National Council for the Social Studies

Media Construction of Presidential Campaigns
Bring the history of American electorial politics to life in your classroom with Media Construction of Presidential Campaigns, a high-interest, document-based multi-media kit that enables teachers to engage their classes in dynamic and interactive learning about American political history. The kit offers teachers the materials and training to lead students through engaging classroom analysis of primary source campaign documents from 26 elections between 1800-2000.
The kit contains 146 historic media documents on CD-ROM, Audio CD, and DVD including:

PowerPoint slides of posters, handbills, political cartoons, buttons, and more;
audio clips of campaign songs and radio programs;
video clips of TV commercials, newscasts, debates, speeches.

The 430-page teacher guide includes:

Lessons for each document with background, probe questions and answers, supporting evidence, with contemporary and historic connections;
Copy-ready student handouts for each of 26 elections;
Media and presidential timelines, 1789-2004;
Document-based assessments, including essays and short-answer questions;
Annotated resources list with hyperlinks to educational websites for teaching about the election process.

Designed by social studies teachers and media literacy experts at Ithaca College's Project Look Sharp, Media Construction of Presidential Campaigns covers 200 years of electoral politics in nine thematic lessons useful for middle and high school as well as college.

For more information and 4 free online media literacy lessons for the 2004 Presidential Election, go to: http://www.ithaca.edu/looksharp

National Council for the Social Studies
8555 Sixteenth Street
Silver Spring, Maryland 20910