Name: ______

Enrichment

Enlightenment Thinkers Press Conference

You will be working in groups of 3-5. Each group will research one of the following Enlightenment Thinkers:

  • Beccaria
  • Hobbes
  • Locke
  • Rousseau
  • Montesquieu
  • Voltaire

Step 1: Assign Roles. Each person in the group should choose one of the following roles.

  1. Enlightenment Thinker—this person will actually portray the Enlightenment thinker in the class’s press conference. They will have to act like and answer questions as if they are that person (Grade will be based on the ability to answer questions in the press conference & research in class.)
  2. Agent—this person will provide assistance to the Enlightenment Thinker. If the thinker gets stumped during the press conference, they should be able to refer to their agent to answer the question, as their “lifeline”. (Grade will be based on the ability to answer questions in class.)
  3. Advertiser—will manage the “visual” part of the press conference. The advertiser should create a poster to represent the ideas of your thinker. (Grade will be based on the poster & research in class.)
  4. Reporter—should write questions to try to stump the other Enlightenment thinkers.(Grade will be based on quality of questions in the press conference & research in class.)
  5. Reporter—should write questions to try to stump the other Enlightenment thinkers. (Grade will be based on quality of questions in the press conference & research in class.)

Step 2: You need to find out as much information about your group’s assigned Enlightenment thinker as possible. Make sure that you write down citations for each source you use (online or from a book).

Step 3: Prepare for press conference—everyone should convey their information to the Enlightenment Thinker and Agent. They need to know as much information about the thinker off the top of their head as possible. The Advertiser needs to make the poster on your thinker. The Reporter(s) need to draft as many questions as possible for the other thinkers.

Step 4: Press Conference—the Enlightenment thinkers will answer the questions of the other groups’ reporters. The group whose Enlightenment thinker correctly answers the most questions will “win” and receive 5 bonus points on this in class assignment.

Step 5: Final Grade – is based on your individual performance in the press conference. The total points for this assignment is 50.