Learning about voting

Ninth graders at a Modi’in high school are getting a taste of the US election.

By ANAV SILVERMAN
At the Ironi Heh High School, the English teachers who taught the election project flank some of the visuals (photo credit: Courtesy)
At the Ironi Heh High School, the English teachers who taught the election project flank some of the visuals
(photo credit: Courtesy)
While many Israelis are following the 58th quadrennial US presidential election, one Israeli high school has given its students an opportunity to gain a more indepth perspective into this year’s campaign and election process.
More than 100 ninth-grade students in Modi’in took part in an English class project about the American election recently. At the city’s Ironi Heh High School, which is a Project-Based Learning school, English teachers Ariel Blacher and Chaim Kleg, both American immigrants who are voting in the November 8 election, created a US election project that incorporated US history, civics and basic knowledge about the election process for their Israeli students.
“Due to the American elections this year, we created a project for our ninth-grade class that also included lessons about US politics,” Blacher said. “All the students in the different English classes, no matter their level of English, took part in this project.”
Blacher and Kleg began planning the project in the summer, creating lesson plans and organizing materials for the students as well as for teachers. The preparation phase was critical, as there was no textbook to use as a guide for the project.
Additionally, during the summer, Blacher visited her parents in Fairfield, Connecticut, the small New England town where she grew up. She got in touch with the local election committee there to learn more about how to educate students about the US election process. “I got to speak to people actively campaigning and got a sense of what goes on behind the campaign,” she explained.
She brought back to her classroom posters of local Connecticut representatives and senators running in state elections that locals put on their lawns as well as current election materials, to show her students the visual side of US elections. “Connecticut is not a swing state – the state usually votes Democrat. We discussed how the different states vote, and it was interesting for the kids to learn how the voting process actually works on a state and national level,” Blacher commented.
The students also watched video clips of debates between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, viewed short videos about the US Constitution and Declaration of Independence and read materials from the election page of PBS.org and other online sources.
But Blacher says that her favorite part of the project was teaching the students how the US government passes a bill. “The students created their own bills and represented various states trying to get the bill passed through the House of Representatives, the Senate, and ultimately to the president.”
“The students really enjoyed the process of trying to convince others of the virtues of their bills,” she noted, adding that the student groups came up with bills that addressed issues such as school uniforms, recycling, medical cannabis and burkinis. “They realized through this activity the important roles that representatives and senators have in the process of making US laws. And they got to see the role of the president in this whole process as well,” she said.
Blacher made aliya with her family in 2010 and has been teaching English in Israel for the past six years.
She says she loved teaching this year’s project material as well as the chance to review the election process in more detail herself. “I really loved how the project turned out. Seeing the political process through the eyes of my students was fascinating.
“The most important thing I realized was if I was excited about the material, so were my students.”
There were challenging aspects to the project as well, with certain elements of the election campaign inappropriate for the high-school classroom, according to Blacher. But the teachers mostly focused on the election process and didn’t get into the sensational headline news.
“It was a really positive experience, and the kids especially liked learning outside the box, and not from a textbook,” Blacher said. “They liked working in groups and gaining a greater understanding of the United States and the role that the nation plays in global politics.”
One student, Ofir, said that he enjoyed learning about the early days of America. “I finally understand what happened on the Fourth of July,” he said. Others, like Shay, enjoyed working in a group and “learning new things about the USA and its government.”
Gaya was impressed that Clinton is the first woman to officially run for president of the United States.
“In the beginning, the students asked what the US election had to do with Israel and what the president of the US had to do with them. But through their research and investigation into the topic, they learned how American politics is significant not only to Israel but to the international community,” said Blacher.
Students would frequently ask Blacher whom she would be voting for on Election Day.
“There were lessons where the students thought I was voting for Hillary, and during other lessons, the kids thought I was voting for Trump. I showed them both sides and made the lessons neutral in regards to which candidate would make the better president. I never promoted one candidate over the other, because I don’t believe in bringing personal political convictions to the classroom. Growing up in my Connecticut town, I could never imagine asking my teachers whom they were voting for in the election,” she added.
The highlight of the project was the summation day, when the ninth grade English students shared what they had learned. A delegation from the US Embassy came to the school to see the final projects of the students on Thursday. The students presented their research and work, conducted a mock debate between Clinton and Trump, and held a mock election.
Although no poll was conducted before the mock election, the majority of the students are rooting for the Republican candidate, according to Blacher.
“I had never done a project like this before, and it’s too bad that I’ll have to wait another four years to do this again,” concluded Blacher.