1. a) Why isn’t President Biden delivering a State of the Union address from the U.S. House of Representatives this year?
b) When will President Biden deliver his inaugural year address to a Joint Session of Congress (which is usually delivered by a president in February)?

2. What is significant about the date of the president’s address tonight?

3. a) What did White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki say President Biden will be discussing in his speech tonight?
b) Ms. Psaki also noted, “The president will look forward, highlighting the role that Americans will play in beating the virus and moving the country to getting back to normal."
What do you think this new “role” might be?
Should the American people do more than what we’ve been doing for the past year - staying shut down and masked up and out of school?
c) What do you think of President Biden’s comments in his speech about our role in beating the virus? Ask a parent the same question.

4. What did President Biden say in previewing his Thursday night speech?

5. a) What did presidential historian Professor Douglas Brinkley say about the president’s speech?
b) What does President Biden have to do/say “to win over hearts and minds for [you/your family] to stay masked and get vaccinated”? Explain your answer.
c) Ask a parent: how important is it to you for President Biden to convince you during his speech that “the federal government hasn’t forgotten you”? Please explain your answer.

CHALLENGE #1 — WITHOUT listening to any comments by the media, watch President Biden’s address to the nation and answer the following questions.

To watch the address without comment, go to whitehouse.gov or c-span.org.
To read the text of President Biden’s address, go to: whitehouse.gov.

1. Tone is the attitude a speaker takes towards a subject. What was the tone of President Biden’s address? (optimistic, hopeful, energetic, inspiring, pessimistic, discouraging, lethargic, bombastic, etc. …) Explain your answer.

2. What do you think of President Biden’s plan for dealing with covid going forward?

3. What inspired you the most about President Biden’s address? Explain your answer. (If it did not inspire you at all, why not?)

CHALLENGE #2 - Watch/read/listen to reporting on President Biden’s address.
a) Are headlines positive, negative, or neither? Explain your answer. Give several examples.
b) Are reporters’ comments positive, negative, or neither? Explain your answer. Give several examples.