Michigan League of Academic Games

Ask Rod

Assistant Executive Director Rod Beard answers your Academic Games questions.

This month's feature: Tips on preparing for Presidents

Question: Rod, I am a new coach that is considering having my team play Presidents for the first time. What tips can you give me on helping my team learn and practice Presidents? Sincerly, "Pondering Presidents"

Answer: Pondering, Here's a teaching strategy that I've always liked:

After you have introduced the game of Presidents and showed the students the gazeteer sheets, ask each student to pick a president, or draw presidents out of a hat (every student should have a different president, if possible) Than ask the students to write or type the president's name on a sheet of paper, along with three facts not found on the gazeteer, for homework for the next practice. The facts can be simple, like their parents' names, or they can be complex, such as explaining how they won their first election. At the next practice, or once the students have turned in their assignment, ask each student to give their piece of paper to a teammate. The teammate must then find three new facts to put on that sheet of paper for homework for the next practice. You can repeat this process as many times as you wish, each time making sure that no facts are duplicated. The more the process is repeated, the more the students have to research to find good facts. At the end of the process, take all of the sheets and put them into a big book that can be distributed to the entire team as a study guide.

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