A class on the Electoral College for Middle School students

If you have been considering online teaching, but are not sure where to begin, this paper provides an example class you can start with. Within you will find a step-by-step guide on teaching a class about the Electoral College to middle school students. This material is intended to help first-time teachers on WizIQ through their first class with an immediately relevant and detailed lesson plan.

What can you do the week before to be sure that your first class runs smoothly? Each of these points will be more fully explained in this section.

1. E-mail your students with relevant information and links
2. Schedule the first class and prepare the white boards
3. Upload content
4. Schedule and run several orientation sessions for students on WizIQ
5. Create a test

Email all of your students

Your e-mail should include all of the information relating to requirement, orientation session, and class schedule time.

Schedule the class and prepare the white boards

You will be able to enter the classroom and prepare the whiteboards. They will all be saved, and ready to go. You can also create PDFs or PowerPoint slides with this content, but text and images on the whiteboard tends to feel more authentic. If you’re comfortable with PowerPoint, though, uploads are simple and will also be saved on individual tabs (or whiteboards) for use when class begins.

You can cut and paste the information from any external source over white board.

• White Board #1 – Welcome to The Electoral College: A class for Middle School Students”. You might want to find an appropriate graphic to personalize the page and make it friendlier to young people.
• White Board #2 – What is the Electoral College?
• White Board #3 – Why is it like this?
• White Board #4 – What do the popular vote polls say?
• White Board #5 – What do the electoral vote polls say?

Schedule and run several orientation sessions for students

Invite the students into the WizIQ classroom at several different dates and times. This will not be an official class, but a time when you and your students can make sure that all of the technology is working properly. Ask all of the students to try to stop into at least one online session. During these sessions:

• Show the students how to turn off the microphone when they are not actually talking. Explain to them that if they look just above your head, they will see a little microphone. It is between the pencil and the camera. When the students click on it, a red cross appears to mute the microphone. You might say, “Unlike a regular classroom, you have a microphone right up to your lips! If you do not mute your microphone when you are not talking, we will all be listening to you breathing. If you would like to speak, raise your hand and I will call on you. Then you can un-mute your microphone, and speak.
• Using your pointer, give them a tour of the tools and the buttons. Make sure they know how to raise their hands and use the chat box.
• Show them how to send a private message to you in the chat box. Let them know that they are welcome to use it if they are confused and want to let you know privately.
• Explain to them what the “Screen sharing” button is, and let them know that when your screen is being shared, they will not be able to do many of the things that they usually are able to.
• Allow the students to play on the white board and interact with each other.

Create a test

On your WizIQ account, go to the “Teach” button, and then to the “Create a Test” button.
Here are some questions that you might want to include in your test:

• What is an elector?
• What is the total amount of electors in the country?
• How many electors does a candidate need to be elected?
• What is the least amount of electors that each state can have?
• How old do you have to be to vote?
• What are some of the problems with the Electoral College?

From here, you can develop your own classes for Electoral College for middle school students. This paper covers:

1. What to prepare the week before class.
2. What to prepare the day before class.
3. What to prepare the morning of class.
4. Running the class.

Download this free whitepaper for all the details necessary on teaching a class about the Electoral College to middle school students.