Identifying the Roles of the President

The President of the United States is a crucial and complex job in government. The president has many roles as head of the country, and understanding even a few of them is helpful for students as they learn what powers the president has and what action they can take.

Students will create a Spider Map that represents four of the roles of the President of the United States of America. Students should select four of the roles from the list below, create a title for each of the cells, and create a visual representation of what each role entails.

Roles of the President

• Chief of State
• Chief Executive
• Chief Administrator
• Chief Diplomat
• Commander in Chief
• Party Chief
• Chief Citizen
• Chief Legislator

Extended Activity

To extend this activity, students should research the history of these roles of the president and create a storyboard that represents specific events that have occurred during history. Students do not need to select the same president for each role in this activity and can instead span the entire list of presidents to find events that they found most interesting.