Honors American History Second Semester 2011-2012
Mrs. Mieskowski Decade Project
The Changing Times of American History:
Decade Project (85 points)
Statement of Purpose: In order to study how times have changed throughout 2oth century America, each pair of students will present the cultural trends of an era.
Explanation of Project: Students will pair up with one other student in their class (unless otherwise stated) and will choose a decade in the twentieth century, research the cultural trends specified and give a 15-18 minute presentation to the class on the assigned date.
Guidelines: In order to perform well on the second semester project, students should closely pay attention to the following required guidelines.
- Each student is to choose one partner from their class to work with on this assignment. The students will then choose a decade (1920’s, 30’s, 40’s, 50’s, 60’s, 70’s, or 80’s) to research and present on. At most only two groups will present on an era (unless otherwise stated.)
- The students are then to research the following cultural trends of their decade:
a. Fashion of the decade (men, women & teenagers)
b. Music of the decade (most popular)
c. Entertainment of the decade (media, film, sports etc.)
d. Household inventions of the decade (technological advances)
e. Popular products, fads, name brands, etc.
- Through research, the students should compile relevant information that would add to the knowledge and interest of their decade. For each topic (5) you need to have a visual aid!! (For example: a song from the era that you could play for the class)
- Before beginning the oral presentation, the students must turn in a formal, work cited sheet with at least 5 sources listed (one source must be a book.) The students should use at least 5 sources.
- When we get to the specified decades in our class discussions, we will take one day and each group who has researched that decade will give a 15-18 minute presentation on their topic.
The students may either present normally or with a power point presentation (if you use powerpoint, you still need to have 5 visual aids.) Internet Photos/Posters do not count!
The project will be due according to which decade you are assigned. I will announce approximately when each group will be giving their presentation.
The first presentations will be given in late February.
This project will be included in on the students’ fourth quarter grade!
Decade ProjectGrading Rubric- 85 points
A.Introduction (Does it catch the audience’s attention? Does the introduction give the audience an overall sense of the time period?) /5
B. Time(Was the presentation 15-18 minutes? Did the presenters make good use of their time? Was there actually at least 15 minutes of content material?) /5
TimeSuggestion:
Introduction: 1 minute
Fashion (content/visual): 3 minutes
Music (content/visual): 3 minutes
Innovations (content/visual): 3 minutes
Entertainment (content/visual): 3 minutes
Popular products, fads, brands (content/visual): 3 minutes
Closure: 1 minute
C. Depth of Content(Was the information presented relevant and useful for this assignment?)
1. Fashion (men, women & teenagers) /9
2. Music (most popular) /5
3. Entertainment (media, film, sports) /9
4. Household Inventions (technology) /5 /33
5. Popular products, fads, brand names /5
D. Visual Aids(Did the students make the effort to find relevant aids?)
1. Fashion (men, women & teenagers) /5
2. Music (most popular) /5
3. Entertainment (media, film, sports) /5
4. Household Inventions (technology) /5 /25
5. Popular products, fads, brand names /5
E. Work Cited Page:(Did the students hand in a formal, work cited sheet with at least 5 sources listed?) /5
F. Creativity: (How much effort and thought went into the project?Did the students actually KNOW about the material they presented?) ) /7
G. Closure(Did the closure provide a summary of the cultural trends of the decade?) /5
Co-Constructed Grading Rubric
Decade Project
______points(between 75-100 points)
Instructions: Since as students you will be sitting through these presentations during the second semester, don’t you think you should have a say it what will go into them? In your small groups, design a rubric for this presentation project. Questions to think about: how much should each category be worth? What needs to be included? What topics should be presented on? What type of interaction should there be? What would you like to learn about the different decades? How many points should each category be worth?
Points:
A.Introduction: what needs to be included?______
B. Time: how long? (longer than 10 minutes)______
C. Cultural Categories: How many should there be & what should they be? (Ex. Fashion) ______
D. Visual Aids:the # of these needs to be equal or greater than the # of categories & PPNT does not count
______
E. Work Cited Page:how many sources should be required? ______
F. Creativity/Overall Presentation: what should the requirements be?______
G. Closure: what needs to be included?______
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