Presidential Inaugurations: Video

Once every four years, a U.S. President is inaugurated. This video gives a succinct summary of the significance of this ritualised event.

The video was prepared before Barack Obama's second inaugural ceremony in 2013, but it gives a good overview of the Inauguration as a U.S. political institution.

The second minute, where a historian wonders what history will remember about different Presidents, with a focus on Obama, fits well into a sequence about Obama's presidency. It also corresponds well to one of the themes in the Baccalauréat history curriculum: Le rapport des sociétés à leur passé.

From 2:23 there are lots of images, both film and photos which are very useful for giving pupils a sense of what an inauguration looks like and consists of.

For comprehension of the audio, the document is usable from B1+ (like many videos, there is background music, which does nothing to help learner comprehension).

But just focussing on the images, it's a useful tool even from A1+, in the context of a class about U.S. culture or the presidency in particular.