History 478 Fall 2009    Professor Endy

Group Presentations

This group assignment offers an opportunity to engage in historical debate and interpretation through a creative and thoughtful ten-minute presentation.  Each group will explore a topic that created controversy among Americans in the past.  Your task is to devise a creative way to bring to life that historical controversy for the rest of the class.  Aim to educate the class on your topic, but do so in a way that does not involve simply lecturing or reading from notes.  Here are some ideas on what you can do:

*Pretend that you are television newscasters reporting from the time period.  Perform a ten-minute mock newscast.  Be sure that your newscast includes commentary or reporting from historical figures representing different sides on your debate.

*Perform a public debate, a trial, or a short skit.  Do this in a way that lets your group present the different sides of your historical controversy.

*Create and show a ten-minute video recording, based on one of the above models.

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As you work on this project, keep these guidelines in mind:

• The presentation should be ten minutes long.  Be sure to rehearse the project beforehand so that you meet the ten-minute rule. It’s ok to go over or under by a minute, but try to keep to this limit.

• Conduct research and prepare in advance. Each member of the group should conduct their own preliminary research and write an Individual Research Paper for the start of class on 20 October.  The Individual Research Paper should be about 2 pages long (typed, double-spaced, about 250-300 words per page).  It should evaluate the main arguments on each side of your debate and conclude with a thoughtful paragraph explaining why people today should care about your historical topic.  That is, why is your topic relevant for thinking about or solving today’s problems?   The paper should also include a bibliography listing the printed works and/or websites that you used.  Wikipedia sites and other websites without academic or reliable journalistic credentials are not acceptable as references.  You can, however, use Wikipedia as a stepping stone.  Often Wikipedia articles have endnotes that can lead you to acceptable references.  Remember also that Google will give only academic sites if you type site:.edu.  We will set aside some class time on 12 and 19 February so that each group can share their papers and brainstorm ideas.  Be sure not to miss class those nights.  Groups may need or want to meet outside of class too.  

• On the day of the presentation, your group should submit a one-page outline summarizing your plan or script for the presentation.

• Share the work.  At the bottom of your group outline, each member should sign a statement reading: “We acknowledge that all participants in this group have made equal contributions to the presentation.”  If you have concerns that a group member is not pulling a fair share of the work, please contact me privately as soon as possible.  Except in extraordinary cases, grades for this assignment will be given to the whole group.

• Grades will be based on 1) evidence of research and preparation (50%); 2) quality of historical interpretation (25%); and 3) overall creativity, clarity, and/or originality (25%).

• Audience responsibilities: When you are not presenting, you should be an attentive listener and should think of questions to ask the presenters for the informal Q&A session after their presentations.