Mr. Derrick Fernando
Journalism
Quarter Assessment
October 1, 2012
Presidential Debate Project
As students during the 2012 United States presidential election we are fortunate to
witness the very things the architects of our nation constructed; a democratic process to elect a
leader. To this end we will endeavor to become informed citizens by researching our presidential
candidates (Barak Obama and Mitt Romney), which, in turn, will allow us the ability to inform
others (our journalistic duty). This project will encompass researching the stance of one of the
presidential candidates on hot issues, participating in a debate setting to defend that stance, and,
finally, report on the happenings of the entire debate as a whole.
To this end here is how this project will work:
1. Teams of 2 will pair up and draw a number in the debate lottery to see which candidate
and issue they will need to research and argue for.
2. Each team will watch the 1st presidential debate of 2012 (held on Oct. 3rd) and take notes
on the issue they have drawn. Also, it will be important for the team to ensure they note
what the presidential candidate chooses to talk about with respect to their issue, and what
things they have omitted.
3. Each team will then conduct further research to find out the entire stance, and reason for
that stance if applicable, their presidential candidate has on the issue drawn.
4. During the debate, teams will be pitted against one another in a “mock debate” to provide
evidence to the class about their candidate’s views, and the ability of the team to
accurately and passionately argue for those views.
5. Also during the debate, the teams not participating will be asked to take notes as if they
were part of the associated press that must write a story about the presidential debates.
Each team’s will report on every issue with the exception of their own.
6. Once all debates have been concluded the students will each create an article describing
the debates and who they thought won for each issue (citing the evidence presented in the
class and the argumentative abilities of their classmates).
7. All work (research, notes each team creates to present their debate, and the articles), will
be due on October 26th. Debates will be held during class October 16th and 18th.
All articles must be turned in with proper MLA format. Citations will be necessary for the notes
and research you conduct, but not for the article. Grading rubric to follow.