Making the Connections
By Linda Donald Harris

Overview

This lesson is designed to have students review and analyze important terms and events from one of The American President videos.  In addition, the students will make logical connections between the terms and events.  It is also designed to promote interaction and discussion of historical topics between students.  Versatile in nature, this lesson is easily adaptable for students of various ability and grade levels.

Objectives

Students will:

  • Demonstrate knowledge of terms/events from past unit(s) of study
  • Interact with other students in order to recognize and evaluate the connections between terms and events
  • Explain and write down the connection between these terms and events

Time Required

The lesson itself should take one to two 50-minute class periods.

Materials

Initial Motivation

Put the terms "president" and "vice president" up on the board.  Ask the students to write an explanation of the connection between the two terms.  Discuss the students' answers.  Explain to the class that they will be working throughout the class period to develop connections between different terms used in The American President video.

Procedures

  1. Using the series summary, one of the ten American President videos, or the biographies on this website, create a list of important terms from the video program.  For example, for the episode entitled "Happenstance," you may want to use the following list:  Tyler, Fillmore, A. Johnson, Arthur, Truman, succession, vice president, preparation, public perception, inauguration, speech, accidental, congress, 25 th amendment, and second term.
  2. Xerox a class set of Connections Sheets (see below).
  3. Write one of the words from the list above, or from your own list, on each of the Connections Sheets.
  4. Give each student one copy of the Connections Sheet. 
  5. Instruct the students to define the term at the top of their papers.
  6. Ask the students to find a classmate who has a different term. 
  7. Then, ask the students to write down the new term in the "term" column and complete the rest of the row by filling in the "definition" and "connection to my term" columns.
  8. Depending on the skills level of the students, instruct them to complete the Connections Sheet with two to ten terms and connections.

Assessment

Assessment should be based on the following:

  1. Teacher review and assessment of each student's Connection Sheets in terms of content and explanations given for the connection.
  2. Teacher observation during "Connection" activity.
  3. Possible teacher-made quiz covering terms and events.

Additional Resources

The " Presidential History Resources" section of The American President website offers many links from which students may conduct their research

Official White House site:  http://www.whitehouse.gov

The Internet Public Library's site on the presidents:  http://www.ipl.org/ref/POTUS

Interdisciplinary Links

This lesson lends itself very well to other disciplines.   For example, in an English class, the activity could be used to make connections between the literature of a specific time period and the events of that time period.  In an art history class, the connection between events and the arts could be explored.

Linda Donald Harris teaches at Fairfax High School in Los Angeles, California.

Making the Connections

Connections Sheet

 

My Term __________________________________

 

Definition of my Term:

 

 

Term                      Definition                                            Connection to my Term