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C-SPAN: American Presidents Life Portraits

Details

Main Website:
https://www.americanpresidents.org/
Activity Website:
https://www.americanpresidents.org/

Activity Description

 

American Presidents Series
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

  1. Make sure that the site is not blocked at your school and that the videos can be viewed.
  2. Preview the video and select the ones you want students to view.
  3. View resources about a president by selecting a president in the Pick a President dropdown menu at the top of the page.
  4. Prepare a template for students to fill in data about their president.
  5. Decide if you want students to work in groups or individually and which presidents you will be highlighting.
  6. 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
  1. Objective: Engage students' interest and activate prior knowledge about American presidents.
  2. 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
  1. Objective: Introduce students to the American Presidents: Life Portraits website and explain the project.
  2. Activity:
      • 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.
Presentation
  1. Objective: Provide detailed instructions and resources to students.
  2. Activity:
      • 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.
Practice
Engagement
  1. Objective: Allow students to practice researching and taking notes.
  2. Activity:
      • 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.
Evaluation
  1. Objective: Assess students' understanding and research skills.
  2. Activity:
      • 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.
Application
Engagement Enhancement Extension
  1. Objective: Allow students to share their knowledge and practice public speaking.
  2. Activity:
      • 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.

Documents

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

Conditions

General use of The Video - Permissions and Restrictions C‑SPAN hereby grants you permission to access and use the Content as set forth in these Terms and Conditions, provided that you agree not to alter or modify any part of the Content (including, without limitation, the 'C SPAN' brand) or any of its related technologies, except that you may use the tools we provide to create and post video clips. You agree not to use the Content for any commercial use without the prior written authorization of C‑SPAN. Prohibited commercial uses include (but are not limited to) any of the following actions taken without C‑SPAN's express approval. You may not: sell access to the Content on another website; use the Content for the primary purpose of gaining advertising or subscription revenue, or soliciting donations; sell advertising on any third-party website targeted to the content of specific C SPAN Content; Any use of the Content (or other C‑SPAN resources available on the website) by you that C‑SPAN, in its sole discretion, determines competes with or may displace the market for the C‑SPAN Networks (including, C‑SPAN, C‑SPAN2, and C‑SPAN 3, C SPAN Radio, the website www.c‑span.org and the sites associated with it ) or for the Content in general, is strictly prohibited. The following uses are permitted: using the Content on an ad-enabled blog or website, provided the primary purpose of using the Content is not to gain advertising revenue or to compete with C‑SPAN; and any use that C‑SPAN expressly authorizes in writing.
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OTAN activities are funded by contract CN220124 from the Adult Education Office, in the Career & College Transition Division, California Department of Education, with funds provided through Federal P.L., 105-220, Section 223. However, OTAN content does not necessarily reflect the position of that department or the U.S. Department of Education.