1 An Innovative Bilingual Oral History Project Voto porque cuento Cuento porque voto The National Student/Parent Mock Election        P.O. Box 36653 Tucson, AZ 85704

1 Voto porqueporque porque cuentocuento cuento CuenCuen Cuento to porqueporque porque votovoto voto TEACHER GUIDE ¡Cuéntame! Dear Teachers:  Welcome to the wonderful new world of ¡Cuéntame!  It is a bilingual component of the free curriculum provided by the National Student/Parent Mock Election to teach your students the skills and attitudes that prepare them for active citizenship.  (For additional Mock Election information, curriculum, and lesson plans, see www.nationalcmockelection.com       . Cuentame provides the tools and materials needed to teach this exciting new voter education program to your students.  It is a program that is vitally important, rich in content and teacher-friendly.   We hope that you will incorporate this curriculum into what we know is already a busy and content-filled year.   Participating in the ¡Cuéntame! program will both enrich your teaching and provide you with the opportunity to serve in a leadership capacity as the program is implemented in other schools.  We will need the benefit of your experience working with this project so that it can be refined and finalized for broader distribution.  We ask you to evaluate the experience by logging into our website.  You will be recognized in the acknowledgement section for your willingness to participate, along with receiving other forms of public appreciation.      Voter education is a critical role for schools because it represents an important road to citizenship and participation in the democratic process.  This is the key to bringing vital benefits and resources to the local community, including to our schools.  The topic is relevant and can be incorporated at all grade levels, to one or another degree.    As for teaching the content, it offers extraordinary opportunity for teacher creativity.  At the same time, it is presented with a step-by-step description of what you can do to implement it—a real "how-to".  Once you have read through and considered the attached document which describes the program and its goals in detail, and once you have looked over the lesson plan, you should be able to begin the implementation process, using your own pace, delineating the lessons as you determine, and building in other, related activities as you choose. We hope that the results of this activity will be so moving and so spectacular that you will be able to use them for a community and all-school presentation.  We would like you to videotape the students making their presentations or presenting at a community event.  Video clips with full credit to you and your school may be used as part of the nationally televised coverage of the Mock Election.  Here again, participating teachers will be recognized for being on the cutting-edge of an exciting new program that has real implications for our students’ future and that of our nation. For resource information and support, contact:   The National Student/Parent Mock Election  at nspme@qwest.net or nspme@aol.com.

2 Learning Objectives ¡Cuéntame! introduces a learning model that builds critical thinking and participatory skills that enhance student understanding of civic life and citizenship rights and responsibilities.  The learning experiences of  ¡Cuéntame! leads students to: · Appreciate and respect the diversity that is such a rich aspect of American society. · Become aware of principles basic to American constitutional democracy. · Reflect on the disparities between ideals and reality in American political and social life. · Understand the role of a citizen in the American democracy, including the meaning of citizenship and personal and civic rights and responsibilities. · Understand the relationship of voting to maintain our personal and political rights and freedoms. · Develop critical thinking skills and the means to form a personal opinion. · Reflect metacognitively on their own learning styles and experiences. These objectives are in compliance with national standards for the teaching of civics and government for grades 9-12.   The program that you’re about to implement meets cutting-edge standards for effective instructional delivery. This program: Ø Integrates a wide range of content areas and disciplines (social studies, reading, writing, speaking, psychology, etc.). Ø Is consistent with learning theory. Ø Allows for the construction of learning (students draw conclusions and form opinions and perspectives based on their own experience – the interview). Ø Fosters critical thinking in students for now and the future. Ø Incorporates metacognition – the opportunity for students to reflect on their own learning skills, competencies and style.  The premise here is that if they are more in touch with their own learning style and needs, they will be better prepared to advocate for themselves.  They should be able to help design learning programs that are most compatible with their learning goals, needs, skills and style.  (Wouldn’t it be helpful for a student to be able to say, "Well, I didn’t learn it so well when I heard it, but I’m sure if I saw it in writing, or heard it a few more times, or had a chance to take notes on it, I’d learn it very well."  That’s the goal of the new emphasis on metacognition.  It’s what the late Dr. Robert Smith referred to as learning how to learn.    Ø Fosters a spirit of collaboration and teamwork and builds communication and leadership skills. Ø Engages students in an inquiry process, where they must both find and organize information, draw some conclusions and ultimately, form an opinion based on their inquiry. Ø Lends itself well to a rubric process for evaluation of learning.  Every learning engagement that is worth teaching is worth evaluating.  There are many skills and competencies that are strengthened through this process and are measurable if we have appropriate criteria.  

3 Cuéntame, ¿porque tengo que votar? Cuéntame, dime tu historia. ¡Cuéntame! Porque yo tengo voz, Tengo valor, Tengo ideas! Tell me, why should I vote? Tell me your story. Count me! Because I have a voice… Because I have value   Because I have ideas. Cuénta-en-me! Para ollirte Cuénta-en-me! Para decirte Cuénta-en-me Para votar! Count on me… to listen to tell you to vote Yo cuento porque voto. Yo voto porque cuento. I count because I vote. I vote because I count. Purpose, Goals, and Activities The National Student/Parent Mock Election is the largest voter education project in the country.  It is designed to teach students and their parents about the voting process and the benefits of civic participation by involving them in realistic simulations of all aspects of the electoral process.  In the last general election, more than 6 million elementary, middle school, and high school students and some of their parents cast votes for national and state candidates and voiced their opinions on several important social problems facing America.    Students of all ages from kindergarten through high school and their parents and grandparents are allowed to participate and vote.  Since U.S. citizenship is NOT a necessary requirement for voting on state and national candidates in the Mock Election, participation in the voting simulation is good practice for future citizens.  Students may participate in debates, issue forums, press conferences, candidate nights, rallies, and inaugural balls as part of the Mock Election in their school.  On Mock Election Day, November 2—five days before the General Election— millions of students and their parents will watch national coverage from Election Central and state election headquarters around the country as the votes are tallied and winners announced.    With an estimated U.S. population of 21 million, Hispanics are the fastest growing segment of the population, yet they have one of the lowest voter participation rates.  Only two-fifths of eligible Latinos register to vote, and less than half of these registrants show up at the polls.  The National Student/Parent Mock Election decided a targeted campaign is needed to attract Hispanic youth and children and train them to participate in the political process from an early age.  Only early intervention can reverse these alarming trends.     The Mock Election's innovative response to this problem is ¡Cuénteme! a bilingual, multicultural outreach program for children in grades K-12 and their parents.  The project incorporates a three-pronged approach to promoting civic involvement among Hispanic youth and their families.  The first component is a promotional campaign, involving Latino celebrities and Hispanic media outlets.   The second component is a school-based program with activities for interactive learning, including candidate forums, debates, and a Mock Election.  The third component is a bilingual, multicultural curriculum that provides content, including teachers' guides for the suggested activities.    ¡Cuéntame!, which can be variously translated as "count on me," "count me in," or "tell me a story," is designed to engage students and parents in the electoral process through an appeal to the value systems traditional in Hispanic cultures.   Eventually, a curriculum will be developed for each of these three meanings.  In addition to the intergenerational learning and exchange through story telling of this component, future segments will focus on personal accountability and decision making and inclusion in the political and electoral processes.    The curriculum that follows has been successfully pilot tested in two Chicago High Schools.  This portion of the curriculum is a storytelling component for use at the middle school and secondary school levels.  Other components of the curriculum, as well as the national media campaign, will be launched later.

4 Lesson Plan for ¡Cuéntame! There are three primary "product" goals for this pilot effort. 1.    A document prepared by students that reflects an oral history interview that they conducted with a parent, older relative or friend, who has come to this country as an immigrant.  (Interview questions provided)   This will be the highest priority.  Without it, the other two goals cannot be met. Students will write up their interviews using a pre-designed format.  Students will present the results of their interview to their classmates. (Presentation Talking Points provided.)   2.    Each student's interview report can be further processed.  The content of the interview could inspire a short story, a poem, a dramatic skit, a poster, slogan, or song.  These creative work products can be showcased at an all-school, public event, to which the media, political figures, and local celebrities, and members of the community can be invited.     The creative works will depict something moving learned from the interview.  Students may work creatively on their own interview or collaborate on the material gathered by a classmate that has particular appeal or interest.   These projects can be very imaginative; they can reflect some insight that the student gained from the interview or something shared by the interview subject.  This could be the start of a wonderful traveling multicultural art exhibit.    It’s expected that you will design and coordinate such an event according to your own resources, timetable, and the interests of your schools. 3.    A videotape of the presentations, including presentations and interviews with teachers and parents, that can be used to promote the program with other schools and teacher groups.  We also believe that this video documentary should be useful in bringing additional resources to an individual school from foundations and the private sector as a means to support our social studies, citizenship and voter education efforts.    Time commitment for teachers: Two (2) hours per week of instructional contact time dealing with the topics and the interview.  Especially for bilingual and ESL students, one hour should be spent on vocabulary development related to the content and how this ties into the interviews with people who came to this country from elsewhere seeking additional freedoms and the privileges and responsibilities of democracy.  The second hour of the week should be spent dealing directly with the interviews.  Check progress, integrate writing and speaking skills, and address issues of format.  Most importantly, you’ll want to know how this exercise is affecting their attitudes and values related to voting. Activities and strategies will play out differently depending on age, grade and language proficiency of student/s.

5 Suggested Strategies Introducing the Concept of Voting Process Questions:  (To the extent possible, write answers on board or newsprint.) 1.    What does voting mean? (Emphasize that it’s about decision-making) 2.    What happens if a decision has to be made and there is no voting? (One person or a small number make the decisions for everyone) 3.    Why is voting better? (More people have a say.) 4.    So then, is it important to vote?  Why? 5.    Who can vote? (Any U.S. citizen 18 or older, not convicted of a felony.) 6.    Should everyone who can, vote?  Why? 7.    When? (When opportunity presents itself.)  (Here talk briefly about the many opportunities to vote, but use the 2000 presidential election as a focus and try to stay basic). Tell them they and their parents will have a chance to vote for state and national candidates in the National Student Parent Mock Election on November 2.  They do not need to be citizens to vote in the Mock Election.  Their votes will be tallied and the results broadcast on national TV. Ask here, if anyone knows anyone who came to this country because it meant that they could vote.  (Emphasize here that voting is considered the greatest freedom).    Here’s a good place to introduce the vocabulary piece in both English and Spanish.    a.    Introduce the concept of voting as a part of being a free country. b.    Write the word "Vote" on the board. c.    Ask students who want to talk about politics (or "schoolwork"- that will go down to defeat)  to raise their hands. d.    Once the idea is defeated, you can say, "Okay, we aren’t going to talk about that.  But we are going to talk about what you just did."  "You voted." Week 1: Section A What is Voting?

6 a.    Introduce interview and oral history concepts. b.   Help them define the terms  (see attached glossary). c.    Demonstrate by writing an interview question on the board, using a student as the interview subject. d.   Ask the question and listen to the response. (Avoid questions that can be answered with a simple yes or no.) Week 1:       Section B Interview & Oral History Interview and Oral History Sample question:  "Can you tell us about someone who came here from another country?"   (Can be asked in English and Spanish).  Let the interview subject know that you will be writing down what she says. Write the student’s answer on the chalkboard or newsprint. Explain that this (the interview) will be an activity that they will do outside of school. Tell them that they will choose a person to interview whom they know came to the U.S. from somewhere else. (Thus includes U.S. Territories abroad, such as Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.)  Explain that the purpose of the interview is to find out why the person came here and to try to find out what the idea of life in a democracy means to that person.    Ask students to talk about their own ideas about life in a democratic nation.   Help them become conversant on these ideas and topics: Ø Freedom to attend a free public school Ø Freedom to work and provide for one’s family Ø Freedom to make your voice heard in your community (Freedoms of speech and expression) Ø Freedom of conscience (Freedom to believe what you choose, including religious freedom) Ø Freedom to be represented in the government Ø Freedom to vote for leaders and ideas Distribute interview tools:  The questions and the reporting form Review questions and make sure all students can read all questions, in both English and Spanish. For practice: Have each student come up with another and ask one of the questions as though it were an interview. Remind students to practice reading the questions in both English and Spanish. Assign students the selection of their interview candidate by the next class section.      

7 Week 2: Section A Dealing with Difference Week 2: Section B Note Taking Skills Preparing for the Interview a.    Review the questions with students, in English and Spanish. b.    Ask students to share orally with the group whom they selected and why.   (To be   sensitive to the fears of community members who may be undocumented aliens,   students may pick a fictitious name to disguise the identity of their subject.) c.    Ask them to write two or three or four sentences about why they picked this person   and what they think they’ll find out from the person.  (This provides practice with the   process, since we do want them to create written reports based on their interviews)   d.    Ask them to think about what some differences might be between themselves and their interview subject? e.    Can people with differences help each other? f.     What are some examples of people who are different being able to help each other?  (Here they might even draw an illustration of their example.) g.    Introduce the notion that the U.S. has many, many different cultural groups or ethnicities from many, many different countries and territories. h.      Ask them if this is a good thing and why or why not. i.      Ask them why they think so many people come to the US from other places? Tell them that they should conduct their interviews right away so that at the second session of the week, they will begin to write them up. Taking Notes & Other Practice     Review interview progress:   Say that by this point, everyone should have conducted his or her interview.  If  they haven’t, they must do it between this class and the next one, transcribe their notes to the report form and be ready to present them at the last class, and turn them in to you for feedback. Look at the status of the interviews again and remind students that for the next class on this topic, they will present their interview to the class, responding to all the interview questions, and hopefully being ready for videotaping (this video taping session  can be considered a practice taping just to give the students, teachers a.    Explain the process for taking notes during the interview.  (Remind them: They don’t have to write in full sentences, capitalize or punctuate.  They must just write enough so that when they go to write it up, their notes make sense to them.)   Demonstrate this using the same question from session 1: Write the answer in note form, then convert it to a good set of sentences that respond to the question. b.    Practice and demonstrate:  Have a student ask another student one of the questions. Student B should answer even if s/he has to make something up. c.    Ask everyone to take notes during the answer.   d.   Have students convert their notes into a couple of sentences and share with the group.