I Got The Vote Out Project

by | Aug 29, 2025 | Dr. Rose Commentary, Dr. Rose Herstory, Election Read Aloud Choices

Literacy Lesson - Dr. Rose Cherie Reissman
Sticker Arts Project - Therese Liffey

As we approach our 250th anniversary, there is a needed rush to infuse our students curriculum with citizenship studies and to engage them even before they can actually cast a ballot in the election process. While crucial educational efforts are going full blast for students from grades 3 up, many educators and administrators do not focus as intensely on our youngest
citizens, grades k-2. These bright children are also ready to explore and to experience what it means to be an engaged citizen in our democracy. Many children’s authors, among them Mark Shulman, realize how important early start civics literacy tenets are for young learners.

In I Voted- Making a Choice, Makes a Difference, Mark Shulman in collaboration with illustrator Serge Bloch, succeeds in demystifying the voting process in a way that can also explicate it for any adults not bothering to vote as well. Illustrator Serge Bloch goes minimal with delightful hand, computer and ink relatable figures. Shulman’s text explains voting in terms of nurturing a young child (target reader) making a choice between two items and deciding which he or she likes better. The choices are all items children connect with like trampolines, markers, crayons and other desirables. In this context, Shulman includes hard choices between ice cream and cupcakes. He then defines voting as making a choice. Once that definition has been set in terms that young learners grasp, Shulman then progresses to group choices. He wisely guides and connects them to relatable k-2 experience choices such as choosing a class pet or a mascot. Using that experience of a class vote on a choice, Shulman then explains campaigning for the individual child’s choice in terms of talking to other class members to persuade them to vote for the desired choice. Illustrator Bloch conscious of the fact that young learners are not ready for intensive dialogue quotes in a bubble fills his bubbles with color and pictures of the desired choices.

Having established and contextualized the campaigning for a desired choice in terms that the students can understand, Shulman then explains how the win plays out emotionally for the voter whose choice did not get majority of votes. He aptly sums it up: “But if you don’t vote, you don’t get to choose. And your vote might be the one that makes the difference.” This perfectly sums it up for young children and ironically, any adults not casting votes do well to consider this.

Using young child group votes and results, the work gracefully transitions to explicating adult education vote choices and how leaders are elected to make choices for those who elect them. The illustrations wisely place the choices the leaders make in terms of how they affect young children (such as entry to a public place or no. Using these situations, the vocabulary of voting for the children expands to include words like candidate, voting list, 18th birthday, and more. The story smartly concludes with a way that young citizens can be empowered to participate in the voting process immediately. Suggested is their going to the polls with adults to watch the process. It is very “child” fitting the last full page illustration is that of a child with six different “I voted” stickers. Author Mark Shulman concludes with clear concise back material that includes the steps and requirements for voting, the take action plan for young children, how the government works explicated simply, student involvement in school leadership and a list of print/online resources.

Read more and download Teaching Resources below.

Teaching Resources