The Literacy Assistance Center has partnered with Community Votes to launch a new Voter Engagement Project for adult education programs. The goal is to get more eligible New Yorkers to vote, especially in low-income communities that are often underrepresented at the polls. As part of this project, teachers in the CUNY Adult Literacy Program developed ESOL, ABE, and HSE lesson plans which integrate academic skills with civics content relevant for the GED Social Studies test. The lessons incorporate skills such as conversation practice, reading strategies, writing narratives, creating timelines, and interpreting graphs and charts. The complete lesson plans with classroom materials are available to the field through the links above.

You can also find the lessons, along with related resources, at the following Wakelet page: https://bit.ly/cunyalpVOTE.

ESOL High Beginning / Intermediate: My Voice, My Future
(written by Leah Clay-Youman)

ESOL Advanced: Voting in the United States
(written by Martie Flores)

In these ESOL lessons, students will learn about voting as just one way to use their voices to support issues that matter to them. First, they explore the terms “issues” and “matters” to discuss issues of importance to them and their communities. They then delve into topics such as: What are the levels of government? Who are my representatives at the various levels? How can they help me? What are political parties and how do they differ? When did various groups of people gain the right to vote? They will learning explicit reading strategies while reading articles from the Change Agent, and view clips from the powerful WeSpeakNYC episode, Shola’s Voice. In the final lesson, students will demonstrate their comprehension of voting rights within a historical context by creating an online interactive timeline.

HSE ELA: Stories of Voting
(written by Carol Cashion)

Students will explore the experience and consider the value of voting through first person narratives presented in both text and video form. In reading, viewing, and analyzing these narratives, students will determine each speaker or writer’s purpose and main idea. Students will then compare how, and how well, paired narratives make the case for voting, judging which narrative more successfully achieves the purpose these narratives share. As a follow-on activity, students will prepare for and conduct an interview with a friend or family member and collect a voting narrative that they will then write up and share, using the published narratives as inspiration. Academic content and skills include reading for purpose and main idea, using percents and fractions, topics found on the ELA and math sections of the GED exam.

HSE Math: Your Money, Your Taxes, Your Voice
(written by Carol Cashion)

In this lesson, students will consider the value of voting through the lens of the question, “Where Do Your Taxes Go?” Students will begin by examining a pay stub and performing some calculations—what taxes are withheld, by what government level, and for what purpose? Students will then be presented with pie graph data on budgeting and spending at the city, state, and federal level. Students will analyze and compare these graphs to gain a greater understanding of how, and from where, the government services they value are funded through their taxes. Students will compare the size of budgets as well as the allocations within each budget, developing their number sense and applying and further developing their understanding of percentages and ratios. Finally, using the “Who Represents Me?” website, students will identify who represents them at each level of government in the legislative and executive branches. Students will select one official to whom they will write and send an email expressing their views on how, if at all, they wish spending to be reallocated to better align with their priorities. Academic content and skills include levels and branches of government, interpreting graphs and charts, and using percents and fractions, topics found on the social studies and math sections of the GED exam.

For more voter materials suited for adult learners, see COABE’s collection of voter resources. The collection includes links to the following:

• The Change Agent’s issue on voting and democracy, written by adult learners and educators
• I am a citizen; how do I vote? A lesson by Literacy Minnesota
• US election map collection (1789-2020): Each presidential election shows the electoral, popular, and total votes as percentages.
• and many other resources