Modern PolarizationAll 5 grade bands · K-2 through APFree download

2012

Lesson plan.

Barack Obama vs Mitt Romney — Obama won re-election over former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney despite high unemployment and slow economic recovery from the 2008 crash. The Obama campaign's sophisticated data analytics and ground game proved decisive, turning out supporters in key swing states. Romney's '47 percent' comment (secretly recorded at a private fundraiser) damaged his image as caring only for the wealthy. Sandy, the superstorm, struck a week before the election, giving Obama a bipartisan moment with New Jersey Governor Chris Christie that reinforced his presidential image.

The 2012 U.S. presidential election sent Barack Obama (Democratic) to the White House. Barack Obama took 332 of the 538 electoral votes to Mitt Romney's 206. Barack Obama led the national popular vote with 51.06%. The race falls within the Modern Polarization era; the lesson packets below dig into its central debates, with Economic recovery among the major themes.

What is in each packet

Cover

Cycle metadata + band eyebrow

Lesson plan

Instructor — timing, materials, standards

Reading

Sized to grade band (K-2: ~250 words → AP: ~650)

Background

Curated cycles — 5-7 vocab terms + primary-source excerpt

Student worksheet

K-2: 3 questions → AP: 8, mixed format

Answer key

Instructor — rationale on every item

Discussion prompts

3 prompts tied to era

DBQ (AP only)

Long-essay + 5-point rubric + second source

Download by grade band

K-2
Story
4 pp
20 min
Free
Classroom packet
One email unlocks every packet.
300 PDFs across 60 cycles and 5 grade bands. We send a short note when new packets or curriculum-aligned versions ship — that's it. No spam, no list-sharing.
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3-5
Reading
5 pp
35 min
Free
Classroom packet
One email unlocks every packet.
300 PDFs across 60 cycles and 5 grade bands. We send a short note when new packets or curriculum-aligned versions ship — that's it. No spam, no list-sharing.
Enter your email
One email per browser. Stored only to notify you when new packets ship.
6-8
Reading
6 pp
50 min
Free
Classroom packet
One email unlocks every packet.
300 PDFs across 60 cycles and 5 grade bands. We send a short note when new packets or curriculum-aligned versions ship — that's it. No spam, no list-sharing.
Enter your email
One email per browser. Stored only to notify you when new packets ship.
9-12
Source
8 pp
75 min
Free
Classroom packet
One email unlocks every packet.
300 PDFs across 60 cycles and 5 grade bands. We send a short note when new packets or curriculum-aligned versions ship — that's it. No spam, no list-sharing.
Enter your email
One email per browser. Stored only to notify you when new packets ship.
AP
DBQ
12 pp
105 min
Free
Classroom packet
One email unlocks every packet.
300 PDFs across 60 cycles and 5 grade bands. We send a short note when new packets or curriculum-aligned versions ship — that's it. No spam, no list-sharing.
Enter your email
One email per browser. Stored only to notify you when new packets ship.

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Read further

Curated picks

Why We're Polarized

Ezra Klein

How modern American politics got this way.

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The Bitter End

John Sides et al.

How Trump and the 2020 election reshaped the parties.

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Confidence Man

Maggie Haberman

Trump in his own habitat.

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