In this task, each student will conduct research to develop narrative text as background for four primary sources to set the historical context: Pericles’ Funeral Oration, the Gettysburg Address, John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address, and Bill Clinton’s Turning Ideas into Action. Students will interpret what each source has to contribute to the meaning and significance of citizenship in its historic time period.
Each student then prepares a five- to seven-minute speech that includes historical context of the sources, interprets attributes of citizenship from the sources to indicate the nature and significance of the concept of citizenship over time, and includes their own view of what citizenship means to them today as influenced by their research.
The speech is written, revised, presented orally, and the class votes on the best overall speech.
