Enduring Understandings

• Leadership is the capacity for an individual to move, inspire and mobilize masses of people

to act together in pursuit of an end.

• Leaders seize on the opportunities of their times, as well as the hopes, fears,

and frustrations of individuals.

• Leaders are a product of the times in which they live, politically, socially, and economically.

• Leaders serve good and bad purposes.

Essential Questions

• How are political leaders affected by economic, political and social forces?

• Since a political leader must have followers, to what extend can the leader be held responsible for the consequences of his/her actions?

Content/Standards

CORE

CONNECTIONS

PRACTICE

IDENTITY

Great Thinker

• Elizabeth I

Concepts

• Empowerment

• Persuasion

• Economics

• Politics

Historian

• Qualification

• Perspective

• Introspection

Principles

• Leaders must have followers.

• Leaders can lead by command or consent.

• There can be a fine line between persuasion and coercion.

• Leaders cannot be all things to all people.

• Historical knowledge provides insight in the selection of contemporary and future leaders.

• Voting is an individual’s civic responsibility.

• Committed and active groups can affect policy and election outcomes.

Skills

• Research using primary and secondary sources significant events that influenced a political leader.

• ++Write a reflective essay employing evidence and inference.

• ++Use proper citations to give credit to research.

• ++Apply conventions of Standard English in written essay.

• Research and discuss current events in which a political leader is at odds with the will of the people.

• ++Infer information not directly stated and give evidence to support inferences.

• Identify weak, ineffective and/or villainous contemporary political leaders using historical knowledge to defend your selection.

• Research voting records over the last ten years and include data regarding social, economic, age, sex and ethnic backgrounds.

• ++Synthesize research and draw conclusions.

++ Meets standards of Norwalk Public Schools Language Arts II Curriculum.

Student Outcomes

Students will:

• Understand some of the background, motivation and philosophy that have shaped political world leaders.

• Know that perception, influenced by culture, education, gender and experience, plays a role in defining leadership. One society’s hero is another’s villain.

• Begin to evaluate political choices and decision that individuals, groups and nations have made in the past, and—taking into account historical context—begin to apply this knowledge to choices and decisions contemporary societies face.

• Interpret, evaluate and organize primary and secondary sources of information.

• Show critical thinking through careful research and analytic writing that uses clear, grammatical sentences and well-ordered paragraphs.

• Be able to follow a format to record a citation.

Materials

Books:

Grun, Albert. (1991) The Timetables of History. New York: Simon and Schuster.

Articles:

Aristotle. “The Ethics.”

Machiavelli, N. “The Prince.”

Schlesinger, Arthur, Jr. “On Leadership.”

Thucydides. “The Peloponnesian Wars.”

Videos:

Elizabeth. I SATEL DOC for A&E Network

Thomas Jefferson. Adam Friedman for A&E Network.

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