Teacher Facilitation Guide

Program Overview
What is a Leader is a research-based curriculum that explores past and present leaders in a variety of fields. Students view video interview segments featuring four leaders who come from very diverse backgrounds and philosophies. These interviews serve as a springboard for students' own research. A list of online resources is provided to support student research.

Viewing/Facilitation Strategies

Introduce the What is a Leader topic and video segments. Ask students to share examples of their current knowledge, experiences, and questions related to women leaders, historical trivia about different leaders, historical fiction and their own leadership abilities.
View the video segments as a class, in small groups, or individually.
Facilitate student selection of one of the research projects listed below which fits their interests and grade level.

Research Project Overview

Grades 7-9

Student Academic Standards

Students understand historical perspective.
Students understand and can identify the qualities of leadership.
Students understand how women leaders have contributed to society. .
Students understand that leaders come from a variety of backgrounds.
Students understand that leaders have a variety of approaches to leadership.
Students gather and use information for research purposes.

Projects and Investigations:

A Tribute to Women Leaders
In the video segments, Benazir Bhutto calls becoming Prime Minister of Pakistan "a victory for women everywhere." There have been few female leaders in history, but whether women have lead an entire nation, like Bhutto and Margaret Thatcher, or have presided over a prestigious corporation or university, like Johnetta Cole, women have be known to take the helm and really made a difference. Read Bhutto's interview in the Gallery of Public Service. Using the Resource Links, investigate other women leaders in history, selecting one to focus on for this project. What motivated this leader? How did she contribute to society? What obstacles did she overcome? What was her philosophy of leadership? Create a multi-media tribute to this leader, blending a montage of images with written text about her life and achievements.

Historical Leader Trivia Quiz
What defines a leader? There are as many answers to that question as there are leaders in the world. Though they come from highly diverse backgrounds and philosophies, all leaders share the ability to inspire great numbers of people to a single cause or goal. A leader has the ability to unite people and help them achieve things that they thought were impossible. Using the Resource Links, conduct a survey of past leaders of nations, cities, social movements, religions, agencies and/or institutions. Chose five of your favorite leaders, taking note of interesting facts about their lives. Collect twenty interesting facts and use them to create an online historical, multiple-choice trivia quiz with which to baffle your friends and family.

Grades 9-12

Student Academic Standards

Students understand historical perspective.
Students understand and can identify the qualities of leadership.
Students understand how women leaders have contributed to society.
Students understand how historical fiction is developed from historical facts.
Students understand how to develop an historical fiction work about a famous leader.
Students understand how to recognize leadership abilities in themselves and others.
Students understand how to prioritize their goals.
Students gather and use information for research purposes.

Projects and Investigations:

Historical Fiction Project
One of the most enjoyable ways to learn about history is through historical fiction. Historical fiction allows us to imagine what a period of time was really like, rather than simply memorizing a list of dates. Using the Resource Links, investigate examples of historical fiction. Then, conduct a survey of past leaders of nations, cities, social movements, religions, agencies and/or institutions. Chose one leader and select a single episode from his or her life. Write a short historical fiction story about this episode. The episode doesn't have to be the most important event in that person's life. For example, if you were writing about George Washington, you might choose the time he cut down the cherry tree instead of the day he became the first president of the United States. While your story should be factually accurate, feel free to elaborate with details regarding clothes, weather, dialogue, scents, setting and even the inner thoughts of your characters. However, try to make sure your fictional details would have been possible during that time period..

Presidential Aspirations
In the video segments, former United States president Jimmy Carter says "We can drift along as though there were still a cold war, wasting hundreds of billions of dollars on weapons that will never be used, ignoring the problems of people in this country and around the world, being one of the worst environmental violators on earth. . . or we can take these things on as true leaders ought to and accept the inspiring challenge of America for the future." Read Carter's interview in the Gallery of Public Service. Imagine you are campaigning for the United States presidency. How would you respond to Carter's call to "accept the inspiring challenges" that America faces? What qualities do you have that would make you a good leader? Create a list of what your priorities would be, as president. Then write a speech about the direction in which you would like to take the United States, outlining your priorities and goals. Finally, create a plan for your campaign website, where you will post your speech.

Page: 1