Getting Personal with Mr. President

How well do you really know any of the Presidents? Sure, you know their names (who is Franklin Pierce?) and you know their accomplishments (wait… who did that again?) and you know their party affiliation (what in the heck is the Whig party?) but you don’t know any one of them personally. So, let’s get personal with the Presidents! Each of you will pick ONE president (we will have a lottery selection!) and do a report on his personal life, his accomplishments in life and as a president, and enlighten me and the rest of your class on your new BFF!

You will be responsible for writing a persuasive 3-4 page paper on the president you have chosen and why he is the greatest of them all! On the due date of our papers (ps, it’s MONDAY NOVEMBER 16TH) you will be required to debrief us for 2-3 minutes on your president, and explain some of his accomplishments. So be prepared! You’ll have 2 periods in the computer lab (TUESDAY NOVEMBER 10TH AND THURSDAY NOVEMBER 12TH) to get some solid work done on these projects. You can use the work time to research your president, or to begin writing your paper if your research is complete. Because you have computer class time, I am requiring this paper by typed and have sufficient research with which to back it up. (You may NOT cite Wikipedia!) You will need to do some work outside of class, and in order to use your work time in class valuably, I would suggest preparing in advance! Good luck!

Rubric:Out of 45 pts. This = almost one whole TEST GRADE!

Validity of Research / Information presented____/30

Correctness of Written Work____/10

Bibliography*____/5

Total ____/45

*Oh ya, you have to do one of these! Use the bibliography guide provided!

SO, where to start?

Provided below is an outline for your paper. If you chose to stray from this outline, you must still provide me with all the same information!

I. Introduction Paragraph

II. Brief history of President’s life (include any significant accomplishments before he was elected President)

III. Presidency (what struggles did he face?)

IV. Arguments WHY your president is the BEST (Strongest? Most loyal? Most intelligent?)

V. At least one argument opposition would use to discredit your president

VI. Why your opposition is wrong!

VII. Closing Paragraph

Your longest paragraphs should be III and IV. You must include some reason why not everyone loves your president in paragraph V. However, you NEED to combat this in paragraph VI by providing a rebuttal to that argument. Again, cite any information you pull from your research! Otherwise that is plagiarism, and that’s a big NO NO!

Again, your Paper is due MONDAY NOVEMBER 16TH and is worth 45 POINTS!!! You are given class time, but you will need to spend outside time on this as well. If you are not prepared to work on work days, you will be given an alternate assignment which will be completed in addition to your project. If you are finished with your project on our workdays (and can prove it by brining it in to me!) you are welcome to work on anything else. Good Luck!

My President is: ______