Rails Basic

Introduction

Lesson Overview

Grade Level: High School (11th–12th)

Subject

U.S Government

Utah Standards

U.S. Government Standard 3.1 (Citizenship & Participation), Standard 3.2 (Voting Rights)

Essential Question

Who gets to vote in America — and who decides?

Objectives:

Students will trace the expansion of voting rights from the Founding to today.

Students will analyze barriers to voting and efforts to remove them.

Students will evaluate current debates about voting access.

Utah State Standards Alignment

Day 2 Voting Today — Access and Barriers

Hook (10 min) Ask: "If you turned 18 tomorrow, how would you register to vote? What might make it harder or easier?" List student answers.

Mini-Lesson (20 min) Walk through current debates in plain language: voter ID laws, mail-in voting, early voting, polling place closures, gerrymandering (who draws district lines and why it matters), and the debate over restoring voting rights to people with felony convictions. Present both sides fairly.

Student Activity (15 min) "Design the Fair Election" — groups design a voting system for a hypothetical state and must balance access (easy to vote) with integrity (hard to cheat). Groups present one rule and defend it against class questions.

Phase 02

Day 1: The Long Road to the Ballot

Hook (10 min): Put up a timeline with these dates and ask students to guess what happened: 1789, 1870, 1920, 1965, 1971. Reveal: each is a milestone in who could vote.

Mini-Lesson (20 min): Walk through the expansion of suffrage: originally only white male property owners → 15th Amendment (1870, race) → 19th Amendment (1920, women) → Voting Rights Act (1965, ending literacy tests & poll taxes) → 26th Amendment (1971, 18-year-olds). Emphasize that each expansion was fought for, not given.

Student Activity (15 min): "Voices at the Door" — each group gets a character from history (a Black voter in 1965 Alabama, a woman in 1919, a Native American in 1950, an 18-year-old in 1971). Groups write a short monologue: "What do you have to do to vote, and what happens if they stop you?" Present to the class.

Phase 03

Exit Ticket (10 min): "One barrier to voting you learned about that surprised you — and one thing a citizen can do about it."

Lesson Finale

Exit Ticket

Primary Sources:

The 15th, 19th, 24th, and 26th Amendments (text)

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 (key excerpts)

"Give Us the Ballot" — Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1957 address

Documentaries:

"Eyes on the Prize" (PBS) — episodes on voting rights

"All In: The Fight for Democracy" (2020)

Books:

Ari Berman, Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America

Carol Anderson, One Person, No Vote

Voting Rights & Elections: The Ongoing Struggle for the Ballot