A Novel Idea to Celebrate President's Day

If a character from a novel could be the president of the United States, who would you choose?  Who would your students choose?

This project is a great way to engage students in a presidential campaign, an inauguration, or to celebrate President's Day in February. For this project, each student chooses a character from a novel to run for President of the United States. 

This character can be from a book they read in class or from their independent reading. All information that the students include must reveal the author's presentation of this character as well as the student's analysis and interpretation of the person. 

Students will create a whole campaign for this character.
Criteria: 

• The requirements to be covered are detailed on the first page of this handout. 
  
• Final Project Format- Students choose one of three options
• a PowerPoint presentation 
• a webpage presentation 
• a Poster Board presentation

Standards:

• All of the facets of Bloom's Taxonomy: comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, evaluation and knowledge are addressed. 
• This activity focuses on the  Common Core Standards for Literature: R 1, 2, 5, 8 W 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 9 SL 1, 4, 5 L 1, 2, 3, 5, but teachers may choose their state's corresponding standards. 

The project should take a month to finish if all of the suggested writing is required. Teachers should alter these requirements to fit their time frame and their students’ skills and abilities. Students may start it in class and complete it for homework. If teachers want to spend a shorter time on this project (1-2 weeks depending on class time/homework time allotted for completion), they can divide the students into groups of 3-4. Each group will decide on a character to run for President and will divide up the required work into equal parts.

If time permits, a final Speaking and Listening activity could be a debate between two characters with the

most opposing views. For projects done individually, each student whose character is chosen can present his/her material and argue the issues. If either character chosen was a result of a group project, the members of the group can decide who presents which material. In this case, each student should have equal time.

* Page 2 offers detailed Teacher Notes.
Download this President's Day activity from http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Activity-Hail-to-the-Chief-192533

Which character will each of your students choose to be the next President of the United States?


Happy Teaching,