Assessment
1. Students complete a teacher-created rubric to assess their understanding of the ways to influence and effect
change, the importance of voting, and their contributions to the group.
2. As part of the rubric, students summarize their learning in a "learning statement."
3. After students complete the rubric, comment on their participation and progress for this unit.
Learning Context/ Introduction
Students examine a variety of primary source documents related to the women's suffrage movement. They identify different methods people used to influence and change attitudes and beliefs about suffrage for women. Students then create original documents encouraging citizens to vote in current elections.
Suffrage strategies continued
March in a parade
• Official program - Woman suffrage procession, Washington, D.C. March 3, 1913
• Suffragists marching, probably in New York City in 1913
• Suffrage parade, New York City, May 6, 1912
• Head of suffrage parade, Washington, D.C.
Form a political party
• The woman's party campaign for equal rights
Perform a pageant or skit
• Florence F. Noyes as "Liberty" in suffrage pageant
Seek endorsement by other groups
• "Woman suffrage co-equal with man suffrage."
Walk in a picket line
• The first picket line - College day in the picket line
Write a declaration
• Declaration of Sentiments Adopted at Seneca Fall Convention, 1848
Write a book, pamphlet or news article
• Widen the Horizon
Write a persuasive letter
• Frederick Douglass letter
Write a petition
• The Memorial of Victoria C. Woodhull
Write a resolution
• Resolutions adopted at Seneca Falls Convention, 1848
Write a song
• Shall women vote
• Suffrage song
Tips for your display:
1. This is a small sampling of primary source suffrage material available online.
2. Laminate your documents in order to preserve them.
3. Make sure to include complete bibliographic material on the reverse of the document.
4. Older students may wish to locate and prepare their own suffrage documents.
Lesson One
Motivational Student Activity (10-15 minutes)
1. Conduct a class vote for a current political candidate with only boys voting.
2. Tally votes, but do not reveal results.
3. Conduct a girls' vote.
4. Reveal the winner, based on the boys' vote.
5. Add the girls' vote to the boys' vote.
6. Discuss results. Did the vote change by adding the female vote?
7. Chart or graph results.
Student Brainstorming Activity (10-15 minutes)
1. Discuss these questions with students.
• How would you persuade someone to vote for you?
• How could you effect change individually or as a member of a group?
2. Brainstorm and compile a list of strategies that people use to influence others' opinions and, thus, effect
change.
Vocabulary Activity (25 minutes)
1. Review suffrage, campaign and election-related vocabulary:
address, association, banner, broadside, convention, declaration, delegate, editorial, endorse, ephemera,
issues, pageant, pamphlet, persuade, petition, picket line, platform, political party, proclamation, resolution,
strategy, suffrage
2. Tip: Use an online dictionary like Merriam-Webster to access the definitions.
Lesson Two
Review Activity
1. Review how to analyze photographs, documents and ephemera.
2. Give each student a copy of a photograph.
3. Help students analyze the photograph using the What Do You See: Photo Analysis Guide.
4. Next, direct students to a piece of text.
5. Help students analyze the text using the How Does it Read Guide.
Lesson Three
Student Small Group Activity (30-35 minutes)
1. Before beginning, display suffrage vocabulary list prominently in the classroom. Some students might need
individual copies of the list.
2. Divide students into small groups.
3. Distribute several primary source documents to each group.
4. Instruct students to examine the documents and to identify strategies that were used by suffragists to influence
and change attitudes about suffrage for women.
5. Have each group generate a list of these suffrage strategies.
6. Have a reporter from each group share identified strategies.
7. Compile a class list.
Student Class Discussion Activity (10-15 minutes)
1. Before beginning, appoint a class recorder to take notes on chart paper.
2. Discuss the importance of women having the right to vote.
3. Discuss the struggle and strategies they used to earn suffrage.
4. Discussion questions might include:
• Why is women's vote important today?
• Do more men than women vote today? Why or why not?
• Is it important to vote?
• Why do you think people vote?
• Why do you think people don't vote.
Objectives
While completing this project, students will:
• examine a variety of primary source documents to learn about the history of suffrage for women;
• learn that there are many ways to influence and effect change;
• understand that it took the efforts of many people over time for women to gain the right to vote; and
• use their knowledge from studying the suffrage movement to create modern day election ephemera.
Procedure
The procedure for this learning experience consists of the following parts:
Preparation - Create classroom displays using items from American Memory.
Lesson One - Hold a mock election and learn campaign related vocabulary.
Lesson Two - Learn how to analyze photographs, documents and ephemera.
Lesson Three - Investigate primary sources and discuss the importance of women's suffrage.
Lesson Four - Create a document or piece of ephemera to influence public opinion.
Preparation
Collection and Preparation of Documents
Before beginning the unit, collect and print out primary source documents from American Memory and other sources that relate to strategies used to achieve women's suffrage. See How to Print and Save for printing tips.
Create motivational displays in the classroom, hall or library. Choose from the documents in the table below.
Note: Plan for sufficient amount of time to complete the display.
Suffrage strategies might include:
Create a political banner
• Suffragists Mrs. Stanley McCormick and Mrs. Charles Parker, April 22, 1913
Create and wear a political button or pin
• Yellow delegates' ribbon with white button
Create a political ribbon
• Yellow ribbon from 1911 Suffrage Parade
Draw a political cartoon
• The apotheosis of suffrage
• Election Day
• Women's sphere cartoon
Design a postcard
• Postcard of Abraham Lincoln statue with suffrage caption
• Postcard of Lucretia Mott
• "Men who love freedom" postcard
Disobey the law to make a statement
• An account of the proceedings on the trial of Susan B. Anthony
Design a poster or broadside
• Suffrage campaign days in New Jersey.
• Broadside on suffrage parade, New York City, April 1911
• Votes for women! The woman's reason. ... National American woman suffrage association. Headquarters: 505
Fifth Avenue, New York
Form an association
• Woman suffrage headquarters in Upper Euclid Avenue, Cleveland
• Suffragists Mrs. Stanley McCormick and Mrs. Charles Parker, April 22, 19132
• Anne F. Miller's NAWSA membership certificate
Meet with government officials
• Address to the Legislature of New-York, adopted by the State Woman's Rights Convention
• Governor Edwin P. Morrow signing the Anthony Amendment--Ky. was the twenty-fourth state to ratify, January
6, 1920
Give a speech
• Stump speaking--In the days of "Old Dobbin" and Derby hats Mrs. Harriot Stanton Blatch exhorted the Wall
Street crowds
• Breaking in suffrage speakers - Mrs. E.R. Smith
• The constitutional rights of the women of the United States: an address before the International Council of
Women
Hold a convention
• The first convention ever called to discuss the civil and political rights of women, Seneca Falls, N.Y., July 19,
20, 1848
• 26th Convention of the Kentucky equal rights
Lesson Four
Student Individual Activity/Project/Product
Each student will:
1. Identify a voter related issue which causes people at the local, state or national level to voice their opinion
(examples: political candidates, environment, education)
2. Decide which candidate or election issue to support.
3. Select a suffrage/campaign/election strategy from the class generated list which would be effective in
influencing people's opinions about a current candidate or election issue.
4. Explain why this strategy was selected and why it would be effective.
5. Design a document or ephemera to influence public opinion. (Examples: button, poster, speech)
Resources/Materials
American Memory
• An American Time Capsule: Three Centuries of Broadsides and Other Printed Ephemera
• By Popular Demand: "Votes for Women" Suffrage Pictures, 1850-1920
• One Hundred Years toward Suffrage: An Overview
• Votes for Women: Selections from the National American Woman Suffrage Association Collection, 1848-1921
Other Internet Resources
• Western New York Suffragists: Winning the Vote
• TeAch-nology rubric generator
Books
• Corey, Shana. You Forgot Your Skirt, Amelia Bloomer. New York: Scholastic Press, 2000.
• Fritz, Jean. You Want Women to Vote, Lizzie Stanton? New York: Putnam's, 1995.
• Hakim, Joy. Reconstruction and Reform. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
• Hakim, Joy. War, Peace, and All That Jazz. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
• Hodges, Elaine Prater. Seneca Falls: Achieving Women's Rights (Volume 12 - Teaching With Primary
Sources Series) Chicago: EPH Productions.
• McCully, Emily Arnold. The Ballot Box Battle. New York: Knopf, 1996
• Sullivan, George. The Day the Women Got the Vote: A Photo History of the Women's Rights Movement. New
York: Scholastic, 1994.
Extension
1. Search the web for additional past and present examples of campaign and suffrage documents and ephemera.
The following links provide helpful information:
America Votes
Project Vote Smart
2. Complete a voter registration form. Forms for each state can be found at How to Register to Vote in the United
States.
3. Write a persuasive letter to the local paper encouraging citizens to vote.
4. Hold a post-election party.
5. Invite a local candidate or a speaker from the League of Women Voters to discuss elections and voting with
students.
6. As a class, collect items for and create an election ephemera scrapbook or display.
7. Using the American Memory suffrage timeline, create a suffrage timeline museum to depict major events in the
struggle for womens' suffrage. Divide students into research groups based on the time periods and categories
listed below. Gather documents and create displays in chronological order. Encourage students to be creative.
Invite other classes to visit the museum.
1800 - 1849
1850 - 1874
1875 - 1899
1900 - 1920
Current elections
Divide each time period above into the following categories:
Firsts
Historical context
People
Publications
Tip: For current candidates, focus on their issues, education and personal information (family, hobbies, etc.)
8. Use a Venn diagram to compare and contrast past and present strategies used to win elections.
Duration
Four 45-minute instructional periods.
Author
By Gail Petri and Doris Waud
Source
Reproduced from the Library of Congress web site for teachers. Original lesson plan created as part of the Library of Congress American Memory Fellows Program.
