Assessment Item One: Manifesto for an Ideal Society (personal essay)
Grade level: ELA 20
Curriculum outcome:
CC 20.4 — Create a variety of written informational (including an essay of explanation of a process, an application letter and résumé, and an argumentative or a persuasive essay) and literary (including a reflective or personal essay and an analysis of a literary text) communications.
Text/Resource: Persepolis , by Marjane Satrapi
This assignment is part of a novel study of Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis . It will introduce students to the basic structure of an essay, with focus on the introduction and conclusion.
Students will write a four-point personal manifesto with a paragraph each of introduction and conclusion. (Writing full body paragraphs will be practiced in a later essay assignment, as will citing literature and/or research).
Accommodations:
Students will have time both in and out of class to pre-write, draft, revise and edit before their manifesto is due. Students will be allowed to work with a partner for the pre-writing stages, and will have a chance to workshop their essay with a peer and with the teacher at least once during revision. This will not only teach students the steps of the writing process, but give ELL students the extra time and support that they need in order to write.
For students with very low-level writing abilities, the assignment can be modified to writing a single introductory paragraph with a strong thesis statement, or to writing the skeleton outline of an essay (introduction, body, and conclusion in point form).

Manifesto for an Ideal Society: Assignment
No society is perfect, but that has never stopped people from trying to create perfection. In
Persepolis , the Iranian government passes many laws in an attempt to improve society. Some characters agree with those laws, while others do not. Canadian society also has laws that are intended to improve life. As you have grown up and begun to develop your opinions and identity, you have probably noticed that there are laws, rules and social expectations that you do not agree with. What would you do if you could change society ?
A manifesto is a declaration of intentions or views that is intended to promote change.
Manifestos are often political but can be personal as well. Your Manifesto for an Ideal Society will require a combination of personal reflection and persuasive argument about ideas that are important to you.
Your Manifesto must contain:
1.
An essay-style introduction that states your personal beliefs about a general problem with society, including an argumentative thesis statement about what should be changed.
2.
At least four suggestions for specific actions that should be taken to create this change.
Your suggestions can be organized with bullet points or a numbered list. You do not have to write a paragraph for each one but you must use full sentences. Each suggestion must be supported by evidence or logic explaining how that action will fix the problem you described in your introduction.
3.
An essay-style conclusion that re-states your thesis, summarizes your suggested actions , and describes the ideal or improved society that will be created as a result of the actions you suggested.
How to begin:
1.
Reflection and pre-writing: Start with a free write or brainstorm. Ask yourself several questions: What social laws, rules, and expectations affect me, and how? What do I feel negatively about in my society? What do I feel positively about? Why? You should be able to generate ideas about several broad problems with society (e.g. my society is too confining, too unkind, too dangerous, etc.).
—Keep your pre-writing!
2.
Drafting: Jot down ideas for specific actions that you could take to fix these social problems. Narrow your choice down to one problem and focus on it.
3.
Drafting: Write a rough draft of your introduction, argument, and conclusion.
4.
Revising: Conference with a peer to get feedback on your draft. Hand in your draft to the teacher for a second round of feedback.
5.
Revising and editing: Use the feedback to revise your manifesto. Make sure to edit your second draft before handing it in!
6.
Publishing: Your pre-writing, first draft, and finished manifesto will all go into your
Progress Portfolio. Your finished manifesto will be assessed with the attached manifesto rubric; all three pieces will later be assessed again as part of the portfolio.

Manifesto for an Ideal Society: Rubric
Introduction:
Thesis:
Body Points/
Support:
Conclusion:
Sentence/
Paragraph
Fluency:
Word Choice:
Grammar/
Mechanics:
4
Well organized and effective introduction.
Thesis is well integrated.
Strongly and clearly states an original argument.
Four original and logical suggestions made with good support and connection to thesis. Much thought evident.
Restates thesis.
Well organized summary of evidence and argument. Strong description of ideal resulting society.
Sentences and paragraphs are complete, wellwritten, and varied.
Language is clear, accurate and original.
Extensive/risktaking vocabulary.
Contains no punctuation, spelling, and/or grammatical errors, OR contains a few errors as a result of risk-taking.
3
Introduction is generally organized. Thesis may be somewhat disjointed.
Clearly states an argument.
Three suggestions made with support and connection, but support/ connection is weak in places.
Restates thesis.
Summary of evidence and argument.
Description of ideal society.
Sentence and paragraph structure is generally correct, sometimes simple.
Language is clear but unoriginal.
Risk-taking vocabulary, with partial success.
Contains several punctuation, spelling and/or grammatical errors that do not interfere with meaning. thesis.
2
Introduction is unorganized, ineffective.
Thesis is very disjointed.
Argument is not clearly stated.
Two suggestions made. Support/ connection is weak or illogical.
Does not restate
Incomplete summary. Weak description of ideal society.
Sentence and paragraph structure is simple and/or inconsistent.
Some language is unclear.
Adequate vocabulary.
Contains many punctuation, spelling and/or grammatical errors that interfere with meaning.
1
Introduction is incomprehensible.
Thesis does not relate at all to introduction.
Argument is not understandable/no thesis.
One or no suggestions made.
Support/ connection is missing.
Does not restate thesis. Incomplete or missing summary. No description of ideal society.
Little or no evidence of sentence/paragraph structure.
Language is unclear. Limited vocabulary.
Contains many punctuation, spelling and/or grammatical errors that make the writing illegible.
Additional feedback: