Unit 1 Performance Task—Required Format

Objective: To write an informative/explanatory essay explaining the ways that certain individuals have

responded to and overcome adversity.

Essay Format

Introduction

  • Three catchy sentences (minimum)
  • Some ideas for these sentences include: Defining what adversity means in your own words, making the connection between mankind and adversity, the inevitability of having to overcome adversity in your life, how people are and have overcome adversity in today’s society.
  • Clear thesis statement
  • Example Thesis: It is inevitable that many individuals have to respond and overcome adversity in their lives; this can be demonstrated through the challenges, characteristics, and actions of Franklin DelanoRoosevelt, Yoshiko Uchida, and (insert third person here).

Body Paragraph #1—Using FDR’s Pearl Harbor Address as your source, explain the following:

  • What types of challenges did Roosevelt have to address and why?
  • What personal characteristics did Roosevelt display when facing these challenges?
  • What actions did Roosevelt take in order to overcome the adversity he faced?

You must have a minimum of one quote and/or paraphrase in this paragraph. As noted above, your quote or paraphrase will come from Roosevelt’s Pearl Harbor Address.

Body Paragraph #2—Using Yoshiko Uchida’s memoir from Desert Exile: The Uprooting of a Japanese-American

Family as your source, explain the following:

  • What types of challenges did Uchida, her family, and the other Japanese Americans have to face and why?
  • What personal characteristics did Uchida, her family, and the other Japanese Americans display when facing these challenges?
  • What actions did Uchida, her family, and the other Japanese Americans take in order to overcome the adversity they faced?

You must have a minimum of one quote and/or paraphrase in this paragraph. As noted above, your quote or paraphrase will come from Uchida’s memoir.

Body Paragraph #3—Using your outside source, explain the following:

  • What types of challenges did your chosen person and/or group have to face and why?
  • What personal characteristics did your chosen person display when facing these challenges?
  • What actions did your chosen person take in order to overcome the adversity he or she faced?
  • Why was it so important for your chosen person to overcome the adversity? What did he or she hope to achieve or prove?

Again,you must have a minimum of one quote and/or paraphrase in this paragraph. Your quote or paraphrase will obviously come from your outside source.

Conclusion

  • Restate your thesis statement.
  • Summarize your key points.
  • End with a strong statement on adversity.