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C-SPAN: American Presidents Life Portraits
Details
Main Website:
Activity Website:
Activity Description
Source: https://www.c-span.org/series/?presidents&pres=46 (License: Protected by Copyright (c) [i.e. screenshot])
In this activity, students watch a biographical vignette about an American president of choice and take notes. Students are then asked to write an essay about the president selected and share what they learned with the class. This site also has teacher guides for all 41 programs from C-SPAN’s television series, American Presidents: Life Portraits. There are also numerous video resources to enhance classroom instruction on presidents.
Preparation
- Make sure that the site is not blocked at your school and that the videos can be viewed.
- Preview the video and select the ones you want students to view.
- View resources about a president by selecting a president in the Pick a President dropdown menu at the top of the page.
- Prepare a template for students to fill in data about their president.
- Decide if you want students to work in groups or individually and which presidents you will be highlighting.
- Prepare a link on your computers, or class Web site so students can easily access the site.
Teacher Tips
The Web site can be used to enhance classroom instruction when presenting a certain period in history
More Ways
Be sure to check out the Teachers tab at the top.
Program Areas
- ASE: High School Diploma
- ABE: Adult Basic Education
- ASE: High School Equivalency Preparation
Lesson Plan
Warm-up
- Objective: Engage students' interest and activate prior knowledge about American presidents.
- Activity:
- Initiate a class discussion by asking students to name any American presidents they know and share interesting facts or accomplishments they remember.
- Use a quick poll or raise of hands to gauge which presidents are most familiar to the class.
Introduction
- Objective: Introduce students to the American Presidents: Life Portraits website and explain the project.
- Activity:
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- Demonstrate how to navigate the American Presidents: Life Portraits website.
- Show students how to select a president from the "Pick a President" dropdown menu.
- Explain the goal of the activity: to watch a biographical vignette, take notes, write an essay, and share their findings with the class.
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Presentation
- Objective: Provide detailed instructions and resources to students.
- Activity:
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- Distribute the prepared templates for note-taking.
- Explain the template components and how to fill it out while watching the vignette.
- Show a sample vignette and model note-taking using the template.
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Practice
Engagement
- Objective: Allow students to practice researching and taking notes.
- Activity:
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- Assign or let students select a president.
- Provide time in class for students to watch the vignettes and fill in their templates.
- Encourage students to work individually or in small groups, depending on the chosen format.
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Evaluation
- Objective: Assess students' understanding and research skills.
- Activity:
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- Students will write an essay about their selected president based on their notes.
- Provide a rubric detailing the criteria for the essay, including content accuracy, organization, grammar, and presentation.
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Application
Engagement
Enhancement
Extension
- Objective: Allow students to share their knowledge and practice public speaking.
- Activity:
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- Have students prepare a short presentation based on their essays.
- Each student (or group) will present their findings to the class.
- Facilitate a class discussion after each presentation, encouraging questions and additional insights.
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Documents
- Screenshot of American Presidents' page on C-SPAN.png - Screenshot of the Berkeley Whole Frog Project
Subjects
- Language Arts - Writing
- Language Facility
- Organization of Ideas
- Writing Conventions
- Reasoning Through Language Arts
- Mechanics (Capitalization, Punctuation, Spelling)
- Social Studies
- American Government
- U.S. History
- Writing
- Basic Sentences
- Mechanics (Capitalization, Punctuation, Spelling)
- Paragraph Skills
- Parts of Speech
- Report Writing
Standards
- Reading
- CCR Anchor 7 - Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse media and formats, including visually and quantitatively, as well as in words.
- Writing
- CCR Anchor 4 - Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
- CCR Anchor 5 - Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach.
Tags
C-SPAN, historical, history, portrait, president, presidential, resources, term, America, American, American Presidents