• Civic involvement
• Methodology
• Connecting constructivism and citizenship
• Teaching challenges
• Building consensus and closure
• Student challenges
• Informal assessment
• Getting started
• Forming groups
• Students' presentations
• Lessons learned
• Advice to other teachers
• Newark mayoral campaign
• Remaining neutral
• His background

Jose Velazquez: I took the position that I was undecided and neutral. I think I did that consciously so that I would not influence their opinions. By the way, I think I may be exaggerating my own influence among the students because I think a couple of students would say, “You know it wouldn’t matter what your opinion was; it wouldn’t change mine.” In that sense I was very proud of the students because if they strongly feel that way, I think I’ve taught them to have their own opinions and be critical and not just buy anything I say. I made a conscious decision to stay neutral and undecided so I could really be fair to all sides because we are dealing with students who have very passionate opinions about these candidates and we are also dealing with a number of students who are really undecided and observing the campaign to make up their minds. I didn’t want to influence that in any way.