Colbert Report: Interview with President Obama

This interview covers the low voter turnout in the midterm election and the debate about the Keystone Pipeline.  It is also a good look into the inner workings of partisan politics. The interview is appropriate for most classrooms.

The Colbert Report
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Indecision Political Humor,The Colbert Report on Facebook

Daily Show: 2016 Election

This video clip looks at "Presidential Dynasties" and would be great to start a discussion about the American process for choosing presidential candidates. This clip is appropriate for any government class.

The Daily Show
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Indecision Political Humor,The Daily Show on Facebook

Ukraine Crisis and Foreign Policy

We're studying the President's role in foreign policy and recently covered the different ways the US interacts with foreign countries.  We discussed the following:

• Militarily
• Foreign Aid
• Sanctions
• Embargos
• Advice
• Treaties

We also discussed the various reasons the US would want to engage in foreign policy.  Some of the reasons discussed were:

• Promote economic growth
• Foster democracy abroad
• Protect national security and interests
• Protect human rights

The crisis in Ukraine is a great current event to get students to try and apply this knowledge.  I created this simple activity to reinforce these concepts above.

Lesson

First we reviewed the crisis with these YouTube clips to get an understanding of the conflict:

Why Russia is invading Ukraine, explained in 2 minutes
Why are Russia and Ukraine Fighting?
How Powerful Is Russia?

Following the video clips I had students work in groups of 4 to discuss the possible actions the US could take to address the crisis.  I had groups use this discussion guide to help guide their group work:

Discussion Guide

Commander in Chief Lesson

Well this was a tough one.  The President's role as Commander in Chief is constantly changing and there is so much grey area with regards to his war powers.  I tried to go over just the basics and left some room for students to research and go into more depth if they choose.  Let me know what you think or if I should modify it.



Student Video Guide