National Government: The Executive Branch
Session 3: Duties of the President

Materials

• Overhead projector or board
• Several hats
• Textbook
• Tape of State of the Union Address (alternative)
• Internet access (alternative)

Instructional Activities

Suggestion: Before class, the teacher places several hats on his or her head and wears them during the homework review. The teacher then explains that the President performs many duties simultaneously; thus, the President is said to wear a lot of hats.

1. Review Homework assignment by quickly allowing students to discuss the duties of the President and Vice President. (This information should be taken from the list that students generated as homework.)
   
   
2. Have students prepare a chart that identifies what they want to know about the roles of the President and what they learned at the end of the lesson.
   
   
3. Write the eight roles of the President on the board.  Direct the students to create in their notebooks a table that shows the President's role on the left and the exact functions he fulfills in that role on the right. (Guided Practice)
   
   
4. ALTERNATE ASSIGNMENT (Independent Practice)
   •    Show students a copy of a State of the Union Address and have them work in groups to find evidence of the President performing each of the roles of President.
   •    Allow students to write a State of the Union Address that addresses all of the President's roles.
   •    Have students use the Internet, newspapers, and magazines to find evidence of the President fulfilling his presidential roles.
   
   
5. Review the roles of the President.  Have students write or discuss which role(s) is most generally identified with the President. (Closure Activity)
   
   
6. Homework: Have students create a list of which Presidents they believe did a better job performing each of the presidential roles.