“From Camp David to the Carter Center: Leadership & Legacy in the Life of America’s 39th President”
NHD Theme Book 2015, Teaching Activities, Appendix A
Page 1 of 2
Suggested Teaching Activities
Vocabulary Activity:

Preemptive, summit, helipad, protocol, austerity, adjourn, proverbial, pantheon,
epiphany, federated, poignancy.
Document Analysis Activity:

Basic Document Analysis – Have students complete a document analysis worksheet for
each of the documents featured in the article. Be sure that they realize each media type
– written record or photograph, in this instance – has its own corresponding worksheet.
These can be found on the Special Topics and Tools page of the National Archives
website, here: http://www.archives.gov/education/special-topics.html

The REST of the Camp David Story – While the article focuses on the hardships of the
Camp David Summit overcome by the personal leadership style of President Jimmy
Carter, it doesn’t explicate the particular points of disagreement between Egypt and
Israel. Direct students to find transcripts of the Accords by visiting the Jimmy Carter
Library & Museum online, here:
http://www.jimmycarterlibrary.gov/documents/campdavid25/campdavidafter25years.p
html Divide the Class into groups representing the various delegations (U. S., Egypt,
Israel) , and have them reenact some of the more salient parts of Camp David, 1978.
Extended Research Activity:

Reconstructing The 13 Days of the Camp David Summit: One of the benefits to NHD
students of studying the Camp David Summit is that, with such a short yet welldocumented event, they have an opportunity to learn about historiography—or the
making of history—firsthand. This activity will allow students to participate in
reconstructing the 13 days of Camp David ’78, utilizing various levels of historical
account (primary, secondary, and tertiary), as well as multiple media types (written
records, photographs, first-person recollections, newspaper accounts, video).
o
Have students download each day’s corresponding Presidential Daily Diary entry,
at http://www.jimmycarterlibrary.gov/documents/diary/index.phtml
“From Camp David to the Carter Center: Leadership & Legacy in the Life of America’s 39th President”
NHD Theme Book 2015, Teaching Activities, Appendix A
Page 2 of 2
o
Word Processing Skill Application: Direct students to create a Historical Record
Reconstruction Grid1 in which to situate all primary and secondary sources and
the facts of the day they reveal (this article’s featured documents; each day’s
corresponding daily diary entry; personal recollections of actors from Keeping
Faith).
o
Multi-media components: Direct students to locate and include in their grid
some contemporary news accounts of the Summit from various sources, such as
PBS Online’s “Brokering Peace: The Camp David Accords http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/flashinteractive/carter-peace/; Contemporary news reports about Camp David 1978,
from CBS News - http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/inside-the-nsa/; and video
footage of President Carter talking about the summit on ABC News, here http://abcnews.go.com/Archives/video/sept-18-1978-camp-david-accords10866207
1
Created by author. See Online Extension site version of these activities for an example.