On Tuesday, September 8, President Barack Obama will deliver a national address directly to the nation’s students on the importance of education.

The president will challenge students to work hard, set goals, and take responsibility for their learning. The address will be broadcast live over the White House website at 12 PM eastern standard time. U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has invited every school principal in the country to have their school participate in the broadcast.

Teachers are encouraged to have students listen to the speech or show a video of the speech later during the first weeks of school.  NEA has developed and discovered resources to help address and extend some of the ideas in the President’s speech.

Using President Obama’s Back to School Themes Throughout the Year

The following activities are ideas teachers can use throughout the school year to build students’ awareness of some of the themes from the President's speech. NEA will be adding to these during the course of the year.

Responsibility

Grades 1-6

Ask students what it means to be responsible and what it means to have responsibilities. Give examples and encourage students to offer their ideas too. Discuss what it means to be responsible and failing to be responsible.

As a group project, have students develop a chart of classroom responsibilities. Make copies of the chart for students and have them keep track of whether they are carrying out their responsibilities each day. Have students note – with a written comment or graphic – how well they are doing. Discuss the things that get in the way of students carrying out their responsibilities. Spend a few minutes discussing this every day for a week, and then revisit it throughout the year, especially at the beginning of grading periods. Getting parents to sign the charts at the end of the week’s project is a good way to link them in.

After students have used their classroom responsibility charts for a couple of weeks, construct a sample home responsibility chart. Have students develop their own version of the chart at home. Again, have students use their charts and have parents sign them.  The charts can be used as starters for stories, self descriptions, or written reflections on responsibility.

Grades 7 - 12

Brainstorm a list of ideas on how citizens exercise responsibility every day (disposing of trash, recycling, obeying traffic signals, etc.). Discuss whether responsibility is a habit of thinking and how that habit is exercised both in and out of school. The following are ways to tie the theme of responsibility into lessons in content areas.

• Have students identify responsible and irresponsible action of characters in novels and history.
• Discuss whether scientific discoveries require new responsibilities. Are they personal responsibilities – or responsibilities of the government and community –  or both?

Persistence

Grades K-5

Initiate a discussion on persistence.  A possible starter:

“The President talked about persistence in his speech to students.  I am going to give you some clues and see if you can figure out what that word means.

If a soccer player keeps practicing dribbling the ball even though she is getting tired, she is showing persistence.

• If a student spends an extra 15 minutes practicing his instrument, he is showing persistence.
• If a child keeps trying to tie a bow, that child is showing persistence.
• If a student practices writing the alphabet or spelling words, that student is showing persistence.
• If a student gives up and puts her head down on the desk if she can’t figure something out, that student is not showing persistence.
• If a student has trouble figuring out math problems and asks the teacher for help, that student is showing persistence.

Now let’s see if we can figure out what persistence is and how people show it.”

During the discussion, have student provide examples of persistence -- from their own lives, from the lives of friends and others in their community, and from the lives of characters in books and stories.

Have students make a list of things in school that require persistence and behaviors that show persistence. Make a class chart or individual charts to show how students are growing in persistence.

For grades 4 and 5, the idea of persistence can be expanded to different disciples. In history, persistence is evident in the lives of patriots or pioneers. In science, it is on display in the behaviors of animals.   The March of the Penguins movie, for example, provides an impressive example of animal persistence.

Grades 6 through 12

Discuss the meaning of persistence. Ask students why this characteristic might be important, and encourage them to offer support for their responses. Ask how students their age can demonstrate persistence in school, in sports, in hobbies and clubs, and at home.  If students don’t bring it up, raise the idea of practice as a component or corollary of persistence. 

Discuss cases where persistence might not be considered a positive trait (nagging, continuing to engage in negative behaviors, insisting on something, stubbornness, etc.). Ask students to consider what makes persistence a virtue some of the time. Seek examples of when persistence might not be helpful to people or their communities.

Have students list the persistent behaviors required to be successful in school and in life.  Students can do this individually or in small groups, then create a list for the class as a while. Have each student identify two behaviors related to persistence and success in school and have them create a chart to track their behavior. Help students improve their persistence by giving some time weekly to review the chart and discuss their progress. This activity can be extended by having students identify cases in which persistence does not lead to improvement or success -- such as keeping bad habits, nagging parents or friends, or being stubborn.

The topic can be applied to events and developments in world and American history where persistence averted disaster. 

Persistence can be used as a theme for writing assignments and comparing characters in fiction, history, or current events.

Science has many stories of persistence and its essential role in scientific discovery and progress.

Teachers might want to have a bulletin board or class web page for elaborating on and gathering examples of persistence.

Setting and Achieving Goals

Grades 1-5

Have students define the word “goals” and give examples. Ask them how goals in sports -- like a touchdown or a high score in gymnastics – are similar to other types of goals in life, such as getting a good grade, passing a test, finishing a project, or playing a piece of music well. Encourage students to talk about the importance of setting goals and figuring out what it will take to achieve them. Talk about shorter and longer term goals. A student learning a sport, for example, might initially set a goal of learning the rules of the game. Longer-term goals might mean becoming stronger, faster, quicker or more aware of the strategies of the game. Someone playing an instrument might focus on the goal of hitting notes accurately and quickly. Note that in the course of working toward a goal, a person might take lessons or get support from other such as coaches and teachers, but emphasize that it takes work on one’s own part to reach a goal. 

Have students discuss some possible goals for the class as a whole. These might include setting a good class attendance record, turning in all homework in each week, completing a class project, devising a good behavior record. Have the group choose one goal for the new school year and devise a system for marking progress toward that goal. Each week, note whether progress is being made toward the goal and what needs to be done to improve progress. At the end of the grading period, have the class reflect on their success in achieving the goal and identify strategies for improvement. Have the students choose an additional goal for the class for the next grading period.

Use a similar process to have students identify and keep track of individual goals for the grading period. Have students develop charts or record keeping systems they can use to stay on top of their progress. Spend time checking weekly progress and discuss strategies for keeping on track to achieve individual goals. At the end of the grading period, have students reflect on their goal setting process, note their achievements, and offer ideas on how they might improve.  Help students set an additional goal or two for the next grading period.  Keep coming back to the issue of setting realistic goals. Reflect on best ways to set goals, stay on track, and solve problems that arise in reaching goals throughout the school year. 

Share the emphasis on goals with parents and enlist their help in checking on students’ progress toward achieving goals.

Connections to Content Areas

In social studies, ask students to identify the goals of pioneers, immigrants, historical figures, people in the news.  Ask students to analyze how those goals are similar to and different from their own goals or the goals of other people.

In science, ask students to identify the goals of some animals.  Discuss how the way animals go about achieving their goals is different or similar to how people achieve their goals.  Ask whether we can learn something from their behavior?

In literature, ask students to identify goals of characters in stories and books.  Have them compare and contrast how characters try to achieve their goals.  Develop categories for types of activities for reaching goals, e.g., thoughtful, sneaky, brave, honest, dishonest.  Compare the difficulties characters encounter in achieving goals to difficulties people encounter in the real world, especially the students in their own lives.

Additional Resources:

Goodcharacter.com - Teaching Responsbility