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Ways to use Truman's State of the Union addresses in teaching

Primary source discovery and analysis

Students will listen to a speech by President Truman and will fill out a work sheet based on the speech that they heard.

Students, working in teams, will analyze the rapid rise in automobiles and the growing need for a stable road system in the United States/Missouri

Students analyze a biographical comic book summarizing President Harry S. Truman's life prepared by the Democratic Party.

Students will conduct and script an interview of a veteran of the Korean War and submit a finished product (video and script of questions and answers) for evaluation.

Students will be analyzing two political cartoons featuring the United Nations (one from the Korean War-Truman administration and one from the War in the Persian Gulf-circa Bush 41 administration). After independent analysis, students will pair up or join small groups and share analysis and then discuss two questions about U.S. foreign policy decisions concerning the two events and the Presidential choices made about when and how to involve the U.S. in war. 

Help students see the Vietnam War in the larger context of the Cold War.

The primary objective for this activity is to provide a medium for students to explore the Vietnam War thorough a multitude of camera lenses and personal experiences.

Students are required to analyze the presidential diaries of Lyndon B. Johnson. Research is combined with analysis to identify people and groups mentioned in the diary.