Gerrymandering and RedistrictingActivities & Teaching Strategies
Active learning works for gerrymandering because the topic blends abstract political theory with concrete spatial reasoning. When students physically draw districts or role-play commission hearings, they confront the human choices behind seemingly neutral lines, making fairness debates tangible rather than abstract.
Learning Objectives
- 1Analyze how the criteria for drawing political districts (e.g., equal population, contiguity, compactness) can be manipulated during redistricting.
- 2Evaluate the fairness of a given congressional map by applying principles of equal representation and partisan balance.
- 3Design a hypothetical redistricting plan for a small, simplified state, justifying the choices made to achieve specific electoral outcomes.
- 4Compare the historical and contemporary impacts of gerrymandering on voter turnout and the accountability of elected officials.
- 5Explain the legal arguments and Supreme Court decisions that permit partisan gerrymandering while restricting racial gerrymandering.
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Map Drawing Challenge: Draw Your Own District
Using a simplified grid with voter distribution data, student teams receive three different instructions: draw the fairest possible map; draw a map that favors Party A; draw a map that favors Party B. Teams compare maps and discuss what specific choices produced different electoral outcomes.
Prepare & details
Justify who should decide the boundaries of political districts.
Facilitation Tip: During the Map Drawing Challenge, circulate with a timer visible so students experience the pressure of 'just one more tweak' that could lock in an advantage.
Setup: Groups at tables with case materials
Materials: Case study packet (3-5 pages), Analysis framework worksheet, Presentation template
Role Play: Redistricting Commission Hearing
One group represents a partisan legislature defending their maps; another represents a citizens' advocacy group challenging them; a third panel plays state court judges. The class evaluates arguments using explicit criteria: compactness, community preservation, partisan fairness, and racial equity.
Prepare & details
Analyze the rights in tension when political parties draw their own maps.
Facilitation Tip: For the Role Play hearing, assign specific roles (e.g., incumbent, community advocate, neutral chair) with brief role sheets to prevent vague statements.
Setup: Open space or rearranged desks for scenario staging
Materials: Character cards with backstory and goals, Scenario briefing sheet
Gallery Walk: Infamous Gerrymanders in History
Post five to six historical examples of notorious districts with maps and context (the original Gerry salamander, North Carolina's 12th Congressional District, Illinois's 4th, Texas's 2003 re-redistricting). Students annotate: What technique was used? Who benefited? What was the legal outcome?
Prepare & details
Explain how redistricting impacts the accountability of elected officials.
Facilitation Tip: In the Gallery Walk, post a large sheet at each map with T-chart headings 'Fair' and 'Unfair' so students physically categorize examples before discussing.
Setup: Wall space or tables arranged around room perimeter
Materials: Large paper/poster boards, Markers, Sticky notes for feedback
Data Analysis: The Efficiency Gap
Introduce students to the efficiency gap metric (wasted votes formula). Provide a simplified dataset for two hypothetical states. Students calculate efficiency gaps and decide whether either state's map should be challenged in court, presenting their reasoning.
Prepare & details
Justify who should decide the boundaries of political districts.
Setup: Groups at tables with case materials
Materials: Case study packet (3-5 pages), Analysis framework worksheet, Presentation template
Teaching This Topic
Teachers should treat redistricting as a design problem with constraints, not a morality tale. Research shows students grasp gerrymandering best when they manipulate variables themselves (e.g., changing district shapes to see how seat shares change) rather than reading case studies. Avoid framing it as 'one side is bad'—instead highlight that both parties face identical incentives under current rules, which is why reform is so difficult.
What to Expect
Students will demonstrate understanding by identifying partisan strategies in district maps, justifying their own redistricting decisions with fairness criteria, and connecting procedural choices to real-world electoral outcomes. Success looks like clear articulation of trade-offs between competitiveness, geographic integrity, and partisan advantage.
These activities are a starting point. A full mission is the experience.
- Complete facilitation script with teacher dialogue
- Printable student materials, ready for class
- Differentiation strategies for every learner
Watch Out for These Misconceptions
Common MisconceptionDuring the Role Play: Redistricting Commission Hearing, watch for students who assume the hearing will produce fair maps because 'experts are in charge.'
What to Teach Instead
Use the hearing’s final vote tally to show that nonpartisan commissioners still face pressure to prioritize party loyalty. Have students tally how often fairness criteria (compactness, community of interest) are invoked versus partisan goals in their testimonies.
Common MisconceptionDuring the Gallery Walk: Infamous Gerrymanders in History, watch for students who conflate odd shapes with gerrymandering.
What to Teach Instead
Point to Maryland’s 3rd district map and ask students to trace how the shape connects distant communities while excluding nearby ones. Have them highlight the 'bacon strip' corridor that links two urban centers—an example of packing that serves partisan goals despite regular geometry.
Common MisconceptionDuring the Data Analysis: The Efficiency Gap activity, watch for students who assume compact districts are automatically fair.
What to Teach Instead
Use the efficiency gap calculator to show how a compact district can 'crack' a demographic group by slicing through three urban neighborhoods. Provide a side-by-side comparison: one compact district that splits a 60% blue area into three districts with 45%, 25%, and 20% blue votes.
Assessment Ideas
After the Map Drawing Challenge, collect students' redrawn maps and one-sentence explanations. Use a rubric to score how clearly they applied packing or cracking strategies and justified their choices with at least one specific demographic or geographic feature.
After the Role Play: Redistricting Commission Hearing, facilitate a debate where students must cite at least one real-world example from the Gallery Walk (e.g., Pennsylvania’s 2018 map) to support their argument about citizen roles in redistricting reform.
During the Gallery Walk, ask students to define gerrymandering in their own words on a sticky note and attach it to one map they think exemplifies it. Collect notes to assess whether they connect the practice to accountability impacts like weakened opposition or safe incumbents.
Extensions & Scaffolding
- Challenge: After the Efficiency Gap activity, ask students to calculate the gap for their own district maps and propose a rule change that would reduce it below 8%.
- Scaffolding: For students struggling with the Map Drawing Challenge, provide a pre-drawn map with clear geographic features (rivers, highways) to anchor their districts.
- Deeper exploration: Invite a local election official or redistricting reform advocate to debrief the Role Play hearing using actual state criteria and public testimony transcripts.
Key Vocabulary
| Redistricting | The process of redrawing the boundaries of electoral districts, typically for congressional and state legislative seats, to reflect population changes after each census. |
| Gerrymandering | The practice of drawing electoral district boundaries in a way that favors one political party or group, often by concentrating or dispersing voters. |
| Packing | A gerrymandering technique that concentrates voters of the opposing party into a few districts, ensuring they win those districts overwhelmingly but lose elsewhere. |
| Cracking | A gerrymandering technique that divides voters of the opposing party among many districts, diluting their voting power in each district. |
| Contiguity | The requirement that all parts of a single electoral district must be connected geographically. |
| Compactness | The principle that electoral districts should be drawn in a regular, somewhat square or circular shape, rather than being irregular or elongated. |
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