I've been planning a conversation lesson around the 2008 US presidential election and I thought I would share some resources I found.

With any conversation class, you want to make sure you have lots of background information. When dealing with something as complicated as the US election for president, the class is going to have a lot of questions. So you either need to read up and bring materials to look up anything you didn't memorize. Or you need resources that the students can read and research themselves.

Here is some great material to work with:
Article II of the Constitution which defines how a President is elected and the powers of the President. Links to relevant amendments are provided in the text.

Wikipedia also has the text of Article II with explanations in plain English. I wouldn't recommend giving beginner or pre-intermediate students the original text of the Constitution because it is difficult. Better to summarize for them.

Presidential and VP Debate transcripts from 2008 to 1960. Provided by the Commission on Presidential Debates, a non-profit that sponsors the debates. An interesting conversation topic there--should debates be sponsored by an independent organization or not?

Simplified readings on the candidates and the election process including a good explanation of the electoral college system.

If you have computers with the Internet in the classroom, All About Electing a President is a pretty good slideshow summary of the process from primary to election. And OneVote2008:Election Playbook has more in-depth guides to various topics like delegates and primaries.

On to lesson plans:
The New York Times provides lesson plans based on relevant issues and linked to articles. Good materials and interesting ideas. I particularly like the ones on political humor and cariactures because here in Kazakhstan, they love political humor but it's a bit taboo in the mainstream media.

This plan involves in-depth research on the political process in the US. It's best for intermediate-advanced students where your school has either access to the Internet or a good library. However the worksheets that students are expected to fill in also work well to guide questions or for a teacher to evaluate how much he/she knows.

Some conversation questions from Heads Up English on: Election 2008, Politics, and Freedom.

Finally a couple of quizzes I thought were fun: US Election Facts Quiz and a quiz to find out if you are a Democrat or a Republican.

If anyone has any other resources, feel free to leave a comment.