About Us
CongressLink in Brief
Congress: The Context
SUBJECTS
U.S. Government, Civics, U.S. History
GRADE LEVEL
8-12
OBJECTIVES
The student will understand the qualities that make a leader. More specifically, the student will understand those qualities a Senate or House leader must possess. They will also realize that leadership is not one dimensional but reliant upon many different circumstances and attributes.
LESSON PLAN
Class 1
1) Students will individually list those qualities they believe made an effective leader.
2) Students, in groups of 3-4, will narrow their individual lists to a group list of 5 leadership qualities.
3) The class will then develop a class list of the 5 major qualities of leadership. Students may want to Google “leadership qualities” to find references to leadership traits (a search on that phrase turned up nearly 8 million hits). One example: http://www.groco.com/readingroom/bus_goodleader.aspx.
Homework - Read the statements at http://www.congresslink.org/print_basics_histmats_congldrstatements.htm made by the four Congressional leaders.
Class 2
The students will be asked to revise the class list after having read the statements by the four leaders. In their groups of 3-4, the students will summarize the leadership qualities identified by the Congressional leaders. Students will compare/contrast the qualities each of the leaders identified. How do the qualities identified by each differ? How are they alike? Questions to ask: What circumstances did each of the leaders face? Which leaders had majorities while serving as leader? Which leaders were in the minority while serving as leader? Use basics_houseleaders.htm and http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/generic/Senate_Historical_Office.htm as the sources for this information. How would their relative situation effect their view of leadership?
Class 3
Students will return to the class list making any revisions their new information will justify. As the concluding activity students will evaluate each of the leaders at the CongressLink site. Among the questions they should answer are: Which leader was most effective? Why? Which would be least effective? Why? Does leading Congress differ from other forms of leadership? If so, how?
RESOURCES
CREDIT
Stan Mendenhall
Broadmoor School
Pekin, IL 61554
