8th Grade - Honors - Political Party Assessment/Analysis/Essay 2016
1. Overview. Students will be presented with information concerning the two major political parties of the American government in class. Students will then apply this knowledge with their own beliefs to form an analysis and opinions of material presented by our news media. The activity will culminate with an essay where students declare themselves most aligned with one of the major political parties based on the issues and explain their choice for President of the United States. This activity consists of two separate and unrelated assessments.
A. Television News Analysis (see paragraph 2 below) – Analyze the first 15 minutes of 2 shows of two opposing news networks on 3 different days. Analysis form attached. Results go in notebook.
B. Political Party Essay (see paragraph 3 below) – Write an essay explaining which political party you favor based on three separate issues and which political candidate you favor for President and why. This is a separate assessment and NOT turned in with notebook.
2. Television News Analysis requirements. These are to be documented in your notebook and will be heavily weighted. To successfully complete this project, you will summarize and analyze at least six television news programs. At least three will be from MSNBC (or other equivalent station) and three will be from FOX News. You may choose syndicated shows or top of the hour news reporting shows. Examples of syndicated shows are listed below. Of the three you MUST include at least one syndicated show. You are required to only watch and summarize the first 15 minutes of each show (until the first commercial). You must watch opposing networks on the same day so that you can better analyze the reporting of the news of that day.
A. Summary – in a paragraph (4 to 5 sentences), summarize what you observed on television.
B. Analysis – in a paragraph explain the similarities and differences, media bias if any, which side did the media bias favor, which network do you think was more accurate/non bias in their reporting? Why? Were the same stories covered? Why/why not? A separate worksheet is provided to help you accomplish this.
C. Examples of Syndicated News Shows:
(1) MSNBC – Chris Matthews, Rachel Maddow, and Chris Hayes
(2) Fox News – Bill O’Reilly, Megyn Kelly and Sean Hannity
D. Examples of top of the hour world news shows:
(1) ABC (David Muir), NBC (Lester Holt), CBS (Scott Pelley)
(2) Fox News - Shepard Smith, Brett Baier, and Neil Cavuto
3. Political Party Essay. 100 points. Using data compiled in your viewings of the news media, teacher handouts, discussions with responsible adults (your parents) and any research conducted on your own, you are to write a 1.5 to 2.5 page, five (5) paragraph essay explaining your political party preference. You must justify your position based on your analysis of three issues of your choice. You must identify each party view of the issue. You must then explain your position on the issue (either Republican or Democrat) with justification. Please include a paragraph on which candidate you support for President with justification. You must include an introduction paragraph and a conclusion paragraph. You should have three or more body paragraphs. Each new idea/issue should have its own separate paragraph. A teacher scoring rubric is listed on the reverse.
4. Due dates:
a. News media review requirement (put in Notebook) – ________________________
b. Political Party Essay - _________________________________________________