Current U.S. Senators from West Virginia (Biography PPT Bundle) by Teach Simple

About this resource

What's inside this resource

Two biography slideshows — flattened here as PDFs — trace the political careers of West Virginia senators Joe Manchin and Shelley Moore Capito from early life and education through their rise into statewide and federal office. The Manchin biography moves chronologically from his 1947 birth in Farmington, through service in the West Virginia House of Delegates and Senate, his terms as Secretary of State and Governor, and his endorsements in national presidential races, ending at his election to the U.S. Senate. Each slide pairs a short factual caption with a running header naming the office Manchin held at that point in his career, giving students a timeline-style walk through one senator's biography, and the companion file follows the same structure for Senator Capito. Since the two senators represent different parties, students can extend the comparison with a political spectrum lesson that has them place party positions along a left-to-right continuum.

In the classroom

Teaching tips & learning objectives

Learning objectives

Student can sequence the offices a political figure held over the course of a career (state delegate, state senator, secretary of state, governor, U.S. senator).
Student can identify how state and national elections referenced in the biography connect to the senator's rise to office.

Teaching tips

Have students build a timeline poster from the slide captions as a note-taking activity while viewing the biography.
Compare the two senators' biographies side by side to discuss different paths to the U.S. Senate (state office progression vs. other routes).

Skills covered

Chronological biography reading — students trace a political figure's career stages from birth through elected office using dated slide captions.
Civic office sequencing — students identify the order of offices held (State Delegate to State Senator to Secretary of State to Governor to U.S. Senator).
Election-result interpretation — students read reported vote percentages and opponent names to understand how a candidate won or lost a given race.

Good to know

Questions teachers ask about this resource

Why does the biography reference so many different elections and opponents by name and vote percentage?

The slides are built as a factual timeline, so each electoral contest (e.g., the 1996 gubernatorial primary against Charlotte Pritt, the 2008 reelection with 69.77% of the vote) documents how the senator advanced step by step from state office to governor to the U.S. Senate.