Voter Education: I am a citizen; how do I vote?

Please note, the curriculum contains website information and references to forms about voting in the state of Minnesota. These instances can be easily adapted to your states information if you do not live in Minnesota.

This curriculum contains five classroom lessons for adult English language learners, adult basic education, and citizenship classes that are based on stories for students to read, using a ‘real-life’ approach to learning. Follow Hawa, Fatima, Carlos, William, Nhong, Mai and Tran as they register to vote, learn about the candidates and issues, make choices, and finally cast their vote in the upcoming election.

In these lessons, students develop skills in reading, writing, speaking and critical thinking while they learn about a significant facet of life in the United States – voting and elections. All lessons include an original story, related vocabulary, a worksheet with questions for discussion, an activity, and relevant information for the instructor.

Listen to audio versions of the stories, and download the stories, discussion questions, and teacher instruction below.

Listen to Lesson 1: Registering to vote

Listen to Lesson 2: Learning about levels of government

Listen to Lesson 3: Learning about the candidates and the issues

Listen to Lesson 4: Making a choice 

Listen to Lesson 5: Casting a vote

Listen to All Five Lessons with Narration

NEW Additional resource - Stories for First-time Voters: A student version of the Voter Stories, this version was written to be used by students in a computer lab, or to be handed out as a print copy/ independent resource.

Written as a contribution to democracy and education by Meredith Sommers 

ESL/English Language Teacher and Citizenship Teacher

Information for the five lessons is from the Minnesota Secretary of State’s Office and the League of Women Voters.