By Sarah Beth Miller and Barb Tengtio, LWV Seattle/King County
This fall, civics came alive for the students in Alexandra Baker’s high school Civics Classes! With Ms. Baker's guidance and support from LWV Seattle/King County (LWVSKC), Inglemoor High School students took the lead in organizing and conducting two city council candidate forums in November. This was just one of many elements in Ms. Baker’s semester of civics instruction that enabled students to be active participants in the future of their community.
Planning for this semester of civics instruction actually began in late summer between Ms. Baker and LWVSKC members. They discussed how a student led forum could be organized; what support would be needed to accomplish this; and how the forums would compliment students' classroom civics education. LWVSKC drafted a plan and at the start of school in September, Ms. Baker secured a facility for the forums. The students jumped right in at the beginning of the school year!
Here’s a look at what the students accomplished:
- Inviting:
The students' first task was to recreate the LWVSKC TRY (They Represent You) Pamphlet in poster-size. This activity helped familiarize the students with government offices and local officials in their community. Then, an email went out to all city council candidates in both Bothell and Kenmore, inviting them to participate in the student led forums. Each student had to follow up the invitation with a second email or phone-call introducing themselves and thanking the candidates in advance for participating in the forums.
- Preparing:
Students researched current local issues and the candidates themselves. They then developed questions for the forums and created materials to promote the forums on social media and other community outlets. Each student also reached out to an elected official about an issue important to them and asked them to comment back.
To aid their preparations, a LWVSKC member visited the classes to share information about conducting a forum, the importance of voting, and the League of Women Voters. LWVSKC also provided a forum script, which the students edited and added their questions to. The students were each assigned roles for the forums. There were two student moderators for each forum, as well as students serving as greeters, time keepers, photographers, etc.
- Success!:
The Inglemoor students practiced their roles and the forum script in class—and went on to execute everything perfectly the night of the forums!
- Continued Learning:
The following week, Ms. Baker shared three civics modules on voting, provided by LWVSKC. The first module covered the history of voting in the US and included a game where students took on different avatars (personas) to visually see who could and could not vote at different times throughout US history. The second module included information on who is and is not currently voting in the US and had the students engage in a voting excuses game. The third module focused on local government elections and how to make voting choices based on candidate positions that support an individual’s value and priorities. The module also included a questionnaire designed for students to discuss qualities they value in a leader.
- Voting:
Finally, the students had the opportunity to vote in a mock election! LWVSKC worked with King County Elections to produce a sample Kenmore ballot. The students could then practice voting in a election, using a facsimile of a real ballot. LWVSKC tabulated the results and Ms. Baker and students discussed their results with the actual election results.
Of course, Ms. Baker’s semester on civics also included essential instruction about a number of other topics, including: the branches of government, the electoral college, what it means to be a republic, what a primary is, and more. The partnership between Ms. Baker and LWVSKC was able to provide a dynamic, hands-on learning experience on top of this instruction for the Inglemoor students. Our mutual goal was to offer experiential education to allow students to practice participating in the democratic process. We hope that their civics experiences will make a lasting impression and empower them to become future voters.
Going forward, LWVSKC’s plan is to share this program—the civics modules, student led forums, and mock ballot voting—with other schools in King County. Partnering with a social studies teacher in each school is critical. Ms. Baker did an outstanding job with her students and LWVSKC looks forward to working with her again!
LWSKC’s bright hope for these students and for the expansion of the program is grounded in hearing the reflections of Ms. Baker's students. Here are just a few, so you can be heartened too:
- “It was exciting and interesting to write to a city council member.“
- “The mock election prepared me to vote”
- “Voting feels like a scary thing. Doing the mock election helped me understand how to vote.”
- “King County Elections should allow more high school students to have mock election voting.”
- “I felt very empowered when I wrote my own lobby letter.”
- “It felt like I had a voice.”
- “I felt like I was being set up for success.”
- “If more mock elections were held it would result in more young people voting.”
- “Voting gave me a better sense of community.”
- “I thought it was good, very educationa.l” [The candidate forums.]
- “I thought it was going to be boring, but it was interesting.” [The candidate forums.]
- “It made me feel special when I got a response from the city council member.”
- “Because of my experience with the mock ballot I got to sit down with my Mom and talk about her ballot.”
- “Being moderator was really fun.”
- “I will be paying a lot more attention to voting in the future.”
- “I had never met any candidates before this. I was surprised at how friendly and open-minded they seemed.”
- “Doing the forum really affected my life. I’m going to pay more attention to elections from now on.”
