Tracking the President's Promises

A Current Events Project

This project originated as a suggestion for a class of students in Scotland who were excited about the historic inauguration of Barrack H. Obama on January 20, 2009. The project can be completed for this president or any president or governor who makes speeches that include promises of what he/she will do so that those promises can be tracked and when/if they are accomplished, they are recorded. If the promises are not fulfilled but are acted upon, the results of the action is recorded.

Title of Lesson Plan: Tracking the President's (or Governor's) Promises

Target: Project to learn about the results of polical promises and the outcomes.

Curriculum/subject: Social Studies : Current Events

Target Grade/s: 4th - 12th

Class Time: 15-40 minutes weekly; time at end of year/unit for presentations of project.

Objective/s:Purpose:  To collect and compare promises of politicians to the outcome of their efforts to fulfill those promises.

Materials: Computer, Internet, software to make webpages or a scrapbook or other collection container, daily newspapers with national coverage, URLs to such newspapers, paper, printer ink.

Procedure:  First, use any search engine to collect information on promises of the president (or governor) before the election. Second, use search engine to collect information on speeches by the president (or governor) that include promises of goals or legislation to benefit the audience. If the internet is not available for this, collections of print newspapers and magazines can be used to collect such promises.

Enter the URL's for the information into the webpage or paste the newspaper articles in a scrapbook.

Summarize the promises. Add the summaries to the webpage or scrapbook.

During the project, collect news on a daily or weekly basis which is pertinent to the promises summarized in the project. Collect information on how the president (or governor) acted on the goals and promises summarized in speeches. Summarize the information, include the source (URL or copy of newspaper article), and add it to the web page or scapbook in proximity to the original promise.

In the event the promises of the president (or governor) are acted upon by the legislature but are altered or voted against, the results of the attempt to fulfill the promise and the actual outcome should be recorded. If the issue comes up later, and is either approved or not, such subsequent action should be recorded.

At the end of the project, students will write a paper explaining their project, what promises they tracked, and the outcome of these promises. Students may want to include their opinion on the success of the president (or governor) during the time of this project.

Observations:  Help students understand the difference between reliable primary sources and opinion pieces which may or may not be factual. Teach children to make good choices in sources of both the promises made and the outcome of these promises.

Conclusions:  Students will write a summary at the end of the project (end of the year), comparing the promises made with those that were fulfilled, those that could or could not be fulfilled, and those that may be fulfilled in the future.

Extension:  Students may want to continue this project after the ending date. They may want to collect the emerging news during the summer vacation and share it in the fall especially if they are continuing with the same teacher or class. They can continue to add to the project for as long as it remains interesting. During the new administration, students may also want to include URLs and summaries for new promises made by the president, and track the fulfillment or outcome of these additional promises, goals and intentions.

For younger children, this could be a class project, with one website of scrapbooks created from the efforts of the whole class. Individual children could write summaries of promises and pertinent news events. All students could write an essay at the end explaining what promises the project tracked, what was the outcome, and what lessons the individual student learned from this project.

Class Discussion Questions:  These will vary depending on the promises of the President (or Governor), the speeches collected, and the news that emerges on those issues.

Cautions and Concerns:  Make sure that students focus on reliable and primary sources and do not get distracted by opinion pieces. Teach them to look at the URL to determine reliability. Help them learn which sources of news are reliable. Help them determine when news stories divert from providing the facts.

Comments from Author:   As a special educator, I had the luxury of having students for 1-4 years during high school. This project could be ongoing, beginning with the party platforms and candidates promises, the primaries, the general election, and continuing through the term of office for the president (or governor). It is important for the student to summarize their findings from time to time and especially at the end of the project or the year.

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Page created January 28, 2009. Anne Pemberton. Updated Sunday, October 31, 2010 . AP.

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