The political spectrum

This is a very simple lesson plan to teach students the political spectrum through a template.

A lesson plan for grade 10 Social Studies

By Bill Estes

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Related pages

• Mid-1800s reform era group presentations: Students will work in groups to present information on the reforms of the mid 1800's. Topics could include the Unitarians, abolition, women's rights, growth in education, treatment of the mentally ill, temperance, and utopian communities.

Related topics

• Learn more about social studies.

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Learning outcomes

The student will:

• begin to understand what “left” and “right” mean politically.
• place both parties, countries, issues, movements, and people within the political spectrum.
• learn the definitions of the following 5 words as they each relate to change: reactionary, conservative, moderate, liberal, and radical

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

2 Hours

Materials/resources

• download the attachment The Political Spectrum (this will help explain the rest of the lesson).
• articles from the newspaper, magazines, and maybe even an NPR report

Have your students rate on the scale where the issue or sides of the issue lie (and maybe where the reporting lies…) double entente, there :) Maybe a TV and VCR will be needed if you can get or tape C-SPAN.

Technology resources

If you have an Internet connection, look at the links listed below — and there are numerous others depending on the issues you choose to pursue.

Pre-activities

A good activity that has worked for me a few times in the past is having students list the differences between Democrats and Republicans. Divide them into groups, let them do it on the board — however works best for your particular class. From this, you can then go in numerous directions.

Activities

1. Take the spectrum and give your students the names of the parties, left, right, and the definitions you find on the .gif. From there, go where you want. I started alluding to some examples above that would be good to place on the spectrum, here is a short list: your Representative, your Senators, hot school issues, county issues, taxes, countries, ed-op writers, radio reports (NPR), essays, and on and on.
2. Also be sure and let the students know how both Representatives and Senators sit in their chambers; Republicans on the right, Democrats on the left.
3. If you want to assign issues, or look up certain third parties, the links below are good. Just a word of warning though, some third parties may need a little censoring.
4. Again, know your kids and let them drive the lesson as much as you feel comfortable.

Assessment

I always had as a short answer on my next test the question: “Draw the political spectrum and define the five main positions in terms of change.” Later in the year, I also used the political spectrum from time-to-time to delineate certain issues.

Supplemental information

Attachment:

Related websites

The Official Website of the Republican National Committee: http://www.rnc.org/
The Official Website of the Democratic National Committee: http://www.democrats.org/
Yahoo categorical search: Parties http://dir.yahoo.com/Government/U_S__Government/Politics/Parties/

Comments

As you comprehend, much of this is objective: some people fall in one place on the spectrum on one issue and somewhere else on another issue, some people are continually moving in a certain direction on the scale, and some people are very difficult to define. But, I think consensus and conventional wisdom can be reached when you let your class define their term tight enough. Please let me know how this pans out in your situation…