The Great Debates: Resource Book

About this curriculum

The Resource Book for the Great Debates problem-based learning (PBL) unit contains primary source documents and other materials that teachers will need to provide to students as they work through the unit. National Association for Gifted Children Curriculum Award-Winner! The Great Debates puts students in the stakeholder role of media consultants for Vice President Richard Nixon in his 1960 election bid for president. The election is just weeks away, and Nixon’s poll numbers have dropped as Senator John F. Kennedy has gained in popularity, partly due to the senator’s success in the first-ever televised presidential debates. The medium of television is brand new in this election cycle, and both candidates are learning how to capitalize on it to help them win the election. Nixon’s team has not done a good job at that thus far. The students are tasked with learning about the campaign messaging strategies of both the Nixon and the Kennedy camps to discover what Kennedy is doing that seems to be working for him and where Nixon’s strengths lie. They conduct additional research on messaging that will enable them to reshape Nixon’s public image to make him more appealing to voters…