• Context
• Lesson-Specific Standards
• Teaching the Lesson
• Assessment
• Lesson Materials
• Resources

This lesson addresses the national standards listed below.

From the Center for Civic Education's National Standards for Civics and Government (1994):

Students should be able to evaluate, take, and defend positions:

• on issues in which fundamental values and principles may be in conflict.
• about issues concerning the disparities between American ideals and realities.
• about the role of public opinion in American politics.
• on the influence of the media on American political life.
• about the roles of political parties, campaigns, and elections in American politics.
• about the formation and implementation of public policy.
• on the importance to American constitutional democracy of dispositions that facilitate thoughtful and effective participation in public affairs.
• on the relationship between politics and the attainment of individual and public goals.
• about the means that citizens should use to monitor and influence the formation and implementation of public policy.
• about the functions of leadership in an American constitutional democracy.

Students should be able to evaluate the significance of campaigns and elections in the American political system.

Students should be able to explain the importance of knowledge to competent and responsive participation in American democracy.

From the National Council for the Social Studies's Expectations of Excellence: Curriulum Standards for Social Studies (1994):

Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of:

• how people create and change structures of power, authority, and governance.
• ideals, principles, and practices of citizenship in a democratic republic.