Purpose and Overview
©2007 Interact - www.teachinteract.com Women Win the Vote - Teacher Guide 5
Purpose and Overview
What is Women Win the Vote?
Women Win the Vote is a simulation for fourth- to eighth-grade students
that immerses them in the study of the struggle for women’s suffrage in the
United States. In teams, students research a suffrage activist, exploring the
activist’s background, challenges, and triumphs in the quest for women’s
suffrage. Teams use Research Logs to aid their investigations, then share their
findings in a class Sharing Session. In this way, all students learn about the
many significant people involved in the struggle for women’s suffrage.
Students then create a class time line depicting significant events leading
to women winning the vote. This time line will show the progression of the
struggle, beginning with the Seneca Falls Convention and ending with the
ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution. A political
cartoon analysis activity then gives students a better sense of the viewpoints
expressed during this time period.
Students then perform skits depicting important events in the struggle for
women’s suffrage in Winning the Vote Theater. Or, you may choose to have
students take part in the Women’s Suffrage Wax Museum activity or the
International Women’s Suffrage Panels. Each activity provides students with a
more in-depth look at the women’s suffrage movement.
After learning about suffrage activists and the background of the suffragist
movement, students participate in the culminating activity—the Women’s
Suffrage Convention. For this event, students write a persuasive speech,
either in favor of or against women’s suffrage, and deliver it for classmates
and invited guests. At the convention, selected students also read the
Nineteenth Amendment, and students attending the convention use ballots
to vote on women’s suffrage. The convention concludes with a discussion
on the importance of voting and the changes in women’s roles due to the
Nineteenth Amendment.
A condensed lesson plan, designed to
be completed in five days, is
included in addition to the
full eight-day lesson plan.
Suffrage activists parade
for the right to vote in
1917. Courtesy of the
Library of Congress.
From 'Women Win the Vote'. Product code INT900.
Interact. (800) 359-0961. http://www.teachinteract.com/