The President's Roles and Responsibilities: Communicating with the President
Introduction
In order to become informed participants in a democracy, students must
learn about the women and men who make decisions concerning their lives, their
country, and the world. The president of the United States is one such leader.
As a nation, we place no greater responsibility on any one individual than we
do on the president. Through these lessons, students learn about the roles and
responsibilities of the U.S. president and their own roles as citizens of a democracy.
Guiding Questions:
What is the job of the president of the
United States? What are the president's roles and responsibilities? How
do the president and the public communicate with each other?
Learning
Objectives After completing these lessons, students will be able to - Identify
and describe the various roles of the president of the United States
- Understand
how the president communicates with the public
- Recognize ways that young
citizens can actively participate in a democracy
- Express their views
in a letter to the president
Preparing to Teach this Lesson: For
background information about the three branches of government and how the president's
role fits in, you may want to review the following page at Ben's
Guide to U.S. Government, available through the EDSITEment-reviewed resource
Internet Public Library. Background
Information The major functions of the three branches of our government: Legislative—make
laws (decide on rules for people to live by in our country) Example:
The Congress passed a law stating that all American children
are entitled to a free quality education. Executive —implement
laws (plan how to carry out rules and make sure people follow them) Example:
The president and the Department of Education make a plan
to ensure that all children in this country have equal opportunities to learn
how to read, write, and do math. Judicial— interpret
laws (make decisions when people disagree about what laws mean) Example:
The Supreme Court decided in 1954 that it is illegal to keep
a student from attending a public school because of race. At the time, there were
separate schools for whites and blacks, but the Court determined that this was
not fair because having separate schools resulted in unequal opportunities for
children to learn. In preparation for Lesson 1, you may want to familiarize
yourself with roles and responsibilities associated with the American presidency.
The president's principal roles: - Approve federal laws
(bills) created by Congress (Senate and House of Representatives), which is the
legislative branch of government
- Lead the nation's people, making sure
citizens obey the laws and setting priorities for the country, including helping
the Congress decide how the budget is spent
- Manage the government, making
sure that decisions and programs are being carried out effectively, with the help
of the vice president and appointed cabinet members who head different departments
(agriculture, commerce, defense, education, energy, health and human services,
housing and urban development, interior, justice, labor, state, transportation,
treasury, veterans affairs)
- Represent the U.S. in meetings with leaders
of other countries, including signing treaties and other agreements (with approval
from Congress) on behalf of the U.S.
- Command the U.S. military, including
declaring war (with approval from Congress)
For more information,
visit the following Web sites, which are available through the EDSITEment-reviewed
resource Internet Public Library:
Drawing upon these sources, make a list
of presidential roles for the class. Prepare to discuss these roles with your
students, including examples of tasks related to each role. Make another list
of the areas about which the president gets advice from the cabinet. In
preparation for Lesson 2, you may want to review "Communicating the Presidency":
from the American
Presidency: A Glorious Burden , available through the EDSITEment-reviewed
resource Internet Public Library which provides
background information about how the president has communicated with the public
throughout history. You should also review the "Children Write to the President"
activity from The
American Presidency Web site, located on the Smithsonian National Museum of
American History, available through the EDSITEment-reviewed resource American
Memory Project at the Library of Congress. (Click on "Hands-on Activities"
and then on "Children Write to the President.") You may also want to review
the stages of the writing process with the students: Prewriting—planning
what you will write Drafting—writing the first copy without
worrying too much about how good it is Revising—making
changes in words and sentences to improve your writing so that people will understand
what you want to say Editing—fixing punctuation, capitalization,
spelling, grammar, and usage to make sure that your writing clearly and correctly
communicates your thoughts Publishing—writing a final
copy that looks finished
Suggested Activities
Lesson
3: Communicating with the President: Hearing from the President Lesson
4: Communicating with the President: Writing to the President Lesson
3: Communicating with the President: Hearing from the President Begin
by asking students to describe some ways that the president communicates with
the American people. You may want to prompt them with ideas such as television
(e.g., State of the Union addresses), radio, newspapers, the World Wide Web, letters,
and live speeches. Then share some student-oriented examples of communications
from the White House through various media (see below) and ask students to describe
how and what the President communicated for each example. Keep a running list
on the board, making sure to cover a range of media.
Read a letter from
President Bush to American Children from January 29, 2002, which can be found at The White House Web site, available through the EDSITEment-reviewed resource
Internet Public Library. Share some sample
communications from the White
House Press Briefing site, available through the EDSITEment-reviewed resource
Internet Public Library: - Read or play
audio of daily White House Press Briefings in which the press secretary talks
to reporters about the president's schedule.
- Play an example of the president's
Radio Address.
- Play audio or video clips or read statements from the
president listed under News & Speeches.
- Play part of the Webcast of the
State of the Union address, available through the EDSITEment-reviewed resource Internet
Public Library.
Lesson
4: Communicating with the President: Writing to the President Explain
to students that while it is important that we hear from the president about what
he or she is doing as the leader of our nation, we also have a responsibility
as citizens to make our views known to our leaders because their decisions affect
us and represent what we as U.S. citizens stand for within the country and around
the world. You can convey the following information or some variation to help
students understand the part that the public plays in determining what happens
in our country and beyond. Explain that the U.S. is a democracy, which means
that the people vote to elect the president, in our case, every four years. Every
citizen over 18 years old is entitled to one vote. As U.S. citizens, it is important
that we express our opinions to the president about the decisions he or she makes
on our behalf. The president is supposed to represent us, which means that he
or she is speaking for us when making decisions about what happens in our country
and about how the U.S. acts towards other countries. Even those too young
to vote can let the president know what they think. On the Activities page of The American Presidency Web site, which is located on the Smithsonian
National Museum of American History, available through the EDSITEment-reviewed
resource American Memory Project at the Library
of Congress, click on "Hands-on Activities" and then on "Children Write to
the President." This online activity offers sample letters from children to Presidents
Lincoln, Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Nixon. Read each letter to your students, showing
them the originals (which are more authentic) as well as the transcripts (which
are easier to read). Ask students for reactions to each letter, or use the "Think
About It" questions to spark discussion. Ask students to write their own
letters to the president, expressing their opinions on topics about which they
feel strongly or have concern. Letter-writing tips are provided through the "Write
Your Own" page of the "Children Write to the President" activity above. For ideas
about current issues, you might want to review the White
House News and Policies page or consult student-oriented online news sources,
both available through the EDSITEment-reviewed resource Internet Public Library.
You might share some ideas about potential presidential
priorities such as these: - Help people get jobs
- Make sure all
children get a good education
- Make sure people have good medical care
- Figure out how to supply people with energy for heat and transportation
- Protect the environment from human destruction
Letters can be
written using the writing process, including pre-writing, drafting, revising,
editing, and publishing. You may want to use a planning worksheet to help students
organize their thoughts. You can use or adapt this sample organizer entitled "Planning
Your Letter to the President" and provided in pdf format. You may also want to
write and share a sample letter using the format you want students to use. In
addition to reviewing students' draft letters, you may want to have children exchange
letters with a friend for a peer review. Once students are finished, the letters
can be sent via e-mail, or children can address envelopes and send their letters
to the White House through the mail. As an alternative for children who
cannot write yet, you can write a class letter where students dictate their ideas
to you and you compose a group letter on a board, overhead, or projected computer
screen.
Extending the Lesson
- Students who are writing can
write brief biographies or create multimedia slide shows or Web sites about selected
presidents. The Selected EDSITEment Web sites listed below provide excellent resource
material. Students can work in small groups or individually.
- Each
student can make a page for a book of presidents, with a picture, basic facts,
and a completed sentence that reads, "President ______ is remembered for…"
- Groups of students can make simple multimedia slide shows on different
presidents, including a picture, basic facts, and major accomplishments, with
each student creating one slide.
- Each student can take on the persona
of a particular president and give a speech to the class, focusing on key facts,
issues, and accomplishments from his presidency.
Other Extension
Activities- In small groups, students can dramatize "A Day in the Life
of the President" based on what they have learned in this lesson.
- Help
kids understand how the government affects their lives through The PBS Kids
Democracy Project.
- Help kids understand the voting process through
The PBS Kids Democracy
Project.
- You can take kindergarteners on a virtual tour of the White
House guided by Spotty, the White House dog.
- You can play a matching
game with young students about children who grew up in the White House at The
American Presidency: A
Glorious Burden Activities Page. (Click on "Hands-on Presidential Activities"
and then "All the President's Children.")
Selected EDSITEment Websites
Standards Alignment
View your state’s standards
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