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Friday, December 19, 2008

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Students will identify the President's cabinet members and understand their individual roles. One 90-minute block period or two 45-minute periods A computer A screen to project computer and video images LCD projector Graphic Organizer * Identifying the President's Cabinet Executive Branch U.S. Constitution Nominee Cabinet Advisors Confirmation Ask students to describe what makes up the Executive Branch. What positions are involved other than the president and vice president? Explain to students that a president is in charge of selecting several people to head up the Executive departments. This tradition dates back to the beginning of the presidency. Ask which article of the U.S. Constitution addresses Executive power. Project the text of Article II Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution. Highlight the portion from which the president draws the power to select a cabinet. Read aloud or select a student to read the portion to the class. Ask students how many Executive departments currently exist. Do they know which Department was most recently created? As a group have students identify some of these departments. Ask students if they can identify any Cabinet members under President Bush or any of President-Elect Barack Obama’s Cabinet nominees. Pass out the graphic organizer, Identifying the President’s Cabinet. This activity can be done either in groups or individually. Play the C-SPAN clips below. The Cabinet members are listed in the order in which they were named by President-Elect Obama. After each clip, have the students write down the nominee under the appropriate Department on their graphic organizer. Below their name have students list the nominees' qualifications. Play   Secretary of Treasury – Tim Geithner Play   Secretary of State – Sen. Hillary Clinton Play   Secretary of Defense – Sec. Robert Gates Play   Secretary of Homeland Security – Gov. Janet Napolitano Play   Attorney General – Eric Holder Play   U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations – Susan Rice Play   Secretary of Commerce – Gov. Bill Richardson Play   Secretary of Veterans Affairs – Gen. Eric Shinseki Play   Secretary of Health and Human Services - Tom Daschle Play   Secretary of Housing and Urban Development – Shaun Donovan Play   Secretary of Energy - Stephen Chu Play   Secretary of Education - Arne Duncan Play   Secretary of the Interior - Ken Salazar Play   Secretary of Agriculture - Tom Vilsack Discuss each nominee with the class. Call on individual students or groups of students to name the nominees and list their qualifications. Ask if the students are familiar with the nominee? Where may they have heard of this person before? Explain to the students how a nominee becomes a Secretary. Ask why the nominees have to go through a confirmation process. Which body of government must confirm the nominees? Have students note which cabinet positions have not yet been filled. Ask the students to select a person that they think could fill one of the empty positions. List their qualifications, and have students write an essay on why this person would be a good selection. Print out the biographies of the nominees listed below. Hand these out to the students, and have them fill in more information about each person’s qualifications. Ask students to research the primary functions of one or more cabinet position/positions. Have them create a job posting for a cabinet position listing the qualifications necessary to fulfill the position. C-SPAN C-SPAN’s Presidential Transition site President Elect Obama’s Transition Tim Geithner biography Hillary Clinton biography Robert Gates biography Janet Napolitano biography Eric Holder biography Susan Rice biography Bill Richardson biography Eric Shinseki biography Tom Daschle biography Shaun Donovan biography Stephen Chu biography Arne Duncan biography Ken Salazar biography Tom Vilsack biography

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LVKen7@Gmail.com