Let's Party! Michigan's Political Parties

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This lesson is most appropriate for High School classrooms.

Theme: What political parties are in Michigan, and how would I become involved

MCF Benchmark: Use the ideas in the Declaration of Independence to evaluate the conduct of citizens, political behavior, and the practices of government.

Other benchmarks this lesson targets include:

  • Evaluate proposals for reform of the political system.
  • Explain why people may agree on democratic values in the abstract but disagree when they are applied to specific situations.

Materials needed:

Internet lab, printer, video camera or cassette / DVD recorder (if available) and TV with VCR / DVD player (if available) or cassette player (if available)

Methodological procedure:

Day 1 and Day 2

Divide class into nine groups / political parties. Each student will be a member of one of the following poltical parties: Communist, Democratic, Green, Libertarian, Natural Law, Reform, Republican, Socialist, and Constitution.

Each party will be responsible for the following:

  1. Create a flier / brochure discussing and promoting their party's ideology on the following issues as they pertain to the state of Michigan: Environment, Education, Gun Control, Abortion, and Welfare. Groups must print off enough copies of their flier / brochure for each student in class AND INCLUDE A WEB SITE ON THEIR FLIER / BROCHURE THAT INFORMS EACH STUDENT HOW TO GET INVOLVED IN THEIR PARTY! A list of necessary web sites can be obtained on this page under the heading "Web sites". The most helpful web site for this lesson is "Politics 1-Online Guide to Michigan Politics" found at www.politics1.com/mi.htm.
  2. Create a commercial (between 2-3 minutes) on video, DVD, or cassette that promotes your party's ideology concerning the issues each group has studied. If you do not have these tools at your disposal, the groups can act out a live commercial in front of the class.

Day 3

Each party will hand out their flier / brochure to each student in class. They will then share their commercial with the class. While the parties are sharing their commericials, the rest of the class will be filling out their "Do I AGREE"? handout (See "Downloads" to obtain this handout. Directions are printed on the handout itself).

Author's notes:

  1. Teachers are encouraged to pick any 5 issues for the students to examine that they feel are most appropriate for their classes.
  2. It would be helpful for students to have prior knowledge of political ideology / political spectrum. Stacie Lindsey's lesson on these topics entitled, "Are the Core Democratic Values Working in Michigan"? would be a helpful lesson to teach these concepts.
  3. The teacher may choose to share the results of the "Do I Agree?" worksheet with the class by calculating what percentage of the students agreed the most with each party.

Assessment strategies:

  1. Students will evaluate their own political leanings by filling out their "Do I AGREE"? handout. The directions for this handout are contained on the handout itself. This handout can be downloaded and printed by going to the "Downloads" heading on this page. These should be collected by the teacher when they are completed by the students.
  2. The teacher will evaluate the flier / brochure and commercial using the rubrics I have provided. These can be downloaded and printed by going to the "Downloads" heading on this page.

Enrichment suggestions:

Using the website included on the flier / brochure handed out by each party, students will request, obtain, and hand in literature received from a party different than the one assigned to them.

Available downloads:

Suggested web sites: