Historical Speeches and To Kill a Mockingbird
For this unit, we have been reading texts that deal with social and political issues in our nation’s past as well as in the world currently. The final essay requires you to bring these texts together by answering the following question:
What is the role of courage in bringing about social change?
In order to answer this question, you will write an essay that uses one or more of the modes of exposition.
Your essay must bring together To Kill a Mockingbird and at least one of the speeches that you read or learned about.
Choose one of the following:
1.
Literary Analysis:
Using To Kill a Mockingbird and one of the speeches, discuss the authors’ use of literary elements such as symbolism and figurative language to communicate about the kind of courage needed to bring about social change.
2.
Compare and Contrast:
Consider one character from To Kill a Mockingbird and one of the historical speakers from the speeches you studied. What kind of courage (personal courage, the courage of conviction, physical courage, etc.) does each exhibit or call for and what social issue does each address? Compare and contrast the kind of courage each has or calls for in terms of its potential to bring about social change.
3.
Cause and Effect:
Consider at least one character from To Kill a Mockingbird and one of the historical speakers. How does each person’s life circumstances—socio- economic status, gender or race—determine the kind of courage each has the power to exhibit? What does this suggest about the role of life circumstances in bringing about social change?

Historical Speeches and To Kill a Mockingbird
Writing
Advanced- / Advanced/ Advanced+ All proficient criteria plus two of the following:

Choice of evidence contributes significantly to the support of the thesis

Organization of essay contributes to its effectiveness
 Where appropriate, essay contains a variety of informational styles including compare/contrast, exemplification, description, classification, cause and effect or literary analysis.
Proficient- / Proficient/ Proficient+
 Follows established format for Informational/Explanatory essay writing o Thesis statement that introduces the synthesis of two texts and contains a “because” clause o Body paragraphs with claims that support thesis o Details that support body paragraph claims (direct textual evidence) o Conclusion that restates or summarizes the argument

Evidence is relevant to the claims made in the body paragraph in which it appears
 Connection between evidence and claim is explained through commentary

Includes transitions between paragraphs
Basic- / Basic/ Basic+
 Meets 3 of the “Proficient” criteria
Below Basic- / Below Basic / Below Basic+

Meets 2 of the “Proficient” criteria
Far Basic Basic
□ Meets 1 or none of the Proficient criteria
Language Score
Advanced- / Advanced/ Advanced+ All proficient criteria plus two of the following:

Uses a variety of sentence structures.

Uses complex transitions to link major sections of text, create cohesion and clarify the relationships between complex ideas and concepts.

Correctly uses five words from the general academic word list and underlines them.
 Correctly uses at least three strong verbs (can count in above criteria too) and circles them
 Demonstrates awareness of audience through use of diction and syntax (register).
Proficient- / Proficient/ Proficient+
 Follows basic language conventions of punctuation, spelling, usage and capitalization with minor errors.

Uses basic transitions appropriately.

Uses two-three words from the general academic word list and underlines them
Basic- / Basic/ Basic+

Meets two of the proficient criteria
Below Basic- / Below Basic / Below Basic+

Meets one of the proficient criteria