Resources for Teaching About the Presidential Election
Date: August 2008
Summary: These resources have been selected to help you and your students learn about the 2008 presidential election and the issues at stake.
Join the National Student/Parent Mock Election
After students study the issues and write their letters, have them cast their vote in the National Student/Parent Mock Election 
. The Mock Election is the nation's largest and most successful voter education program. Participants include kindergartners and elementary, secondary, and college students in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., and in American schools all around the world. Plans are underway for the 2008 Mock Election, scheduled for October 30, 2008. Read more ›
Get Involved in Writing Our Future
Find out more about how to get involved in future Writing Our Future projects.
The following websites will help teachers and students to become better informed about the 2008 presidential election, the candidates, and the voting processes.
Google Election Tools for Educators
Google has collected a number of its election tools in one place for educators. Here you will find a variety of electoral maps and candidate journey maps, as well as news aggregators and a link to Letters to the Next President.
The League of Women Voters
A nonpartisan political organization that provides information about campaign issues, voter registration support, and a citizen's guide to the electoral process. Its mission is to encourage informed and active participation in government and to increase understanding of major public policy issues.
OneVote 2008
Provides a teen-oriented guide to the election that includes profiles of the candidates, reports on campaign issues, and interactive features that allow students to express their opinions. OneVote 2008 is produced by ChannelOne.com , an award-winning youth news site.
VoteGopher
Founded by a nonpartisan team of college students, VoteGopher aims to empower and inform young voters by presenting material about 25 pertinent election issues. For each of the issues, students can view the candidates' main arguments, watch video summaries, read posted blogs, participate in forums, and cast their own ballot.
Rock the Vote
Aims to motivate young voters and teens through its content and visual style. Rock the Vote uses music and popular culture to engage young people to register to vote and also provides tools to learn about issues that affect their lives.
Extreme Election 2008
USA Today provides aggregations of its daily coverage of the presidential election campaign as well as interactive tools that allow students to build election scenarios and study past election outcomes.
Googlitics
Contains links and lessons to help students participate and learn about American political elections with online tools from Google. Featured on the site is a link to a Google elections video search that allows you and your students to easily find YouTube political videos.
The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement
CIRCLE conducts research on the civic involvement of Americans ages 15 to 21. The site provides a context for the political youth activism that Letters to the Next President student-authors are engaging in—students can find data about youth voting and demographics and gain insight into how young Americans are affecting today's politics.
Resources for Teens About Issues in the News
These websites provide pertinent information about current issues, news, and culture, written with a teen audience in mind. These nonpartisan sites also provide aggregations of news and editorials from various content partners.
FactCheckED
FactCheckED aims to equip students with reliable sources and the skills they need to obtain trustworthy information on the Internet. Students will find links to credible informational sites under "Straight from the Source," "Lesson Plans" and "Tools of the Trade" to help guide their analysis of current events. The site provides a "Dictionary" to help decode political jargon.NewsHour Extra
A comprehensive news source that provides national and international stories for young people. The site features videos as well as traditional text and graphics, and includes a section titled Student Voices—essays and editorials written by students.
OpinionSource
The "Today's Newsletters" feature at OpinionSource allows students to explore diverse—and international—perspectives on the latest political news. The site provides summaries and links to some of the day's top editorials from renowned news sources in the US, the UK, China, the Middle East, and India.
Pop+Politics
A nonprofit blog that provides a forum for discussion and debate among young people on current politics and culture. Based at the USC Annenberg School for Communication, Pop+Politics is one of 150 blogs officially credentialed to cover the upcoming Democratic National Convention.
Think
MTV's Street Team '08, comprising of select young journalists from around the nation, reports on local issues that are important to youth and the election. Students can navigate the site's peer-produced video clips, commentaries, and forums by topic.
WireTap
The Webby-winning national news and culture magazine whose targeted audience is young people. In addition to providing daily content to over 60,000 monthly visitors, WireTap's articles and youth commentary are syndicated weekly by its partners at The Nation, Rock the Vote, the Chicago Sun-Times, and various college newspapers.