15 Resources for Teaching the 2024 Presidential Election

Every election year means a decision for our country—whether to move on or look to a new leader or even a different political party. The 2024 election season is becoming a teachable moment. Take advantage of this timely opportunity and educate about the 2024 election with lessons and discussions about everything from political parties to the electoral process to voting rights.

Regardless of your political influence, this is an important year to teach about the presidential election and what democracy means for our future. Here are 15 ways to get students involved in the 2024 election without drowning in politics.

1. Play Enter Your Vote

In this online game, students participate in a mock election, from learning about the candidates to watching debates and casting their votes. It’s a great way to reinforce how voting works and what students should do when considering a candidate.

Read more: Get your Vote game on iCivics, and get more election resources while you’re on their site.

2. Get misinformation

Now more than ever, elections are full of misinformation. Educate students about informal information and how candidates use it, how to identify it, and how new technologies like AI are changing the information landscape, with resources from the Literacy News Project. Their campaign to raise awareness of election misinformation helps students identify false information and get better at finding reliable, fact-based information.

Read more: Learning and Stories Project

3. Discussion about the school issue

Is your school considering a ban on plastic water bottles? Do your students want a very different dress code? Choose an issue that is relevant to your school’s students, then ask your class to choose sides and discuss that issue. Check out this comprehensive list of middle school and high school debate topics (and these special lists of controversial or funny topics!). Talk about how important that process is when choosing candidates for the presidency.

4. Make a mock election

Want to involve your class in a mock election? This 3-day mock election course from iCivics will get your students involved in the democratic process in a hands-on way. (Note: You will need to create a free account.)

If you want to skip class, have your students vote in the biggest student presidential election. Each year, the Youth Leadership Initiative conducts the largest secure, student-only online mock election in the nation, using electronic ballots created for each student’s home legislative district. It’s free to register your class or school for the historic event and see which candidate America’s children choose.

5. Teach voting rights with creative poster designs

Involve your students in a poster project that promotes the importance of voting to all US senior citizens. First, look for inspiration from vintage political posters, power posters, and modern posters encouraging people to vote. Discuss the historic role voting posters played in leading to women’s suffrage and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Ask students to analyze the use of color, images, language, and style in these posters. Who is the intended audience for this poster? What is the message? Does it work? Then tell the students to consider those same things in their design, whether drawing by hand or using Canva accounts.

You could let the class vote on the posters they think work best. Which one is more attractive? Which one has the strongest message?

6. Participate in the Call for Change 2024 project

Radio station KQED wants to hear from young people what is important to them. If you teach middle or high school, check out the 2024 Your Choice Project. Students can make their own comments about the election, what is important to them, and what they think about politics and democracy.

Read more: KQED Call for Change: Your Election 2024 Project

7. Get the facts

Start with this list of facts about the 2024 election, such as 244 million Americans will be eligible to vote this year and election results don’t end on Election Day.

Read more: Ten Things to Know About the 2024 Presidential Election

8. Talk about important issues

Presidential elections are always about the federal government and how big it should be, and then there are high-profile issues for voters like climate change and energy, health care, and taxes. The AP has an overview of where both candidates stand on these issues. Use this article to start a research project or discussion about what each candidate stands for, and how to form opinions about the candidates based on their statements.

Read more: Harris and Trump Offer Contrasting Worlds on Top Issues

9. Go to the source

Check out the websites of both candidates, watch their speeches, read their quotes, and have readers discuss what they think of each candidate based on what they tell America. Make students pay close attention to the words each person uses. How have their actions been consistent with those words?

Read more: Kamala Harris campaign site and Donald Trump campaign site

10. Don’t forget the VPs

The 2024 vice presidential nominees are two very different people. Spend a little time reading about Tim Walz and JD Vance and compare the two. And discuss: What will the vice president bring to the campaign? How important is the vice president?

11. Look at the polls

As Election Day approaches, election voting will be a constant source of entertainment, concern, and education. Polls are a great way to talk about statistics and data and comments around each survey.

Read more: FiveThirtyEight

12. Read election maps

Bring geography into the discussion with an electoral map. Read election maps from past campaigns, look at a map of your state to see how districts were drawn, and talk about gerrymandering. Then, in the days after the election, review the election maps so we can talk about what we can learn from this kind of data.

Read more: Institute of Politics

13. Watch videos about the election process

There are many confusing terms and concepts involved in our election process. A good first step is to teach students basic vocabulary. Also check out these videos that explain the election process for kids.

14. Read books about elections

Along with knowing how presidential elections work, it is important to know the history of our electoral process. How did the election begin? Is everyone allowed to vote? What is the electoral college? Explaining it all can be tricky. Whether you’re covering the topic online or in person, here are 26 books about children’s elections to improve your teaching (and free printables).

15. Put history in context

This year students will hear a lot about how democracy exists in elections. Help them understand what this means and the history of democracy, including voting rights and voter suppression, with resources from Facing History and Ourselves.

Read more: Facing History and Ourselves

Also, check out How to Teach Politics in the Classroom (and Live to Tell About It).

What are your favorite 2024 election resources? Join our We Are Teachers HELPLINE group on Facebook!