20th Century American History

This lesson will give students the opportunity to hear from other presidents and think about how their character/president might relate to them. It gives the students an opportunity to become a certain president – to look at presidents in a slightly different manner.

This lesson would be in a Junior level U.S. Government course, once they have a complete idea of the Articles of the Constitution and have had a chance to explore Article 1 and Legislative Branch. It will require the student to apply their growing base of knowledge on the Power/Role of the President to their knowledge of life in American(Present, Past and Future).

Students will use the SWOT method (Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) to synthesize knowledge about the end of Reconstruction.

Students will be able to identify a few relevant Civil Rights issues AND how the president of that era confronted/handled/resolved the issue, along with causes/effects; then students will reveal how many issues of the past affect their own lives today and explain how.

Student will rank the Presidential powers from most important to least important.

An examination of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, its intent and impact, its ultimate repeal and its relationship to the War Powers Resolution.

The students will read background material on civil rights movement relating to the armed services. They will analyze and discuss Executive Order 9981 and learn how the blinding of Sgt. Isaac Woodward affected President Truman. After reading and class discussion, the students will express their thoughts in a writing activity.

Discuss and Research Emergency Powers of the President

Students will analyze the boundaries of presidential power through primary sources and complete a performance task.

Students will use online resources from presidential libraries, Library of Congress, other websites that have presidential executive orders and other policies. Students will understand how a president (or multiple presidents) used presidential power of speech and words to enact legislation