literature reflects the societal concerns of the time period. What are the major concerns in our time? Academic Essay | Write my Essay

Research Project
Your final writing assignment in English IV is a research project. During the year, you have seen that literature reflects the societal concerns of the time period. What are the major concerns in our time? You and a partner will be researching one of the below listed concerns from the modern day. Details about the assignment are below.

Partners
• You may choose any student in your class period to work with on this assignment.
• You are INDIVIDUALLY responsible for ensuring all work is turned in. Any and all work may be divided by the partners, but you are BOTH responsible for getting ALL work turned in on time. This means that you will receive a zero if your partner does not turn in an assignment. CHOOSE WISELY!!!!
• You do have the option of working on this project alone; however, this does not change the requirements of the final product.
Final Product
• All projects must be done in a multimedia format. You may use PowerPoint, Prezi, or another presentation software. If you are using a program from a computer class, it is YOUR responsibility to ensure it will open and play on the teacher’s computer.
• Each pair will also be responsible for presenting the information to the class. Each partner must contribute to the presentation.
• The final product will count for 80% of your test grade, and the presentation will count for 20% of your test grade. For details, please see the attached rubric.
• There is information in this packet to help you with both the product and presentation. Please read it!

Topics

Below is a list a possible topics to choose from. Only one topic may be chosen per class period and once a topic chosen you are committed to that topic and may not change it. You may also choose a topic not on the list, but you MUST first have signed approval from your teacher on your rubric. If there is no signature, the project will be considered off topic and will receive a ZERO. You cannot choose a topic you’ve done for another assignment in this class, and you may NOT use any of the sources we’ve provided for you.
global warming
depletion of natural resources
fracking
alternative energy sources
terrorism
right to privacy
internet safety/security
human trafficking
global arms
labor unions
space exploration/program
cloning
stem cell research
vaccinations
bioweapons
nuclear energy
economic crisis
national debt
identity theft
experimental medicine
surrogacy
violence of those in professional sports
televised executions
women and executions
humanity of death penalty methods
mandatory national service
measurement-driven school instruction
cancer epidemic from industrial chemicals
DNA criminal profiling
world government
nature or nurture
psychotherapy
obesity as an epidemic
increase in medical malpractice
technology export controls
trash disposal
organ allocation/transplants
political asylum
police weaponry
social promotion
accountability of artists for violence (music, movies)
restorative justice
assault weapons ban
Patriot Act
treatment of Native Americans today
mandatory paternity leave
Mars mission

Information to Include
• Title slide – Must include topic, student’s name and a picture.
• Topic Information – Identify/define your topic.
• Facts/History – How did your topic come about? What developments have recently occurred?
• Concern – Why is this topic a concern? How is this relevant to our society?
• Society – How does this topic reflect the values of our current society? Should our society support your topic? Why or why not?
• Thematic Connection – You need to make a connection with your research topic and any piece of literature from your high school career. Synthesize how the thematic idea from the piece of literature reflects the current issue.
• Works Cited – This information will be submitted electronically to your teacher by the first day of presentations. It MUST be in proper MLA format.

Details
• You MUST have four sources. Three of these sources MUST be from the school databases.
• You should have a minimum of ten slides for the final product.
• You MUST include a works cited page. If you do not have this you will NOT receive a grade higher than a 50!!!
• You need to include a minimum of one picture. You are not limited to one picture. You can include pictures, video and music as long as it is not distracting.
• The slides should be in presentation format. Do NOT copy and paste information onto your slide. There is an example of what this might look like in this packet.

Presentation
• Each person MUST contribute to the presentation and needs presentation notes.
• You can NOT read the presentation to us. The slides are a supplement. You need to be elaborating on what is on the screen. Be prepared with what you are going to say, so you do not need to rely on the screen.
• You need to make sure you are making eye contact and speaking at a volume where everyone can hear you.
• Pull hair back, avoid jewelry, and plant your feet. Fidgeting is very distracting. You are providing good information; let us hear it instead of being distracted by your movements.

Audience Behaviors
• As a member of the audience, you need to be actively paying attention to your fellow classmates as they present.Every person in class should be sitting up, following along, and be actively engaged in the information being presented.
• Any disruptive behavior, including sleeping, talking, using your phone, or similar disruptions, will cause you to lose points from your presentation points.

Product Suggestions
When creating a presentation in a professional environment, you should keep the following items in mind:
• Avoid bright or neon colors; they are very distracting and can be hard to read.
• On a similar note, pay attention to the size and style of your font; teachers are in the back of the room, and we need to be able to read what is on the screen.
• Less is more; slides should not have more than 3-4 bullet points. Piling information on the slide means people are reading the slide and not listening to your information.
• NO MOVING CLIP ART!!!! This is one of the worst things you can do during the presentation.
• Keep transitions to a minimum; your teacher will NOT hit the space bar for every line on your slide. It is distracting and disruptive. Plus, most people don’t speak until it is all on the screen anyway.

Sample Slide with Notes

Important Dates
• March 7th– Research Presentation in Library.
• March 11th– Research day in lab. 2 sources due by the end of class.
• March 23rd& 24th–Research in lab.2 sources due by the end of class.
• March 28th–Last day for in class research and work time. Outline or presentation notes due by the end of class.
• March 29th – Begin in class presentations.

Other Assessments
• You will be turning in four sources that are used in the presentation. These are divided into two grades.
• You will be turning in a copy of your presentation notes.
• You will have a grade based on audience behavior and partner evaluation.
• You will have a reflection sheet that will be due after the presentations have concluded.

Topic: ______________________________________ Teacher Signature: ____________________________________

Rubric

Product
• Title Slide …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….……………………._______/5 pts
(topic, student’s name, picture)
• Topic Information ………………………………….……………………………………………………………………………………….…_______/5 pts
(Identify/define your topic)
• Facts/History………………………………………………….…………………………………………………………………………………._______/5 pts
(How did your topic come about? What developments have recently occurred?)
• Concern…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….._______/15 pts
(Why is this topic a concern? How is this relevant to our society?)
• Society…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….…………………………………_______/15 pts
(How does this topic reflect the values of our current society? What do you think this says about our society?)
• Thematic Connection…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………._______/10 pts
(You need to make a connection with your research topic and any piece of literature from your high school career. Synthesize how the thematic idea from the piece of literature reflects the current issue.)
• Appearance of slideshow………………………………………………………………….……………………………………………..________/5 pts
• Proper grammar and punctuation………………………………………………………………………………………..………….________/10 pts
• Works Cited…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..________/ 10 pts
o 4 sources – 2 from database (properly formatted)
• Total…………………………………………………………………………….…………………………………………..…………………__________/80 pts

Presentation
• Eye Contact/Volume…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………._________/5 pts
• Proper presentation (reading directly from slide will cost you these points).……………………………_________/7 pts
• Appropriate knowledge presented…………………………………………………………………………..………………_________/8 pts
• Total………………………………….………………………………………………………………………….…………………………..________/20 pts

Score _________________

*Remember that no Works Cited page equals an automatic 50!!!!!!!!

Source Sheets
Fill out the information below. You will need it for your work cited page. We recommend that you visit a site to help you such as easybib.com before closing the site down. This way you know you have everything you need to cite the information correctly.
Source: Internet

Name of website:

Date the website was last updated:

Date you accessed the website: