Make the President's Day holiday a meaningful experience for your students. This lesson is a great way to integrate President’s Day with your curriculum. This is a three day activity that will involve research, and presentation. Writing a conversation between presidents is a great way to integrate history and writing while allowing the teacher to evaluate reading comprehension, understanding of historical research, and writing skills.
Day 1: Research the Presidents
Students will choose two presidents to research. Their research will involve using encyclopedias, internet, or any other resources that are available. Direct students to take notes during their research and include three main topics: years in office, greatest accomplishments, and greatest challenges. If time allows, you may want to have the students come up with one or two other topics of interest. Having students come up with their own probing questions about the presidents allows them to have more ownership of their research. Many times we find that students have questions that they would like answered about famous people, but never take the time to look for those answers. Having "directed" freedom in research will often time inspire students to really dig in to their research.
Day 2: Writing – Create a Presidential Conversation
Students will use their research notes to create a conversation between the two chosen presidents. The conversation should include direct questions between the two which cover the three main research questions. Encourage your students to use language that two friends might use in a sit down conversation. This conversation will allow you to evaluate the students understanding of the information gained during the research process. The written conversation should follow the format of a magazine interview.
Example:
- Washington: What was your reaction to the southern states seceding from the union?
- Lincoln: It was a very trying time for the United States.
(If you are teaching writing dialogue you may want to format the conversation to allow students to practice writing dialogue.)
Once students have written their conversations, they should be paired with another student for proofreading each other's work. After proofreading has taken place, it is time for students to write a final draft of the conversation and prepare to present the conversation to the class.
Day 3: Presentation – Students Share Research with the Class
Students should present their conversations to the class. The presentation process will allow students to share their research with other students, as well as demonstrate their understanding and knowledge of the two presidents who were researched. Encourage your students to be as creative as they would like.
Some suggestions are to create stick puppets of the two presidents, pair up with a friend and dress like the presidents to present the conversation, or create a computer generated conversation between the two presidents. There are many possibilities to giving a creative presentation. Most of the time, students come up with very creative ideas on their own. You probably will want them to give you an overview of their plans before presentation day.
The goal is to evaluate reading comprehension, understanding of research, and writing skills. A second goal is to expose the students to as many presidents as possible. You may even want to monitor which presidents are chosen to insure variety among the presentations.
Sophie Lane - I am a wife and mother who loves writing and reading about various subjects. My teaching experience includes fifteen years with most time ...
