Presidential Rating Tournament

Background

Collectively, we want everything in a president: a strong leader, a consensus builder, a good manager, a policy expert, a great communicator, an ethical model, a visionary, a negotiator. Some judge presidents not by their behavior—how they act—but by their values—what they believe. The problem here is that this opens up a can of worms: What values do we test presidents by? Liberty, equality, justice, community, happiness? And how should we rank order such values? An how even to define values? There’s a vast confusion here. Can an American president be great without a huge crisis, such as war or depression, that he can exploit politically? Even if a presidents’ personal qualities, such as courage or character, were stable and similar from one administration to another, do not ever-changing situations or circumstances make it most difficult to compare the leadership of presidents?

Assignment

1. Your group will be assigned to research one of the brackets of Presidents [The Founders, The Slavery Presidents, The World War Presidents, or The TV Presidents] taken from the “Presidential November Madness” tournament brackets, and present information about each Presidents strengths and weaknesses to the class.

2. The strengths and weaknesses should be listed on the Presidential rating table for your group of presidents. After each round of presentations, the class will vote for a winner in each bracket. This will continue until there are four finalists (one in each bracket).

3. Each group will then prepare a PowerPoint presentation of their finalist's Presidency using the template below. It must follow this format exactly. Instructions for completing each slide are included and should be deleted when the presentation is finished. One or two additional slides may be added to promote your candidate, but are not required

4. After PowerPoint presentations are completed, the class will vote until only one candidate remains and America's greatest president is chosen!

Click on the link below to open your template as a Microsoft PowerPoint file

Powerpoint Template

Presidential Rating Tournament Table

“The Founders”

Directions:  Research each of the U.S. Presidents listed in your assigned tournament bracket and rate each according to their strengths and weaknesses.  Compile a list of their Pluses (strengths) and minuses (weaknesses).  Be prepared to present this information to the class on your assigned Presidents.

Presidential Rating Tournament Table

“The Slavery Presidents”

Directions:  Research each of the U.S. Presidents listed in your assigned tournament bracket and rate each according to their strengths and weaknesses.  Compile a list of their Pluses (strengths) and minuses (weaknesses).  Be prepared to present this information to the class on your assigned Presidents.

Presidential Rating Tournament Table

“The TV Presidents”

Directions:  Research each of the U.S. Presidents listed in your assigned tournament bracket and rate each according to their strengths and weaknesses.  Compile a list of their Pluses (strengths) and minuses (weaknesses).  Be prepared to present this information to the class on your assigned Presidents.

Presidential Rating Tournament Table

“World War Presidents”

Directions:  Research each of the U.S. Presidents listed in your assigned tournament bracket and rate each according to their strengths and weaknesses.  Compile a list of their Pluses (strengths) and minuses (weaknesses).  Be prepared to present this information to the class on your assigned Presidents.

Assessment Check

1. Presidential Rating Table is completed for all ten presidents in your assigned bracket and information was shared with the class

2. PowerPoint is complete for your groups finalist and information was presented to the class

Research Links

POTUS: Presidents of the United States

Presidents USA

American Presidents

Presidential Accomplishments 1

Presidential Accomplishments 2