Enlightened Thinker Project

Due Date: Monday October 20

There will not be class time available to work on the poster project

During and after the Age of Enlightenment, new ideas rapidly spread throughout the world. These ideas were put forth by Enlightenment thinkers and helped to change the face of government and society. In this project, you will demonstrate a knowledge and comprehension of:

  • the main ideas and beliefs of the Enlightenment
  • the outside influences that inspired these new ideas
  • the influence these ideas had on politics and society in later history

OBJECTIVES: To summarize and communicate the important ideas of the leading figures of the Enlightenment.

To analyze contributions from the Enlightenment that changed the way governments and society operate using evidence from primary and secondary sources.

Using what you know about the Enlightenment, complete one of the following assignments below.

ASSIGNMENT Instructions:

1.  Group POSTER / Collage of up to four participants: Using any ONE of the enlightened thinkers, create a poster that graphically illustrates his or her main beliefs. You must include: a symbol to denote poster’s theme; a nameplate; illustration of the thinker [drawn or copied]; a timeline contextualization of the person’s life showing influence on thinking; descriptions and illustrations for each of 3 of the most important works or ideas and their connections to changes in government or society; summary plate of Main Ideas and Beliefs. OPTIONAL inclusions: vocabulary words section, a quotation by the thinker - dated and sourced EXTRA CREDIT

2.  Individual SONG PARODY & Illustrations: Using any ONE of the enlightened thinkers, compose a parody of at least 20 lines [repeating chorus lines do not count toward the total nor do lines kept in from the original songs]. The key thought or main idea of the enlightened thinker must be the title of the parody, hence, the entire theme of the parody. The work does not need the name of the thinker in the parody. The song must show an understanding of the main ideas and beliefs of the enlightened thinker and how they impacted society or government. OPTIONAL: Make a music video of someone singing your lyrics EXTRA CREDIT

Group Poster

- After reading & researching an Enlightenment thinker, create a poster that reflects your understanding of the thinker, his or her main ideas and beliefs, and the influence he or she made on modern thinking.

- You may work in groups of up to four students. All work must be done outside of school but you are welcome to come after school any day this week to work on it. There is poster paper and materials available in

- Use the model to guide your poster innovations.

Be Creative. Be Accurate. Be Readable. Be neat and clean. Be Careful.

Poster or Collage Grade Scale:

______1. Symbol that represents the thinker’s ideas [5 points]

______2. Contextualization: biographical information that shows what influenced the thinker [10 points]

______3. 3 MOST important works, ideas, and actions described [45 points]

______4. Impact on government and society [10 points]

______5. Accuracy of information [10 points]

______6. Appearance, neat, readable, attention to detail and followed directions [10 points]

______7. Illustrations for the 3 important works [5 points]

______8. Nameplate and illustration of thinker [5 points]

Individual SONG PARODY

- After reading & researching an Enlightenment thinker, compose a parody of a song that reflects your understanding of the thinker, his or her main ideas and beliefs, and the influence he or she made on modern thinking.

______1. Song lyrics of the tune used for the parody [5 points]

______2. Title of song based on a key idea of the enlightened thinker [5 points]

______3. MOST important ideas and actions translated into lyrics that mimic the original song [45 points]

______4. Impact of main ideas are mentioned in the lyrics [10 points]

______5. Accuracy of information in the lyrics [10 points]

______6. Appearance, neat, readable, attention to detail [10 points]

______7. Illustrations for the Enlightened Song Parody [5 points]

______8. Lyrics are in sync with the original tune [one can sing the song and not miss a note] [10 points]