Posted on 09/08/2009 5:22:00 AM PDT by shortstop
Produced by Teaching Ambassador Fellows, U.S. Department of Education
September 8, 2009
Before the Speech
Teachers can build background knowledge about the President
of the United States and his speech by reading books about
presidents and Barack Obama. Teachers could motivate
students by asking the following questions:
Who is the President of the United States?
What do you think it takes to be president?
To whom do you think the president is going to be speaking?
Why do you think he wants to speak to you?
What do you think he will say to you?
Teachers can ask students to imagine that they are
delivering a speech to all of the students in the United
States.
If you were the president, what would you tell students?
What can students do to help in our schools?
Teachers can chart ideas about what students would say.
Why is it important that we listen to the president and
other elected officials, like the mayor, senators, members
of congress, or the governor? Why is what they say important?
During the Speech
As the president speaks, teachers can ask students to write
down key ideas or phrases that are important or personally
meaningful. Students could use a note‐taking graphic
organizer such as a cluster web; or, students could
record their thoughts on sticky notes. Younger children
could draw pictures and write as appropriate. As students
listen to the speech, they could think about the
following:
What is the president trying to tell me?
What is the president asking me to do?
What new ideas and actions is the president challenging me
to think about?
Students could record important parts of the speech where
the president is asking them to do something. Students
might think about the following:
What specific job is he asking me to do?
Is he asking anything of anyone else?
Teachers? Principals? Parents? The American people?
Students could record questions they have while he is
speaking and then discuss them after the speech. Younger
children may need to dictate their questions.
Menu of Classroom Activities
(PreK‐6)
President Obamas Address to Students Across America 2
After the Speech
Teachers could ask students to share the ideas they
recorded, exchange sticky notes, or place notes on a
butcher‐paper poster in the classroom to discuss main
ideas from the speech, such as citizenship, personal
responsibility, and civic duty.
Students could discuss their responses to the following
questions:
What do you think the president wants us to do?
Does the speech make you want to do anything?
Are we able to do what President Obama is asking of us?
What would you like to tell the president?
Extension of the Speech
Teachers could extend learning by having students:
Create posters of their goals. Posters could be formatted
in quadrants, puzzle pieces, or trails marked with the
following labels: personal, academic, community, and
country. Each area could be labeled with three steps for
achieving goals in that area. It might make sense to focus
first on personal and academic goals so that community and
country goals can be more readily creaed.
Write letters to themselves about how they can achieve
their short‐term and long‐term education
goals. Teachers would collect and redistribute these
letters at an appropriate later date to enable students to
monitor their progres.
Write goals on colored index cards or precut designs to
post around the classroom.
Interview one another and share goals with the class to
create a supportive community.
Participate in school‐wide incentive programs or
contests for those students who achieve their goals.
Write about their goals in a variety of genres, such as
poems, songs, and personal essays.
Create artistic projects based on the themes of their
goals.
Graph individual progress toward goals.
http://www.ed.gov/teachers/how/lessons/prek-6.pdf
Let us also remember that when this was announced, no details of the speech were provided. All we had was a page of suggestions from the Department of Education with questions like: How can you help the President?
By not knowing the contents of the speech and reading the suggested after-action discussion, many people did not trust the President to refrain from politics.
Remember, this is the President who could not refrain from commenting on the Cambridge Police Department and Professor Gates even though the President admitted he did not have all the facts.
It still boils down to trust and many people do not trust the President to act Presidential.
I spoke to our school principal on Friday about this and the school is taking the ‘wait n see’ approach-record, review and then decide, much like a lot of school districts. I told him it’s a sad time for our nation when a sitting President puts the schools and parents in such an awkward position!
Yep, bottom line: We don’t trust you, Obama!
One more reason to be appalled at this speech to our kids: We’re not even sure Obama is a legal president!
Excellent essay! This really gets to the heart of the issue and expresses it like nobody else has previously done. Well done!
We thought Clinton was a press-whore; who couldn’t get enough attention of the cameras; Clinton may get a ‘tingle up his leg’ from a Camera; but President Zero has a true Camera-fetish.
He needs to be worshipped, and what better place to gather new worshippers than in the K-12 grades; or think of it this way ... how many fresh votes could he get from the 15-17 yr olds who aren’t wise enough to know when they are being fed lies?
After all my posts the last couple days regarding this subject, I decided to let my kids watch it. Our district isn’t using the accompanying materials, and I’ve read through his speech. My elder child will probably laugh at him, and my younger will likely fall asleep.
Either way, there’s little damage the jerk can do to them that I can’t undo, particularly since they won’t use the questions etc.
Byron York nailed it, re Sr. Bush speech to schoolkids:
Democrats, then the majority party in Congress, not only denounced Bush’s speech — they also ordered the General Accounting Office to investigate its production and later summoned top Bush administration officials to Capitol Hill for an extensive hearing on the issue. ...
The day after Bush spoke, the Washington Post published a front-page story suggesting the speech was carefully staged for the president’s political benefit. “The White House turned a Northwest Washington junior high classroom into a television studio and its students into props,” the Post reported.
With the Post article in hand, Democrats pounced. “The Department of Education should not be producing paid political advertising for the president, it should be helping us to produce smarter students,” said Richard Gephardt, then the House Majority Leader. “And the president should be doing more about education than saying, ‘Lights, camera, action.’”
Democrats did not stop with words. Rep. William Ford, then chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, ordered the General Accounting Office to investigate the cost and legality of Bush’s appearance. On October 17, 1991, Ford summoned then-Education Secretary Lamar Alexander and other top Bush administration officials to testify at a hearing devoted to the speech.
The GAO concluded that Bush’s speech was “legal,” but that didn’t stop the National Education Association from denouncing it.
It is about a 25 minute speech and the use of the word “I” is nothing but phenomenol in it.
From the text released by the White House yesterday:
“You’ll need the insight and critical thinking skills you gain in history and social studies to fight poverty and homelessness, crime and discrimination and make our nation more fair and more free.”
What does Obama mean by “more fair and more free.”
I think he gave Joe The Plumber his concept of “fair” and as for America being “more free” I don’t think Obama’s definition and mine are the same.
Obama also paired “crime” with “discrimination” and that makes me wonder if his definition of crime is “hate crime.”
“Critical thinking” is a catch phrase that means very little when all the information students are given is one sided like with “climate change.”
There’s plenty that smells in the prepared text the White House put out yesterday.
That’s an awesome graphic.
geez, does this mean we have to endure yet ANOTHER beer summit only this time with parents who don’t trust Obama?
Obama and the Obamamunists don’t get it. We KNOW he is a socialist and we don’t trust him no matter how many pretty words he utters. There is no reason to respect the man.
Since the man is not worthy of respect, the next step is to demand respect for the office. The counter to that is, if Obama respected the office, he would resign immediatly.
very well said.
it was sickening hearing him say he will just tell them to wash their hands and wants to encourage them blah blah blah.
If Obama’s children are off limits then OUR children are off limits.
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