Idaho Social Studies 9-12.GOV.52
The Standard
Analyze the influence of political parties, media coverage, campaign advertising, interest groups, public opinion polls, social media, and digital communications on elections.
Idaho Content Standards: K-12 Social Studies · The American Electoral System
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students trace how party support, news reports, paid ads, interest groups, polls, social posts, and campaign texts or emails can shape voter choices. They identify who made each message and explain how it might reach or influence voters.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Given election materials, a student can tell a paid ad from a news report, identify who paid for the ad, and check whom a poll surveyed. They can explain a likely effect without claiming that one message decided the election.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may treat a political post as independent news or assume a poll predicts the final vote exactly. They may think an interest-group ad speaks for a candidate or that a widely shared post must have changed votes.
How to Assess It
- Give students a mock poll of 300 likely voters, an interest-group ad, and a news headline. Ask them to name each source, one possible effect on voters, and one reason the poll might miss the final result.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs mock party mailers, news clips, ads, poll charts, interest-group flyers, social posts, and campaign texts to sort by source and purpose.
Ask, “Which might sway an undecided voter more, a news report or a paid ad?” Have students cite one detail from each.
Play source detective: show six message cards and have teams name the sender, intended audience, and one limit on each message’s influence.
Find a local school board candidate’s website and a news report, then compare what each tells voters and what each leaves out.
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