Congress and the President

After giving notes on the presidency, I wanted to really show students how it works in action today and historically. Here are a few ways I did so. I also discuss the American Presidency in another post. I used a block day and a day for these in total. If you are curious about my schedule, check this out.

Checks on the Presidency:

When looking at my binder and topic 2.5 I wanted to make sure I showed Supreme Revenge because it talks about the failed appointment of Robert Bork and how it changed the nomination process.

Supreme Revenge: this is an excellent look at the Senate’s role in confirmation hearings and how it’s changed since Robert Bork. *Warning- this does look at Anita Hill’s testimony as well as Dr. Blasey-Ford. It is graphic. Please watch this before you decide to show it in class. (CON-4.B.2)

This led to a great conversation about the role of factions in government, how much power the Senate can have, and the best question, ¨Can they do that?¨ It also introduces students to interest groups (Federalist Society), talks about Congressional leadership, committee work, and how a divided government causes gridlock. I often stopped the documentary to show key players throughout the discussed period (Bork´s nomination to Kavanaugh) that include current presidential nominees.

Expansion of Presidential Power:

After reading Federalist 70, we also dig into the War Powers Act and Nixon’s Veto. In order to prepare for a Socratic discussion (or a make-up argumentative essay) I asked students to find another time in history that a president interpreted or justified their formal or informal powers. Because of how we studied, my essay prompt deviates from the traditional structure because I require them to use 4 pieces of evidence in discussing the presidency, including how the Framers saw the president´s role, what the Constitution says, how the War Powers Act (and Nixon´s veto) looks at that role in war time, and contextualizing interpretation or justification of powers to another time in history.

Below is the prompt:

Using your documents, write an argumentative essay on the following prompt:

Develop an argument that analyzes the constitutionality of the War Powers Act.

Use at least one piece of evidence from each of the following documents:
● Federalist 70
● Constitution
● War Powers Act
● An additional piece of evidence from a document you researched from another
time in history that a president

  1. Respond to the prompt with defensible claim or thesis that establishes a line of
    reasoning.
  2. Support your claim with evidence and reasoning to explain why the evidence supports your claim or thesis.
  3. Respond to an opposing or alternate perspective using refutation, concession or
    rebuttal.
    *You will be graded using the AP Argumentative Essay Rubric

There are so many ways to teach the presidency with the new curriculum! What are your favorite resources?

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