Student Resources:

• A piece of paper and writing utensil
• The Causes and Effects of the Election of 1800 Essay

Facilitation Notes

• This lesson assumes students have an understanding of the electoral college. Help prepare students with the background information needed with the following resources:
  • Electoral College E-Lesson
  • Electoral College Homework Help Video

Anticipate

• Display this scenario on the board:
  Imagine you accidentally woke up a half an hour later than normal on a school day. What effects would that have on the rest of your morning? On your day?
• Have students discuss their ideas in pairs and share with the class. Encourage them to identify at least 3 effects that occur because they woke up late.
• Tell students “Cause and effect relationships happen in history too. Sometimes events that happen can lead to effects as big as amendments to the Constitution.”

Engage

• Ask students to define “revolution” in their own words.
• Think-pair-share answers then ask, “What common themes do we see in the answers?”
  • In think-pair-share, students consider a question, find a partner, then share their answer. Partners can be assigned or chosen by students, depending on your group of learners.
• As a class, come up with one definition for “revolution” and write it on the board to be referenced later.
• Tell students: “Today we will be looking at an election that some historians call a revolution. We are going to look at a series of cause-and-effect relationships to determine if we think the election was revolutionary.”

Explore

• Distribute and read the appropriate reading based on the level.
• As students read, ask them to record 3 cause and effect relationships from the essay on their paper.
• Give students key words to include, such as Electoral College, Election of 1796, Political Parties, president and vice president, Election of 1800, or the Twelfth Amendment.
  • Examples of cause and effect may include:
    • There was debate over how to elect the president, so the electoral college was a compromise.
    • First and second place in the electoral college votes became president and vice president so P and VP ended up being members from different political parties in 1796.
    • In 1800 there was a tie in the Electoral College vote, the election went to the House of Representatives where eventually they picked Thomas Jefferson.
    • The Twelfth Amendment was ratified, changing the way the Electoral College votes for president and vice president.
• Call on several students to share their cause-and-effect relationships.
• While sharing, review the Twelfth Amendment with students.
  • The Twelfth Amendment ensures each elector in the Electoral College casts a vote for the president and vice president, instead of first place vote getter becoming president and the second-place vote getter becoming vice president.
• Have students select their most significant cause and effect relationship from the essay.
• Optional Activity- Using two different color highlighters, one for cause and one for effect, students could highlight on their essay where they find the cause-and-effect relationships.

Assess & Reflect

• Return to the class created “revolution” definition, and ask students “Would you consider the Election of 1800 to be a revolution based on our definition? Explain.” Ask students to write a thesis and give context to support their answer.
• Though it took a long time to settle the election of 1800, the electoral process did ultimately produce a winner. Do you think it was really necessary to pass the Twelfth Amendment? Why or why not?