Presidential Hats – Evaluating the Roles of the Executive Branch

TIPC Ratings

Ideal – 6

The students construct their own research questions and discuss the effectiveness of these search terms as a class. The students synthesize 30+ posts worth of information to come to a conclusion about the effectiveness of the President in relation to his various executive roles. The authentic task in this lesson is that the students learn how to make political decisions, a skill that the students will use later in life. This type of process demonstrates to the students that choosing a public servant is more than just making a decision based on a particular political party or their personality, but instead consists of evaluating the words and actions of individuals. Although there is an authentic task in this lesson, there is still much room for improvement. In order to reach the highest levels of the TIP Chart, this lesson could be adapted so that students research more than one candidate and decide which candidate to choose based on their particular research.

Approaching – 5

The students use a variety of digital tools to collaborate during this lesson. Although the students complete the ultimate evaluation individually, the ActivEngage sessions included in the lesson help the students develop a collaborative understanding of research terms and rubric writing. The students use each other’s responses to revise and refine their own thinking. During the rubric writing stage of the lesson, the students establish group norms and organize roles by each selecting a particular category of the rubric before revising and refining the entire rubric collaboratively. Finally, the Schoolspace discussion board provides an outlet for students to share the research that they gathered on the President. Students do not respond to each other’s posts, but instead use this tool to create a collaborative repository of information that the students will use in the final stage of the lesson.

Approaching – 5

During this lesson, the students generate and respond to purposeful questions. The students must ask themselves what constitutes an effective President and then justify their decisions based on current events. The teacher uses Activ Engage to facilitate this critical thinking process. The brainstorming sessions allow students to become more aware of their thinking process.

Approaching – 4

The students use digital tools to summarize their knowledge of current events. The final graphic organizer that the students create is meaningful in the sense that it helps them to understand the voting and political process. Additionally, it helps them to monitor their own thinking and decision making processes. Creativity and Innovation were not the focus of this lesson, but could be emphasized in future iterations of the lesson. The ultimate product for this this particular lesson could include presentations created by the students that explain their rating of the president or written essays that serve the same purpose. These presentations could be presented in a format of the student’s choosing.