Clare Barrett

3/17/2014
Lesson/Activity Title: Primary Elections, How to Write a Great Speech, and How to Speak in
Public.
Standards Addressed: Fifth Grade Writing 1. Effective communication requires speakers to
express an opinion, provide information, describe a process, and persuade an audience.
Purpose: Students are going to see what it takes to be a politician and run for office. They will
also need to use their writing skills to formulate a campaign speech.
Learning Objective: Students will be able to write a persuasive campaign speech persuading
their classmates to vote for them for either judge or mayor.
Setting: This lesson will take place in room 208 at Steele Elementary. There will be 30 students
an. d two teachers. The instruction for the lesson will be taught in the meeting area and then there
will be instruction. Then the students will move to their assigned writing seats to begin the
assignment.
Materials and Prep: Student social studies notebooks, speech for mayor on youtube (computer),
examples of good campaign speeches. Pencils (available at all tables). Markers, paper.
Activity Procedure:
1) . Introduction: Every city or town has a leader, someone who helps make decisions and
has the best interest of their city or town in mind. Who is the leader of our city? Thats
right, a mayor. Well just like Denver has a mayor, our Ameritowne will have a mayor,
who gets elected through popular vote, and a judge who also gets elected through voting.
Both of these jobs are incredibly important. The judges job is to help fairly decide who is
guilty and innocent from those who are arrested. The mayor is responsible for filling in
for the judge when he/she is on break and for also signing all the business licenses for all
the businesses.
2) We are only going to have one judge and one mayor for our town. In order to decide we
are going to hold two different elections. One is called the primary election, in which
anyone who wants to run for judge or mayor may get up and say a speech about why they
would be the best candidate for that position. We as a class will vote on which candidate
for judge and mayor we think will do the best job. Then on Friday we will hold a general
election in which the candidates from Mr.Ts class and Miss Ts class and our class will
read speeches and then as a group we will all vote for one mayoral candidate and one
judge candidate.
3) Everyone from this class will have to at least write a campaign speech. You dont have to
run for mayor or judge but we will all practice writing a speech anyways.

4) What are some important things that we need to include in a good campaign speech?
a. Who you are
b. Why you want to run
c. Your qualifications
d. Why you think you are the best person for the job/ why should voters vote for
you.
e. COMPLETE SENTENCES THAT MAKE SENSE.
5.) Before we start writing, I want you to show you an example of a campaign speech other
students have made for YAT mayor and judge
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEQTVz-MG0I.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxlZnMHfnQE
6.) Now its your turn. Pick which position interests you the most. Then using the steps above,
start writing why you would be a good candidate for that position.
Closure: Now those of you who want to run for mayor and judge will get a chance to share your
speeches. On your ballots pick one candidate for judge or mayor and the winners of our classs
primary election will be announced.
Assessment: Students will read their speeches in front of the class.
Differentiation: H and T will need help forming the organization of the speeches and will
receive individual outlines to help them.
Extension: If students finish early, they are encouraged to practice reading their speech to a
partner or out In the hallway by themselves.

Hi. My name is Alexis Blackwell and Im running for secretary of the SGA. I am going to tell
you a little bit about myself.
Im a new student here in the sixth grade. Im currently serving my fourth year as a Girl Scout
and I am bridging to a Cadette. Girls Scouts teaches me what it takes to become a community
leader. I have participated in many service projects such as Web of Life, which is where I
volunteered to help clean animal cages and the shelter and paint. I also volunteered at a soup
kitchen, which is where I prepared food to feed to homeless. Ive also completed my Bronze
Award, which is when I had to give at least 20 hours back to my community.
I realized those little things can help me become a leader. Ive also participated in my elementary
schools and William and Marys newspaper club. My personal goal as secretary is to help
organize events that you and I can enjoy.

Im Alexis Blackwell vote for me as your secretary of SGA.

Reflection:
My focus for this lesson was to have clear instructions for the students. This lesson was
focused on writing, which was a lesson I have never taught to the fourth and fifth graders. In this
writing lesson I have learned from Natalie to be very specific with my instructions. I created a
chart that mapped out what the students needed to have in their speeches, which I believed would
be sufficient for them all to write a great speech. I was actually quite impressed with the quality,
but after meeting with Pat, I realized I could have made it a little easier by scaffolding the lesson
for those fourth graders and some fifth graders to help plan and organize their writing. Once
again I ran out of time and they were not able to finish in the allotted amount of time. This is
something I need to work on. I also need to work on the scaffolding for the younger and perhaps
weaker writers. This will help their minds to really go through the process of planning so they
can eventually become better writers after using a graphic organizer. For my next lesson I really
hope that I can stay within time budget and also work on scaffolding for writers that have a hard
time. Tomorrow we will finish the elections and elect a judge.