The Power of Language
Unit Project: The Power of Language
This document provides an overview of the tasks and time line for completing this assignment.
Assignment Instructions
As you complete the lessons in this unit, you will learn about some of the different ways that language can be used to help achieve a goal, share a message, and honor a person or idea. You will apply these ideas in your own project.
In this unit, you will plan and execute a creative or analytical project that demonstrates the power of language. The project will focus on a contemporary or historical subject of your choice, and it will involve presenting information and ideas in a speech, a song, a video, a website, or an essay. Your goal for the project is to use language, as the authors that you will study do, to achieve a goal, share a message, or to honor a person or idea.
You will be able to choose a subject for your project and a method of presenting the information about your subject.
Subjects
Below are a number of possible subjects for your unit project. Some subjects are contemporary in nature, dealing with present-day figures or issues, while others are historical in nature, dealing with figures or issues of the past. As you consider which subject appeals to you most, take into account your interest areas and the resources available to you.
Contemporary Subjects
The importance of voting
Protecting the environment
Off-shore drilling
Nuclear proliferation
Funding for the arts
Historical Subjects
The Quaker tradition
The Women’s Suffrage movement
The Women’s Suffrage movement
William Lloyd Garrison
John Brown
You may choose to focus your project on a subject not named above, but you must first clear any choice you make with your teacher.
Presentation Options
Below are some options for presenting the information you gather on the subject you choose for your unit project. Each option is different, so consider each one and its requirements carefully before making your choice. If you think a different method of presenting your information would be more effective, clear your choice with your teacher. Remember that your presentation should try to achieve a goal, share a message, or to honor a person or idea.
Note: Your teacher may require that you to choose the option for writing and delivering a speech on a contemporary or historical subject.
Speech: Write and deliver a speech of at least three minutes that clearly expresses your feelings and opinions about a contemporary or historical subject. You may include visual elements in your presentation.
Song: Write, perform, and record a song dealing with a contemporary or historical subject. The lyrics of the song must incorporate both literal and figurative language and convey to listeners your feelings and opinions about the subject you have chosen.
Video: Create a video presentation about a contemporary or historical subject. The video should have narration that presents information on your subject and expresses your opinions or feelings on the subject.
Essay: Write a persuasive essay of at least five paragraphs on a contemporary or historical subject. The essay must convey your feelings and opinions on the subject and present information meant to convince readers to share your position. You should include visual or graphic elements to support your arguments.
Website: Create a website that shares information about a contemporary or historical subject. The website should use graphic elements as well as words to convey information to viewers.
Process
To complete this assignment, you will do the following:
Review the Power of Language Graded Assignment: This document contains assignment instructions and grading criteria. Make sure that you understand what you will be doing and how you will be graded.
The project you complete in this unit will be graded against a rubric that assesses the project in a number of categories. These categories focus on the project’s contents, clarity, and presentation.
Read the rubric on the last page of this document. Keep the criteria listed on the rubric in mind as you complete the assignment.
Complete the Power of Language Project Plan: You will begin working on this plan in the Analyze Three Spirituals lesson of this unit. You will continue to work on this plan as you work through the lessons in this unit. You will submit the plan for a grade at the end of the unit.
Practice your presentation. Whether you are writing a speech or song or doing a video recording, practice and compare your presentation to the graded criteria in the grading rubric.
Revise your presentation. Based on your practice and according to the grading rubric, revise your presentation.
Revise your presentation: Based on your practice and according to the grading rubric, revise your presentation.
Time Line
Students will complete this project over the course of eight school days.
Grading/Point Values
Part 1—Planning Assignment Point Value: 60
Part 2—Project Execution Point Value: 30
Part 3—Reflection Point Value: 10
Grading Rubric
Your project will be graded against this rubric.
If you type more than the 275 words(preferably around 500), I will tip you extra $.
Women’s Suffrage Movement
Since time immemorial, women have been treated as second class citizens. This inhumane treatment has extended from religious groups, social status and functionality to political views and involvement. For a long time, women in the United States were not allowed to vote as their fellow male counterparts did. Women were not even allowed to give opinions in their own households. It was a common yet disgusting and unfair belief that women had nothing to offer other than their submission. They were expected to submit to their husband’s will and tend to their families, as this would make a ‘complete’ and ‘respected’ woman in society. It is therefore evident that their presence in politics was neither welcomed nor appreciated.
The women suffrage women took several decades before being granted their wish of the right to vote in America. It took nearly 100 years from the year the movement, campaigns and demonstrations began before they were allowed the basic human fundamental right (Catt & Shuller, 2020). The journey was not easy. Women sat down and watched their male counterparts succeed and be included in every aspect of social engagement. Franchises were extended to every white man during the 1820s and 30s regardless of their social status (Catt & Shuller, 2020). Other forms of reform groups continued to progress around them like religious groups, anti-slavery groups, moral-reform societies, among others, continued to gain acknowledgements and their grievances heard. Women also participated in such movements but slowly realized that they were still left behind as times changed and progresses.
In 1848, gathering at the Seneca Falls, many abolitionist groups that compromised of both men and women, with the women being the majority, gathered to declare that enough was enough (Catt & Shuller, 2020). They laid bare their grievances and demands and declared that they had the same rights to cote as the men did. Commonly known as the Seneca Falls convention, the movement gave birth to the infamous quote, “We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men and women are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Simplified, the statement meant that the women were all created equal before their creator as the men and should be given the same rights.
Although the movement had gained momentum and received nationwide recognition, the zeal and ambition of the movement were interfered with the civil war during the 1850s (Catt & Shuller, 2020). After the war, the 14th and 15th amendment pioneered what was to be a series of events that included party division in terms of opinion to get their rights recognized. A group of white women even opted to join the racist southerners in a bid to overturn the 15th amendment that granted black people the right to vote (Catt & Shuller, 2020). All this was to get recognition with the excuse that white women could outdo the votes cast by black people.
Fortunately, the National Woman Suffrage Association was formed in 1869 to fight for universal equality for all women to be granted the same rights to vote. Founded by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, the movement quickly gained fame, recognition and membership and initiated a series of demonstrations and advocacy that led to the 19th amendment being ratified that finally granted women the right to vote on August 18, 1920 (Catt & Shuller, 2020).
References
Catt, C. C., & Shuler, N. R. (2020). Woman suffrage and politics: The inner story of the suffrage movement. Courier Dover Publications.
