Presidents Project for 8th grade students

Here is a quick recap of all the U.S. Presidents:

Later this year, we will elect the 44th President of the United States. In preparation for this momentous occassion, we will take a look at some of the past Presidents.

The Project

This project will be broken into two segments. First a look at past presidents. This segment will look at "good" and "bad" presidents from our past. Students are to identify the issues, events and the presidents character traits that caused him to be considered good or bad. The first segment will be displayed on our PB wiki pages. The second segment will be a close up look at our current Presidential candidates. Students will look at the issues, the candidates character traits and their voting record in public office and then make a recommendation regarding which one would be the best President. This portion is titled "Who Should Mr. Cross Vote For?"

Segment One

Student teams will choose one past President each from the good and bad list of Presidents. 

Each team will create a separate wiki page for each of their Presidents. The page will include the following:

- A short (1 -2 paragraph) biography of the selected president.

- A section that describes the major challenges faced by the President and the outcome of those challenges.

-  A section discussing the character traits or flaws that caused them to succeed or fail at the position.

- A summary section that gives details concerning why that President is considered good or bad.

- At least one image of the President from their term in office (ie... don't an image depicting George Washington in the Revolutionary War, but find one from his presidency).

- A bibliography of all work and images used in MLA format. Please do use the Citation Machine to assist in this portion.

Assessment: Projects will be graded using the President's Project Rubric.  presidentrubric.pdf

Resources:  Students may use the President's Resources page found in the 8th Grade Folder in the sidebar.

Due Date: Work must be completed by class on Monday, October 20, 2008. Assessments will begin that day.

Expectations:

• Be Smart - Be Safe:
  • Never post personal information about yourself or other students.
  • This includes phone numbers, email addresses, addresses, your full name (first and last initial only).
  • Don't post embarrassing stories about yourself or friends (or even people you don't like). This is your school work and not a place for gossip or story telling.
  • Check out iKeepSafe.org for more information.
• Participation:
  • Each student in the group will participate equally in the creation of the page, specifically, research and writing will be equally shared among all members.
  • Each student will take responsibility for editing the work of other group members.
  • Participation on this assignment will have a major impact on the final grade. Participation will be determined by the amount of work initially entered by each student, the edits completed by each student and input by partners during the final assessment.
• Behavior:
  • No crude or inappropriate language/words or multimedia will be used in any of the pages of this wiki.
  • Students may only work on assigned pages, they may not edit the work of students in another group. Editing another students work "as a joke" or maliciously will not be tolerated and will result in at least a one-letter grade reduction. Severe examples (such as inserting crude language, words, or erasing all of the work) will result in earning zero points on the project.
  • Students are encouraged to make comments on the work of other groups, but may not use put-downs or crude language. Comments should be in the form of positive encouragement. ex: "I really like you page, but you might consider underlining key portions of the text."
  • Check out the Wiki Etiquette page in the resources folder for more information.

Here are the choices:

Segment Two

Check out Segment Two.