Lesson Plan - America's Choice

Assess Background Knowledge

Download the Skill Builder Charting Your Knowledge, available as a PDF or as Google Slides from the Graphic Organizer Library on the homepage of junior.scholastic.com. Have students complete the first two columns of the KWL chart with what they know about the upcoming election and what they want to know. Discuss responses as a class, in partners or groups, or with an engagement platform like Seesaw or Nearpod.

Preview Vocabulary

Use the Skill Builder Words to Know to preteach domain-specific terms in the article. Have students refer to the Skill Builder as they read.

Read the Article

Read the article aloud or have students read it independently. Have students complete the last column of Charting Your Knowledge as they read.

Answer Close-Reading Questions

Have students write their responses, or use the questions to guide a discussion.

• Who are the two main candidates for president? What experience do they each have? (Integrating Information) 
  The two main candidates are Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden. Trump has been president since January 2017 and was a businessman before that. Biden served as U.S. vice president from 2009 to 2017 and was a senator for 36 years.
• What evidence supports the idea that Donald Trump’s presidency “has been among the most divisive and controversial in U.S. history”? (Text Evidence)
  Trump remains popular with Republicans, who like that he has appointed many conservative judges and tried to help businesses. However, many other people say he has caused harm by getting rid of regulations to combat climate change and restricting immigration.
• Why have some people criticized Joe Biden’s record on race? How has he responded? (Key Details)
  As a senator, Biden wrote and supported laws that required long prison sentences, which disproportionately affected Black Americans. Last year, he expressed regret for those laws, and Biden says he is committed to ending racism in the criminal justice system.
• What does the cartoon on page 15 show? What is the cartoonist’s message? (Media Literacy)
  The cartoon shows two neighbors putting out campaign signs. One supports Trump for president, and the other supports Biden. The man on the left is wondering how long the pandemic sense of community will last but trails off when he sees the other sign. The cartoonist’s message is that the pandemic helped bring people together but the election could divide them again.

• How is the pandemic affecting the election? (Cause and Effect)
  The pandemic has created huge challenges for the country, and how to best respond to it is one of the main issues in the election. Trump has focused on development of a vaccine and largely left it up to states to decide how to respond to the spread of the coronavirus. He has encouraged businesses to reopen quickly and approved financial help for businesses and Americans. Biden has criticized how Trump has handled the pandemic and called for a comprehensive federal plan with more testing and equipment. He says the government should pay for virus testing and time off for infected workers.
• How are the candidates’ ideas about racial injustice different? (Central Ideas)
  Trump signed an executive order encouraging police departments to change their training and use of force, but he has taken an aggressive stance against Black Lives Matter protesters. He has largely refused to acknowledge the role racism plays in America and has repeatedly made racist statements. Trump, however, says he is not racist and points to record low unemployment levels for people of color before the pandemic—as well as criminal justice reforms he signed into law in 2019—as evidence of his work to help Black Americans. Biden says racism is a very real problem. He acknowledges that long-standing laws and policies have led to racial inequality—including some laws he previously championed. He says that he would increase access to education, business opportunities, health care, and housing for Black Americans. Additionally, Biden thinks the federal government should investigate police bias.
• Choose an issue from the chart on page 17. Explain how the candidates have different ideas for addressing the issue. (Text Features)
  Responses will vary.

Watch a Video

Have students watch the video “Unboxing the Presidency” (below). Then discuss: Based on what you read and saw, why is the presidency such an important job?

Write for a Task, Purpose, and Audience

Use the Skill Builder Choice Board to have students choose from eight activities related to the article. Options include exploring our Election 2020 text set, taking a quiz at scholastic.com/election, responding to the “Write About It!” prompt, or creating a PSA.

Assess Comprehension

Assign the 10-question Know the News quiz, available in PDF and interactive forms. You can also use Quiz Wizard to assess comprehension of this article and three others from the issue.