How do United States presidents give people second chances? Scholars research the concept of presidential forgiveness, or pardon. By completing an Executive Branch Mini-Lesson, class members get a better grasp of the power the executive branch has to waive guilt of a federal crime. They also build news literacy skills by fact checking current information related to pardons.

Concepts

presidential roles and powers, the executive branch

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Additional Tags

social studies

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Instructional Ideas

• Extend the lesson with research on why President Ford pardoned President Nixon at History.com
• Assign a reading on the application for a presidential pardon and the process it entails
  

Classroom Considerations

• Computer projection is an option for the lesson

Pros

• Resource allows for differentiated instruction using pairs for enhanced learning 
• Contains teacher lesson plans for classroom distribution 

Cons

• None

Common Core

RH.9-10.1 RH.9-10.2 RH.9-10.3 RH.11-12.1 RH.11-12.2 RH.11-12.3