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Using Primary Sources:
Letters from the Presidents
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Subjects
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Grades 6-8, 9-12 |
Brief Description
This lesson introduces students to the minds and thoughts of presidents through their actual letters.
Objectives
Students
- learn about the personal lives of presidents.
- learn about presidents' personal and familial relationships.
- learn about the character and personalities of presidents.
- learn about how presidents reacted to the historic events in which they participated.
Keywords
biography, diary, journal, letter, president
Materials Needed
Lesson Plan
This lesson by seventh-grade teacher Steven Vetter comes from American Presidents: Life Portraits, a companion Web site to C-SPAN's 20th Anniversary Television Series American Presidents: Life Portraits. In the activity, students learn about the presidents by touring the American Presidents Web site. Then they choose one president and read a letter written by him. They use the letter to respond in writing to a set of questions that deal with its components and what it reveals about the writer. As a wrap-up to the activity, students create essays in response to one of five assignments.See the complete lesson at Using Primary Sources: Letters from the Presidents. There Vetter shares his rationale for the lesson and for using primary source documents in Using Letters of the Presidents in the Classroom.
Assessment
Evaluate students' written compositions.
Lesson Plan Source
American Presidents
Submitted By
Cara Bafile
National Standards
LANGUAGE ARTS: English
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GRADES K - 12
NL-ENG.K-12.1 Reading for Perspective
NL-ENG.K-12.2 Reading for Understanding
NL-ENG.K-12.4 Communication Skills
NL-ENG.K-12.5 Communication Strategies
NL-ENG.K-12.8 Developing Research Skills
SOCIAL SCIENCES: Civics
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GRADES 5 - 8
NSS-C.5-8.1 Civic Life, Politics, and Government -
GRADES 9 - 12
NSS-C.9-12.1 Civic Life, Politics, and Government
SOCIAL SCIENCES: U.S. History
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GRADES 5 - 12
NSS-USH.5-12.3 Era 3: Revolution and the New Nation (1754-1820s)
NSS-USH.5-12.4 Era 4: Expansion and Reform (1801-1861)
NSS-USH.5-12.5 Era 5: Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
NSS-USH.5-12.6 Era 6: The Development of the Industrial United States (1870-1900)
NSS-USH.5-12.7 Era 7: The Emergence of Modern America (1890-1930)
NSS-USH.5-12.8 Era 8: The Great Depression and World War II (1929-1945)
NSS-USH.5-12.9 Era 9: Postwar United States (1945 to early 1970s)
NSS-USH.5-12.10 Era 10: Contemporary United States (1968 to the Present)
SOCIAL SCIENCES: World History
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GRADES 5 - 12
NSS-WH.5-12.7 An Age of Revolutions, 1750-1914
NSS-WH.5-12.8 The 20th Century
TECHNOLOGY
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GRADES K - 12
NT.K-12.5 Technology Research Tools
See more lessons at Presidents' Day Activities!
Click here to return to the Hail to the Chief! lesson plan page.
Last updated 2/13/2012
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Subject: ELA- Reading
Grade: 3
Lesson Objective: To ask and answer questions about a particular text
Common Core Standard: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.3.1: Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers.
Materials:
Printable Paragraph Student Handout
Starter:
Say:
Why do we ask questions? (Allow the students to answer.)
Main:
Say:
We ask questions to learn more about something. Sometimes we ask questions because we do not understand something and we need it to be explained more. And, sometimes we ask questions because we just want to know more!
Many times, when we are reading, we think of questions that we have about what we are reading. It might be a question about a word that we do not understand or a question about why something happened.
Raise your hand if you have ever asked a question out loud or to yourself when you were reading?
You are now going to read a paragraph about space. While you are reading, I want you to think about any questions that you might have. (Allow the students time to read the paragraph.)
Now that you have read about space, I want you to think about questions that you have about what you read. Raise your hand if you have a question. (Allow the students to share their questions. If the students cannot come up with any questions to ask, prompt them by asking them to think about questions using who, what, where, why and how.)
You came up with some really good questions! Now, you are going to answer questions about what you read.
You will write the answer on the line next to the questions. You will also need to underline the part of the paragraph that shows you where you got your answer.
Does anyone have any questions?
Feedback:
Say:
Who would like to share their answers? (Allow the students to share and go over the answers and where they came from.)
Written by Kimberly Greacen, Education World® Contributing Writer
Kimberly is an educator with extensive experience in curriculum writing and developing instructional materials to align with Common Core State Standards and Bloom's Taxonomy.
Copyright© 2019 Education World
Subject: ELA- Reading
Grade: 3
Lesson Objective: To sequence the steps of how to make chocolate chip cookies
Common Core Standard: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.3.3 - Describe the relationship between a series of historical events, scientific ideas or concepts, or steps in technical procedures in a text, using language that pertains to time, sequence, and cause/effect.
Materials:
Printable Paragraph Student Handout
Starter:
Say:
Do you think it is important to do something like following a recipe in order? Why or why not? (Allow the students to answer.)
Main:
Say:
When following directions to make a recipe or to put something together, it is important to following the steps in order.
If you do not follow directions in order, what could happen? (Allow the students to answer.)
Raise your hand if you have ever followed a recipe or put something together following directions.
When reading directions, it is important to start at the beginning and read everything. After you understand what the directions are telling you to do, you can start.
Today, you are going to read about how to make chocolate chip cookies. When you are reading the directions, make sure that you understand what the recipe is telling you. (Allow the students time to read the recipe.)
Raise your hand if you can tell me what the directions are telling you to do. (Allow the students to answer. Answers should refer to mixing ingredients together and baking.)
What is the first step? How do you get from step one to the last step? (Allow the students to answer.)
You are now going to sequence all of the steps. Under the recipe that you read are all of the steps, but they are not in order. You will put a number next to each step. The first step will have a number 1.
Does anyone have any questions?
Feedback:
Say:
Who would like to share their answers? (Allow the students to share and go over the sequence of steps.)
Written by Kimberly Greacen, Education World® Contributing Writer
Kimberly is an educator with extensive experience in curriculum writing and developing instructional materials to align with Common Core State Standards and Bloom's Taxonomy.
Copyright© 2019 Education World
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