Projects: My Roots and Who I Am- 4and 5 points
Introduction
As part of your Oral Bagrut in English, you are required to complete a research project. This
project is composed of two parts; the written (80%) and the oral presentation (20%). This
project must be handed to the oral Bagrut tester in grade 12, in order to be tested. You
cannot be tested without it.
.‫ בלעדיו לא תוכל להבחן בעל פה‬.'‫שמור את הפרויקט למבחן הבגרות בעל פה ביב‬
The Roots project will be about your roots and origin, and in the course of doing research
you will:



Learn about the history and social situation in the area from which your family
comes from.
Interview family members and create a family album, a diary entry of one of your
ancestors, and/or write a conversation between family members discussing the
decision to immigrate to Israel.
Think and write about the connection between your family’s history and social
background and who you are today.
General Instructions



Keep all notes, papers, drafts, etc. together in a folder. You will be marked on them.
Your project will be typed in 12 point Arial (except heading). 2 line spacing. Please
do not submit your project where each page is in its own plastic sleeve. They
will be returned unchecked.
Spell-check your work, and proofread (‫ )בדוק היטב את האיות ואת מבנה המשפטים‬it.
The work process
Step I- Introduction- (‫)הקדמה‬
10 points
Have you ever thought how your roots and your origins influence your personality; behavior
and hopes for the future?
To answer these questions, choose one of your parents or grandparents (preferably not
born in Israel) as the subject of this project.
Write your answers in the form of a composition of about 150 words.
In order to write a good introduction, here are a few questions you should answer in the
form of a paragraph:
Where are your parents/grandparents from? Which one have you
chosen and why?
What do you know of his/her country of origin?
1
What customs, beliefs, food, traditions, clothing, have you learned from
that parent? What do you think about them? Which of these do you like or
dislike and why?
Why have you chosen this particular culture (background) to focus your
project on?
Step II- Background
15 points
Read in Hebrew about the country you have chosen and its history. Then find information in
English in one of the sites below. Choose 3 major towns/cities or important sites in this
country. Find information about Jewish history in that country, food, culture, clothing,
education. Save all the information you have found in a special file in the computer/ disk on
key/ diskette. ‫דיסק און קי‬/‫ בדיסק נשלף‬/ ‫שמור את כל המידע והמאמרים שמצאת בתיקיה במחשב‬
Useful sites:
www.wikipedia.com
www.wikipedia.co.il
http://www.bh.org.il/Communities/index.aspx ( great site about Jewish communities)
http://www.mindspring.com/~jaypsand/index.htm ( about Jews from Africa)
http://photo.net/travel/israel/timeline
http://www.infoplease.com
http://www.answers.com
http://pages.infinit.net/jackross/jt-history.htm
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/jewish/jewishsbook.html (many sites inside)
Use the following points to write about your research.
1.
Describe 3-4 important places in the country : towns/cities/villages in
the country you are writing about.

Describe where it is (centre, north, south, east, west) in the country.
Add in which continent the country is.

How old each place is.

Why it is important (capital, industrial, historical, cultural importance,
tourism)

What you learned about the Jewish history in this country.

You can add general information (‫ (מידע כללי‬about the country.

Describe in short the place your family came from.

You can add pictures/map of the country.

Find 3 types of food your family eats that came from this country.
2

Find 3 types of music, clothing or traditions your family has that came
from this country.
1.
In order to complete this task you must conduct a research based on at least
2-3 different sources of information. You must choose at least 7outof the 9 points
from the above and summarize them separately. Write at least 100 words in each
summary. You must hand in the summary and the articles you used together.
.'‫חובה להגיש את הסיכומים ואת המאמרים ביחד בשלב א‬
Later, the articles must be included in the drafts section of your project.
2.
Work in groups if you share the same culture. In that case each one of you
will summarize one article dealing with a different aspect of the chosen culture.
.‫העתקה לא תתקבל‬.‫חובה לסכם את המאמרים במילים שלכם‬
3.
Vocabulary. You must submit a list of 20 vocabulary words that you needed to
look up while reading. Underline these words in the articles you summarized, copy
them, and find the correct definitions in English and their translation to Hebrew.
Step III – Immigration (Aliah)
10 points
What or who influenced your ancestors (parents or grandparents) decision to leave for
Israel? Use the following issues to write 2-3 paragraphs of about 150 words altogether:
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
Who decided to immigrate?
His/her reasons for immigrating.
His/her reasons against immigrating.
What problems did he/she have? How did he/she solve them?
What do they think now about their decision? What do you think about it?
Step IV-Family Album
5 points
Create a family album of the person you are researching. You can add photos, documents,
passport copies (if possible) and other details of his or her history. Go back at least 3
generations. Do not include original documents or pictures – instead, scan everything
you include.
.‫ אלא בעותקים‬,‫אין להשתמש בתמונות ומסמכים מקוריים‬
Step V- The Interview
10 points
Devise a set of questions that you will then use to interview 1 family members (your
researched parent / grandparent). In this way you will find out specific information about
your family. Prepare at least 10 questions and answers – altogether no less than 150
words.
3
When you interview the person, remember that sometimes the person’s answer to a
question may lead you to make up another one on the spot. Let the interview flow. New
questions sometimes come right from the answers to previous questions. Be open to this.
Remember to be patient and give the interviewee time to answer your questions. Be certain
that you provide detailed, important relevant and interesting facts about the interviewee.
Ask about the following: family’s life before immigration and nowadays (socio-economic
status, education, careers, daily routine, culture, religious observances, holidays, customs
and traditions, cuisine). You might want to compare life before and after the immigration.
If your interviewee was born in Israel, find out information he/she knows about the member
of their family who immigrated to Israel.
Step VI- Diary Entry
10 points
Create an imaginary diary entry of one of the family members right before/ during/
immediately after immigration. Be sure to include their situation, social status, education,
professions, routines, customs, traditions, cuisine, etc. About 100 -150 words.
Step VII- Reflection and Conclusion
15 points
By now you must know quite a lot about your family. This part pulls together everything you
have researched and written about in the project and focuses on the main idea of the
project – how your roots shaped, influenced, and affected who you are, your identity, your
family’s values, and your heritage. Write about the following:

What is the connection between my family’s historical and social background
and who I am today? How am I who I am because of who they were? For example:
How did the cultural mix of a Turkish grandfather or a Greek grandmother affect the
family?

How has researching this project enriched my knowledge and awareness of
my background and my connection to my family? Give examples. If you could
change anything in your family's history, what would you change and why? Your
essay must be at least 200 words.
Bibliography
3 points
Write a bibliography - be certain it is complete and accurate. It must be arranged
alphabetically, according to author and the address of the site.
Cover Page –
5 points
The name of the project.
The school’s name (Yehud Comprehensive High School).
Your name/class.
Your teacher’s name.
Date the project was handed in.
Table of contents
2 points
4
Step IX – Oral Presentation
Prepare your oral presentation (Appendix 4- criteria for Oral Presentation)
Present your project. (3 minutes)
a. Introduce your project:
1. What the topic is
2. Why you chose to write about this particular
culture/country.
3. What you learned while doing this project about the following:
 Doing a research project in English.
 About the topic, itself.
 Skills needed while doing a research
project.
4. Did you know anything about the topic before you
started working on it?
b. Body of presentation:
1. What were the main issues that you researched
with regard to your topic?
2. What did you learn about each issue?
3. What issues did you learn about from other members of your group?
4. Name two sources you used.
5. Where / how did you find your sources?
c. Summary:
1. What is your opinion of your project? Did you do a
good job? Why/why not?
2. What did you enjoy about it the most?
3. What aspect did you find the most difficult?
4. Is there anything you would change in the way you
worked?
5. What else could you research / learn about your
topic?
6. How did you present your project to your classmates?
5
Appendix 1 - Evaluating written tasks on the bagrut examination
State of Israel
Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport
English Inspectorate
Rubric for Assessing Written Presentation – Module D
2006
Criteria
Content and
Organization
Descriptors
 information is relevant to
the topic
 text is well organized
 content is easily
understood
 text is written mostly in
pupil's own words
30
Vocabulary
 some information is
irrelevant to the topic
 text is fairly well organized
 content is sometimes
difficult to follow
 chunks of the text are not
written in pupil's own
words
22
 correct use of varied
vocabulary
 appropriate word/idiom
choice and usage
 use of appropriate register
20
7
 correct use of appropriate
vocabulary
 several errors of
word/idiom form, choice
and usage
 occasional use of
inappropriate register
15
 correct use of basic
language structures
 hardly any errors of word
order, connectors,
pronouns, prepositions
40
15
 information is irrelevant to
the topic
 text is poorly organized
 content cannot be
understood
 text is not written in
pupil's own words.
10
 limited or inappropriate
vocabulary
 frequent errors of
word/idiom form, choice
and usage
 use of inappropriate
register
5
 occasional incorrect use of
language structures
 several errors of word
order, connectors,
pronouns, prepositions
30
20
3
1
 consistent incorrect use
of language structures
 frequent errors of word
order, connectors,
pronouns, prepositions
10
5
Language
Use
Mechanics
 hardly any errors of
spelling, punctuation,
capitalization
10
Criteria
 several errors of spelling,
punctuation, capitalization,
run-ons
8
5
 frequent errors of
spelling, punctuation,
capitalization, run-ons
2
1
Descriptors
Teachers can give in-between grades e.g. 24 pts.
If the format of presentation does not include all the required elements, deduct up to 3 points.
TOTAL: ___ / 100
6
Appendix 2 - Table of Contents
Pages
1. Introduction……………………………………..……1-3
2. Background
a. culture
b. political,
c. etc..
d.
3. Immigration (Aliah) …………………………………0-0
4. Family Album
5. The Interview
6. Diary Entry
7. Reflection and Conclusion
8. Bibliography
7
Marking Checklist
Item
Content
Vocabulary
Spelling
Grammar
and
Punctuation
1.
Cover Page ( 5)
2.
Table of Contents
(2)
3.
Total
Points
Per
Item
/10
Bibliography
Page (3)
4.
Step 1:
Introduction
5.
/10
Step 2:
BackgroundIncludes: The
articles, all drafts
/15
–corrections.
Vocabulary list.
6.
Step 3:
Immigration
7.
Step 4: Family
Album
8.
Step 5: The
Interview
9.
Step 6: Diary
Entry
10. Step
/10
/5
/10
/10
VII-
Reflection and
/15
Conclusion
11. Step
VIII- Your
Oral Presentation
12. Total
Grade:
/20
100
8