Revolutionary War Research Project

  1. You will be creating a research project on a person from the Revolutionary War.
  2. You will need to find 2 internet sources and 2 book sources for information.
  3. Each section of this project has specific directions. Follow the directions and you will have a great project. Each section will also have its own grade.
  4. The final copy of your essay must be typed. If you have a computer at home, please type it there. If you have a computer but no printer, you can save it to a jump drive and bring it to school or email it to me at to be printed. If you do not have a computer at home, you will have time at school to type it, but your paper needs to be ready to type when given the time.
  5. The final copy is due March 22, 2013. On this date, you must turn in your rough draft, final draft, and poster.
  6. Your writing will be graded using the writing rubric; a copy is included.
  7. You must give a three to five minute presentation to the class.
  8. You must provide your own poster board for the poster part of this project. You can buy poster board at Wal-Mart, CVS, Walgreen’s, the Dollar Store, etc.

People of Interest

You might want to choose one of these people as the topic of your research report.

King George III

Patrick Henry

Thomas Jefferson

George Washington

Charles Cornwallis

Benedict Arnold

Nathanael Greene

Paul Revere

Deborah Sampson

Henry Knox

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

James Madison

Benjamin Franklin

John Adams

Thomas Paine

Abigail Adams

Ethan Allen

Nathan Hale

John Hancock

Betsy Ross

Marquis de Lafayette

Alexander Hamilton

PhillisWheatly

Mercy Otic Warren

Samuel Adams

Research Paper Outline

I. Introduction

II. General biography

Tell where/when s/he was born.

Tell about family members & background. (Were they wealthy? What was their occupation - farmers? Shopkeepers?)

Is there something interesting about his/her childhood?

What was his/her educational background?

Was s/he married?

Did s/he have children?

What are some interesting things about his/her post-war years?

Where/when did s/he die?

III. Contribution to the Revolutionary War

What did s/he do?

Why was it important – what was the effect on the outcome or morale in the war?

IV. Evaluation of his/her contribution

What would you have done in his/her place? Do you think s/he made a good choice? Would you have had the personal qualities to do what s/he did? How might things have turned out if this person had not made the same choices?

V. Conclusion

Presentation Poster

When you present to the class, you must include a presentation poster. You may choose any color you like, as long as your information can be seen easily. You need to include the following on your poster:

1. Title

2. At least two pictures of your historical figure

3. Information that you learned during your research

4. Your name and homeroom

Poster will be graded on the following:

Contains required elements

Neatness

Use of space

Creativity

You Want Me to Talk for How Long??

1.Your presentation must be at least 3 minutes, but no longer than 5 minutes long. A 5% grade deduction will be made for each 30 seconds under 3 minutes and each 30 seconds over 5 minutes. (Questions from the audience are not included in the time restrictions.)

2.You may use notecards for your presentation, but you may not read from your essay.

3.During your presentation, you need to share with the class what you learned about your topic. You probably won’t have time to tell them everything that you learned. Just share the most important points. Your poster can help you with this.

4.At the end of your speech, you need to hold a question and answer session with the audience. The teacher will limit this to 5 minutes for you.

5.You will be graded on the following:

Organization of the speech

Presentation skills (eye contact, volume, clearness of speech)

Time

Research Report Rubric

CATEGORY / 4 / 3 / 2 / 1
Organization / Information is very organized with well-constructed paragraphs. / Information is organized, but paragraphs are not well-constructed. / Information is organized, but there are no paragraphs. / The information appears to be disorganized. 8)
Amount of Information / Exceptional amount of information. Addresses all topics fully. / All topics or questions are answered. / Most topics or questions are answered. / Several topics were not addressed.
Quality of Information / Information clearly relates to the main topic. It includes several supporting details and/or examples. / Information clearly relates to the main topic. It provides 1-2 supporting details and/or examples. / Information clearly relates to the main topic. No details and/or examples are given. / Information has little or nothing to do with the main topic.
Mechanics / No grammatical, spelling or punctuation errors. / Almost no grammatical, spelling or punctuation errors / A few grammatical spelling, or punctuation errors. / Many grammatical, spelling, or punctuation errors.
First Draft / Detailed draft is neatly presented and includes all required information. / Draft includes all required information and is legible. / Draft includes most required information and is legible. / Draft is missing required information and is difficult to read.
Paragraph Construction / All paragraphs include introductory sentence, explanations or details, and concluding sentence. / Most paragraphs include introductory sentence, explanations or details, and concluding sentence. / Paragraphs included related information but were not constructed well. / Paragraphing structure was not clear and sentences were not typically related within the paragraphs.