CEPT Lesson Plan

Name: Hailey Conway

Date of Lesson : October 23, 2014
AF Name: Mr. White
Class Period/Subject: AP Government
Alignment
Standard: D2.Civ.1.9-12: Distinguish the powers and responsibilities of local, state, tribal, national, and
international civic and political institutions.
Literacy Standard: Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide
an accurate summary that makes clear the relationships among the key details and ideas.
Objective #1: Students will be able to distinguish the difference between the six powers of the President
by completing a Prezi presentation where the students will present an analysis of the impact of a certain
power on the past and present United States.
Learning Target: I can analyze the impact of the six powers of the President on the past and present
United States.
Blooms Level: Evaluate Checking
Strategy/Activity: Students will be watching a series of United Streaming segments that creatively
explain the six different powers of the President of the United States. While they are watching they will
complete a video guide that goes along with the segments. The videos will act as more of a review for
the students since they have learned the powers in depth already. The video guide is just to make
sure they are paying attention and not just watching. After the video, students will be split into six
groups and will be assigned a Presidential power. They will create a Prezi presentation where they
answer a series of critical thinking questions that relate to the past and the present use of their assigned
power. They will have to include in depth descriptions, pictures, videos, or any other type of media that
will help strengthen their presentation. Once they are completed they will present their analysis to the
class.
Assessment/Scoring tool: A checklist will be provided to score the Prezi presentations.
Contextual Factors
Activity/Strategy adaptations: This class is a very advanced class. All the students as individuals will be
challenged. They love to be challenged intellectually and I will accommodate this lesson to challenge
their thinking abilities to be able to analyze Presidential Powers. They will be asked to find real world
examples (past and present) and opinion questions that allow them to be creative with their answers
but also need information to back up their arguments.
Assessment Accommodations: They will answer a series of critical thinking questions and site real
world examples and form solid opinions based on research. The assessment will be on Blooms Evaluate
level.
Procedures

** Mr. White has a mandatory reading quiz for AP this day,

separate from my lesson. He will give it in the beginning of
class; it should only take 5 minutes.
Bell work: (5 minutes) Students will enter the classroom and will be seated to begin class. I will show
a picture of President Obama and I will ask two crucial questions pertaining to his Presidency. I will
state, How does President Obama effectively use his legislative skills? Next, I will state, How does

President Obama ineffectively use his legislative skills? This will be an open discussion and will allow
the students who are in AP Government and Politics class to exercise their debate skills. It reviews the
previous days reading on Presidential leadership in Congress. They have to pull examples from a present
day, real life example to answer these questions and that will help the students make deeper
connections to the material. The purpose of this bell ringer is just to get the students thinking about the
content they are about to review and what they will be doing in the main class activity, the Prezi
presentation.
The picture URL is sited below.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8d/President_Barack_Obama.jpg

Hook: (3 minutes) : I will state the following; What attributes/characteristics/qualities make a good
President?, Which United States President do you think was the most influential legislatively and
why?, and lastly, What power of the President is the most powerful and why? I will pause in
between each of these questions to allow for multiple students to answers and to build off their own
comments as the discussion progresses. This question can be described as a self-expressive strategy.
Self-expressive Strategies highlight students abilities to imagine and create (Silver, Strong, Perini:
2007). By having the students answer these questions; it will allow them to form their own opinions and
ideas based on real world examples. They will create their own ideas of what makes a good President,
which President was the most influential and which power is most influential.
Bridge/Learning Target: ( 1 minutes)
I will state, After our lesson on the Presidential powers and our in class activity, you as a
student will be able to say that, I can analyze the six powers of the President on the past and
present United States. By stating the learning target in class, they will know the purpose of
the lesson and what they are required to know about Presidential leadership.
Link to previous knowledge
I will state, In our activities today you will begin to see how influential the President is in the
Executive Branch, but as well as the Legislative Branch. You will begin to see how intertwined
our Federal government is. By letting the students know that what they have learned on
previous days connects to what they are learning today will help them realize how intertwined
our branches of government really are. They work more as a team, rather than separate entities.
Strategy/Activity #1 (15 minutes)
United Streaming Video: I will state, Youll be receiving a video question guide, where you
will follow along with the segments that describe the six inherent powers of the President,
You will answer the questions based on the information in the video. I will have one of the
students pass out the video question guide as I prepare the video on United Streaming. The
questions on the guide will contain critical vocabulary highlighted in purple font. They will need
to define those as they watch the video, for they will need to know those terms for the AP test.
The video is supposed to act as a review for the primary activity we will be doing in class. The
questions are challenging and will make them think as they watch the video, but it will help
prepare them with information for the activity after the video. Once the video is over they will
be asked to keep the questions to use as a study tool for the test.
https://app.discoveryeducation.com/search?N=18343+4294924288&browseFilter=d_Service:
DE%20Streaming,#N=18343+4294924285&No=0&Ne=4294925432&Ntk=All&Ntx=mode+matc
hallpartial&Ns=p_wtd|1

VIDEO QUESTIONS ARE ATTACHED AT THE END OF THE LESSON PLAN

Strategy/Activity #2 ( 25- 30 minutes)
Prezi Presentation: I will state, I need you all to split yourselves into six equal groups. I will
give them about a minute to separate into groups. Now that you are split into groups you will
create a Prezi Presentation on your assigned power of the President, you will have to answer
four questions with significant evidence and include some other type of media other than
words to explain your power. I will assign each group a power of the President and put the
four critical HOT questions on the board. I will also give them the URL to the Prezi creation
website. This activity will be graded on quality of answers and evidence, use of other types of
media and creativity. They will be able to use the internet to look up information to support
their answers and to look for media to include in the presentation. By working in groups allows
the students to build off each other and their ideas to modify their own thoughts. Students will
present their Prezi to the class as an exit slip. I will walk around and monitor the students work
and answers and questions or misconceptions they might have. I will also ask questions to the
students to challenge them based on the information they already have compiled.
PREZI DIRECTIONS AND QUESTIONS ARE ATTACHED AT THE END OF THE LESSON PLAN
Closure: ( 3 minutes)
Reminder of Learning Target: I will state, Now that our activity is over, as a student you should
be able to say, I can analyze the six powers of the President on the past and present United
States.
Review of Critical Vocabulary: I will state, During the video you encountered some very
important terms to remember. They were the words highlighted in purple on your video question
guide; can someone tell us what those words are? I will call on a student to read off the purple
words found on the video question guide. Those words include the following;
Reflection
BEFORE: What challenges do I anticipate with this lesson plan?
AFTER TEACHING
How many students met the learning target?
How many students didnt meet the learning target?
What are some possible reasons why these students did not meet the learning target?
How can this lesson plan be modified to more effectively meet students needs?

Task Instructions
Learning Target: I can analyze the impact of the six powers of the President on the past and
present United States.
Task Summary #1:
Task #1: As you watch the United Streaming video, answer the following questions. NOTE:
Make sure you define the words highlighted in purple; these are critical vocabulary words
you will need to know.
Directions for Task #1:
1. As you watch the video, answer the following guiding questions as a review of the
Presidential Powers.
a. What kinds of appointments does the President make? What are some recent
appoints made by President Obama?
b. What does the power to convene Congress mean? What would be an
appropriate time to convene Congress?
c. What is the State of the Union Address? What does the President usually
include in their speech?
d. What is an executive agreement?
e. When constructing a treaty, the president has to have 2/3 approval of the
Senate. How does this relate to checks and balances between the branches of
government?
f. What would be a reason as to why the President would veto a bill?
g. What is a qualified negative?
h. Name all the branches of the military that the President is commander of.
i. What is a pardon?
j. What is a reason for why the president would pardon someone?
Task Summary #2:
1. Divide yourselves into six equal groups.
2. Log onto your group laptop to http://prezi.com/ and follow the directions on the
website to create a free educational account.
3. You will be assigned one of the six presidential powers and answer the following
questions.
4. You must site two sources for each question below and you must include three
other types of media (picture, video, etc) besides words on your presentation.
5. You will present your Prezi at the end of class.

Directions for Task #2:

2. In your assigned groups, you will answer these specific questions about your
assigned Presidential Power. Make sure you include three other types of media in
your presentation and two credible sources for each question.
1. Site an example of President Obama exercising this power in our world
today. Explain how he used that power.
2. Name two influential moments in history where this power was used.
Explain that influence on our world today.
3. Do you think this power could be changed? What are some changes you
would make to this power? Explain your reasoning.
4. Name a president that exercised this power effectively and ineffectively.
Explain your reasoning.

Rubric/Scoring Criteria:
____ All questions are answered have at least two credible sited resources
____ At least three types of different media is used (pictures, videos, etc)
____ Answers are insightful and argumentative with information to back them up
____ Prezi is colorful and creative