English III Honors
Early National Literature Speech Presentations
Day One (100 Point Quiz Grade!)
1. Your group will choose an author and text that you will teach and present to the class.
 Patrick Henry’s “Speech in the Virginia Convention” pp. 78-83
 Thomas Paine’s “The Crisis” pp. 85-91
 Philis Wheatley’s “To the Right Honorable William” pp. 60-61 (orange book)
and p 126-130 (red book)
 Thomas Jefferson’s “The Declaration of Independence” pp. 94-103
 Dekanawida’s “The Iroquois Constitution,” Abigial Adams’ “Letter to John
Adams,” and Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s “Declaration of Sentiments” pp. 106-111
 Olaudah Equiano’s “The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano”
pp. 50-59
2. In your group you will need to do the following:
 Read information about the author’s background, and write down key facts to
include in your Animoto movie.
 Read the text and decide what your classmates should know and understand
about the writing. Hint: Look at the notes in your textbook before, within, and
after the piece for important terms, themes, facts, etc.
 Choose one important/powerful paragraph for each group member. The group
member needs to write down his or her passage word for word. You will read
this passage to the class.
 Brainstorm what “props” you could bring to visually represent the ideas
presented in your text (loaf of bread, fake jewelry, sounds of cannon
fire/ocean/storm, ketchup for blood, etc.)
3. You need the following information for your movie:
 10 facts about the author
 3 facts about the context of the writing (time, place, situation, etc.)
 1 general fact about a literary term used and an example of the literary device
found in the text
 1 fact about the theme/main idea
 1 fact about the impact/importance of the piece
 2 important quotes from the text.
 Each slide can have no more than 52 characters; your facts will need to be
concise (Ex. “Created the Declaration of Independence” instead of “He was the
first person to come up with the idea for the Declaration of Independence”). You
may need to divide up the information or quotes between two slides.
An example Animoto film can be seen using the following link
http://animoto.com/play/int2AAuPo1JCeLkd1JMrjA
Day Two (100 Point Quiz Grade)
1. You will create an Animoto movie on Day 2.
2. Your film must be completed (images, text slides, and music) before class ends. You
may edit it at home. Use your time wisely!
3. Use the directions on the web page: Animoto Directions
4. Use the promotional code provided by Mrs. Spriggs. DO NOT provide any credit or
debit information; this account is free.
Day Three (Two Test Grades!)
1. On day 3, we will begin presentations. Each group will have a maximum of 20
minutes to present. You will need to present your Animoto movie, and you must also
perform your assigned speech to the class.
2. Be creative and capture the emotions and energy of the piece in your presentation (do
not simply read the text from the book). All group members must read/present an
“equal” amount of the text/speech to the class.
Rubric 100 Points (Double Test Grade!)
Animoto Movie (100 Points)
Speech Presentation (100 Points)
Correct Grammar, Mechanics, and
All group members participate (20)
Usage (10)
Contains at least 20 images (20)
Speech captures the mood and
emotions of piece (20)
Contains the Following: (60)
Clear and Smooth transitions (10)
-Author and Title
Group members perform professionally
-Author Background 10 facts
(30)
- Context of Writing (Time, Place,
-Voices are clearly audible
Situation) 3 Facts
-Good Eye Contact with Audience
- 1 Literary device used (Definition &
-No fidgeting or distracting behavior
Example)
-the theme/main idea
-the impact or importance of the work
-two important quotes
-Group Member Names
Good balance of song, text, and images Some “prop” element used for EACH
(10)
group member’s chunk of reading (20)