forum). Again, results can be documented in the project journal as a summary and in the glossary Election Lingo.

[fa-gears]   Tech tips

- If done online (computer lab or students' devices), this task invites students to conduct additional research online and document their findings on Moodle.
- Alternatively, make copies of the resources (all are available as PDF) and distribute them in class.

QUIZ: The Electoral System

As a conclusion of this first chapter, have students create a quiz on the electoral system in which they can re-use their findings from both tasks above, e.g. from their expert groups. You can collect quiz questions in class and read them out or make copies for each student. Alternatively, you can set up an online quiz in the activity QUIZ: The Electoral System. In this case, students can upload their questions and take the quiz individually while logged in. This quiz is easy to set up. Here's a brief tutorial:

- SWAY: Quiz editing tutorial

For political science classes, have students compare the electoral system of the U.S. and Germany.

[fa-gears]   Tech tips

- Setting up the online quiz is easy and only requires a few preparatory steps: Complete these preparations for creating a Moodle quiz (click here).
- Further instructions on how your students can insert questions and answers can be found in the QUIZ: The Electoral System.