| Comparison Essay Rubric | |||
| 5 Points | 4 Points | 3 Points | |
| Requirements: Proper heading, title, Times New Roman, 12 pt, margins, 1-2 pgs. | All requirements and approximately 2 pages long | Most requirements and is at least 1 ½ pages long | Missing many requirements and/or is less than 1 ½ pages long |
| Thesis Statement | Clearly outlines all elements of the intended comparisons. (see example #4 of your hand out) | Outlines the similarities and differences and some supportive details. (see example #3) | Outlines the similarities and differences but lacks real supportive details. (see example #2) |
| Comparison | Includes two strong similarities and one strong differences Clearly addresses possible reasons for each with supportive evidence. | Includes two basic similarities and two basic differences. Basic reasons for each with basic supportive evidence. | Does not include all required similarities and differences or lacks strong reasons for each or each or supportive evidence. |
| Content and Detail | Supportive details and evidence throughout | Some supportive details and evidence. | Lacks much detail and evidence. |
| Organization and Clarity | Clearly organized. Each paragraph has purposeful focus. . Makes effective transitions. Clear, compelling introduction Conclusion effectively synthesizes major points of the main argument. Student voice evident throughout Formal: avoids contractions and personal pronouns |
Clearly organized. Each paragraph has purposeful focus. Some awkward or abrupt transitions. Clear introduction Conclusion is adequately constructed. Student voice is sometimes evident. Has some contractions and/or personal pronouns |
Structure is difficult to follow. Many awkward transitions Unclear introduction and/or conclusion Lack student voice Has many contractions and/or personal pronouns |
| Citations | Accurate format Clear signal phrases Purposefully reinforce content 4 – 6 citations | Accurate format Adequate signal phrases General connection to content 2 – 3 citations | Inaccurate format Lacks signal phrases Not clearly connected to content Lacks proper citations |
| Bibliography | Demonstrates thorough research More than 10 references | Demonstrates adequate research 6 – 9 references | Demonstrates minimal research 3 – 5 references |
| Images | Strongly reinforces essay content Included in the body of the paper | Adequately reinforces essay content Not in the body | Not clearly related or reinforcing Not in the body |
Monday, January 20, 2014
Comparison Essay Rubric
Comparision Essay Instructions
Compare/Contrast
Essay
Write an essay in which you compare and contrast two of the ancient river valley civilizations across at least two categories. You should:
- Have a comprehensive, analytical and explicit thesis
- Include ample historical evidence and detail to support your thesis
- Address all parts of the question
- Make at least two direct, relevant comparisons
- Include both similarities and differences
- Analyze the cause of the similarities and differences (at least for each category, more is better)
How to organize:
Introductory paragraph that includes a clearly stated thesis.
A
Thesis Statement is a detailed preview of the opinion you hope to
prove and the specific points you intend to use to support this
opinion. It is a road map for the reader. They should have a clear
idea of where the paper is going to take them and what they might see
along the way.
Needs
Improvement
Example thesis 1: Ancient Egypt and ancient Mesopotamia had many similarities, but also some differences. (Example of an unacceptable thesis. Why?)
Good
Example thesis 2: Ancient Egypt and ancient Mesopotamia had similar economics and religion, but differed in politics.
Better
Example thesis 3: Ancient Egypt and ancient Mesopotamia had similar economics and religion, but differed in politics because of the power of the pharaohs.
Best
Example thesis 4: Ancient Egypt and ancient Mesopotamia had similar economics and religion due to cultural diffusion in ancient west Asia, but differed in politics because the Nile River served to strengthen the power of the pharaohs.
Example thesis 1: Ancient Egypt and ancient Mesopotamia had many similarities, but also some differences. (Example of an unacceptable thesis. Why?)
Good
Example thesis 2: Ancient Egypt and ancient Mesopotamia had similar economics and religion, but differed in politics.
Better
Example thesis 3: Ancient Egypt and ancient Mesopotamia had similar economics and religion, but differed in politics because of the power of the pharaohs.
Best
Example thesis 4: Ancient Egypt and ancient Mesopotamia had similar economics and religion due to cultural diffusion in ancient west Asia, but differed in politics because the Nile River served to strengthen the power of the pharaohs.
One Method
In the above example, the first paragraph would compare economics in Egypt and China, the second would compare religion in Egypt and China, and the third paragraph would contrast Egypt and China in politics. Be sure to explain a specific reason for at least one similarity or differences.
Essay should end with a conclusion paragraph. Restate your thesis and explain how you proved it.
In your essay, use transition words: but, however, although, though in contrast, alternatively
In the above example, the first paragraph would compare economics in Egypt and China, the second would compare religion in Egypt and China, and the third paragraph would contrast Egypt and China in politics. Be sure to explain a specific reason for at least one similarity or differences.
Essay should end with a conclusion paragraph. Restate your thesis and explain how you proved it.
In your essay, use transition words: but, however, although, though in contrast, alternatively
Early Civilizations: A Comparison Research Paper
Early
Civilizations:
A
Comparison Research Paper
In
order to explore more fully the cultures of the worlds earliest
civilizations, each of you will research two separate civilizations
culminating in a paper which compares and contrasts significant
aspects of each. Your paper will include at least two strong
comparisons and one contrasts supported by your research.
Below are general instructions and information that we will elaborate
upon in class.
Instructions
1.
Chose One Early Civilization to pair with your assigned civilization:
Mesopotamia, Babylon, Egypt, Crete, India, China, Meso-America.
2.
Chose at least two Topics or Categories to compare and/or
contrast for each of your civilizations. Consider the
Characteristics of Civilization or other commonalities of early
civilizations that we have learned about in class.
3.
Research each civilization and take notes on their similarities and
differences.
4.
Narrow down your list to the 2 most important similarities and one
most important differences, or how their similarities differ.
5.
Develop a Thesis sentence.
6.
Write an introduction, body, and conclusion.
7.
Peer edit a rough draft.
8.
Complete the final draft.
Format
1.
Paper length:
2 pages in the body of the report. Your report should be a minimum
of 1 page and a maximum of 2 pages, not counting the bibliography
and visual(s). The body of the report will include your introduction,
the text of your report, and a conclusion.
2.
Paper format:
Typed, Times New Roman type face (not bold/italic), single space, 12
point type, margins of 1” on all sides. Do not use personal
pronouns or contractions such as don’t or can’t; instead use do
not or cannot.
3.
References and Citations:
Minimum of 3 references (you should use more). A
minimum of two citations must be included in the body of the paper
and in the bibliography using MLA reference style. (See Section 3,
“Guide to References”.) Refer to the rubric for the best
practices.
4.
Bibliography:
A Bibliography is an alphabetical list of sources you used in
preparing your paper. They are a
list of all of the sources you have used in the process of
researching your work. The
bibliography is a separate page at the end of the report and does not
count toward the length of the assignment.
5.
Visuals:
At least one good quality visual in the body of your report
(photograph, map, chart,etc.). The visual does not count toward the
page requirement. Visuals should clearly relate to your report topic
and help to explain it. Clearly identify and cite the source and
content of each visual in the text on the page that the image
appears.
IMPORTANT:
As you take notes, put quote marks (“) around information you copy
from the source so you will know these are the exact words of the
source. This will help you avoid plagiarism.
Now that we've started Reseach
Okay folks, it's been a while since our last blog post but we're getting into some pretty complex work with our research essays so I think it would help to have a little material here for reference.
By now, almost all of you have been assigned one civilization to pair with one of your choice. We have discussed the goals and instructions of the research assignment and you have had one day to do research in class. Over the long weekend you were supposed to continue to do a little more research.
This week, we will learn about "in-text citations", "signal phrases", and plagiarism. We will have more time to research in class as well as in-class writing time. Next week, we should be ready to do peer edits and finish up this project.
For now, I will do my best to post copies of the hand-outs you are also receiving in class.
By now, almost all of you have been assigned one civilization to pair with one of your choice. We have discussed the goals and instructions of the research assignment and you have had one day to do research in class. Over the long weekend you were supposed to continue to do a little more research.
This week, we will learn about "in-text citations", "signal phrases", and plagiarism. We will have more time to research in class as well as in-class writing time. Next week, we should be ready to do peer edits and finish up this project.
For now, I will do my best to post copies of the hand-outs you are also receiving in class.
Friday, November 15, 2013
Family Cultural Meal
The objective of this assignment is to compile three traditional recipes based on culinary dishes your family might make from their culture, heritage, or ethnic background.
The intention of this assignment is that you will both learn about your family culture/heritage and reinforce what we have learned about agriculture, domestication, and regional diets, and "cultural universals".
I expect you all to discuss this assignment with your families. They will know, many times, better than you, what dishes would be a good representation of your family heritage. As we discussed, many factors can influence traditional meals including: ethnicity, place/region, religion, and personal beliefs.
If your family does not have a strong cultural culinary tradition to call upon, don't worry, many of us might feel this way. In that case, discuss with your parents your family background, then research three recipes that would be a part of that heritage. For me, that would be a German heritage, based on the historical culture of my adoptive parents.
Your job is to write out the complete list of ingredients (the recipe) to a three course meal - appetizer, main course, and desert. It is important that you have 3 dishes but not necessarily of this type. Some cultures are less know for deserts so maybe you could have two main dishes. Understand?
You do not need to write out full instructions of how to cook the dish but this would be a nice touch, at least to explain as part of your presentation. I have also found in the past that pictures of each dish have been nice for myself and others to understand fully your meal.
To be clear, YOU SHOULD NOT ACTUALLY MAKE THE FOOD OR BRING IT TO SCHOOL. We will try and have a day when this will be possible, but not on Monday. However, as I told several classes, if you have something easily distributed, that does not require dishes or utensils and will not create a mess, you could bring in something to share with your class. Baklava was something that we discussed.
We will present our recipes in class on Monday.
Have fun.
The intention of this assignment is that you will both learn about your family culture/heritage and reinforce what we have learned about agriculture, domestication, and regional diets, and "cultural universals".
I expect you all to discuss this assignment with your families. They will know, many times, better than you, what dishes would be a good representation of your family heritage. As we discussed, many factors can influence traditional meals including: ethnicity, place/region, religion, and personal beliefs.
If your family does not have a strong cultural culinary tradition to call upon, don't worry, many of us might feel this way. In that case, discuss with your parents your family background, then research three recipes that would be a part of that heritage. For me, that would be a German heritage, based on the historical culture of my adoptive parents.
Your job is to write out the complete list of ingredients (the recipe) to a three course meal - appetizer, main course, and desert. It is important that you have 3 dishes but not necessarily of this type. Some cultures are less know for deserts so maybe you could have two main dishes. Understand?
You do not need to write out full instructions of how to cook the dish but this would be a nice touch, at least to explain as part of your presentation. I have also found in the past that pictures of each dish have been nice for myself and others to understand fully your meal.
To be clear, YOU SHOULD NOT ACTUALLY MAKE THE FOOD OR BRING IT TO SCHOOL. We will try and have a day when this will be possible, but not on Monday. However, as I told several classes, if you have something easily distributed, that does not require dishes or utensils and will not create a mess, you could bring in something to share with your class. Baklava was something that we discussed.
We will present our recipes in class on Monday.
Have fun.
Friday, November 1, 2013
"Cave Painting" Reflection
By the time we reached 4th period, it was clear that enough students could benifit from one more class period of painting time, rather than meeting after school. For this reason, all class will use Monday to finish up your paintings OR complete your Reflections.
Reflection Instructions
Answer both of the following prompts.
Your final draft should be well thought out and disucussed with high level language, descriptions and examples. You are practicing this in LA as well.
A complete reflection will have a proper heading, title, 12 point font, single spaced, and be 3/4 of a page in minimum length.
Reflection Prompts
1. How successful do you feel your image is, based on the goals of the project?
Reflection Instructions
Answer both of the following prompts.
Your final draft should be well thought out and disucussed with high level language, descriptions and examples. You are practicing this in LA as well.
A complete reflection will have a proper heading, title, 12 point font, single spaced, and be 3/4 of a page in minimum length.
Reflection Prompts
1. How successful do you feel your image is, based on the goals of the project?
- Does it clearly represent modern world culture or our society?
- Is it a good representation of "symbolic language"? IN other words, does it clearly communicate the idea of concept you chose.
- Your effort towards the design concept as well as artisitc craftsmanship
- Your enjoyment of combining art and history
- What you learned upon reflection
- etc.
Thursday, October 24, 2013
Decoding the Meaning
Decoding the Meaning
Scholars have put forward the following explanations for the art described above. All of these theories have followers, but no single one has been generally accepted. They are listed in chronological order, starting with the earliest.
• Theory 1: Art for art’s sake. People of the paleolithic era were excellent big-game hunters, who consistently brought home large amounts of food. So they did not need to work very hard and had plenty of leisure time. They spent some of this time producing artistic decorations for pleasure.
• Theory 2: Sympathetic magic. The idea that making an image of something gives the maker power over that which is imaged and that what is done to an image affects whatever the image represents has been characteristic of a number of societies. Depicting wounded or incomplete animals or drawing lines over or obliterating pictures of animals was a way actually to create wounded, dead, or weakened animals, thereby helping to feed the band. Showing animals in their prime may help produce and give power over such animals. Statues of women with exaggerated breasts, buttocks, and bellies may be intended to represent pregnancy, thereby helping to create pregnant women and add new members to the band.
• Theory 3: Handbook of information about hunting. Abstract figures and shapes show tracks, droppings, and marks made by deer rubbing their antlers on trees. Details of the animal images sometimes show which prey were desirable and which were dangerous. Art during this time may have been a teaching tool. Exposing young people to it taught them lessons about the hunt. Painting may also have been a kind of information storage system—a remote forerunner of CD-ROMS!
• Theory 4: Vision quest for spirit-animals. Paleolithic people may have thought of walls and floors of caves as boundaries between this world and the spirit-world, which many spirit-animals inhabited. A shaman, or specialist in communicating and interpreting supernatural phenomena, could, according to belief, get in touch with spirit-animals while under the influence of sensory deprivation (dark, silence, isolation), hallucinogenic drugs, or pain (handprints on cave walls sometimes show mutilated hand prints). Geometric images may be interpreted as similar to what we know of the early stages of trance. Most features of cave art can be related to altered states of consciousness known from various societies in later historical periods.
Scholars have also given radically different explanations for specific kinds of art. For example, female or “Venus” figurines have been variously interpreted as:
• Fertility magic—showing figures of women as pregnant to help make women pregnant. • Erotic objects for men. • Forerunners of the mother-goddesses of later times.
http://worldhistoryforusall.sdsu.edu/ Page 26
World History for Us All Big Era 2 - Panorama Unit
• Female ancestor figures in societies where descent and inheritance were reckoned through women.
• Objects by which women communicated ideas and messages to one another. Stencils of handprints, which have appeared in large numbers cave walls or rocks in Europe,
Australia, and the Americas, have been interpreted as:
• An effort to seal the hand to the world of spirits that lies behind the wall or to reach through the wall to enter that world.
• The artist’s signature. • The message, “I was here!” (Like carving one’s initials into a surface or painting graffiti.) • A territorial claim on the part of a group.
Scholars have put forward the following explanations for the art described above. All of these theories have followers, but no single one has been generally accepted. They are listed in chronological order, starting with the earliest.
• Theory 1: Art for art’s sake. People of the paleolithic era were excellent big-game hunters, who consistently brought home large amounts of food. So they did not need to work very hard and had plenty of leisure time. They spent some of this time producing artistic decorations for pleasure.
• Theory 2: Sympathetic magic. The idea that making an image of something gives the maker power over that which is imaged and that what is done to an image affects whatever the image represents has been characteristic of a number of societies. Depicting wounded or incomplete animals or drawing lines over or obliterating pictures of animals was a way actually to create wounded, dead, or weakened animals, thereby helping to feed the band. Showing animals in their prime may help produce and give power over such animals. Statues of women with exaggerated breasts, buttocks, and bellies may be intended to represent pregnancy, thereby helping to create pregnant women and add new members to the band.
• Theory 3: Handbook of information about hunting. Abstract figures and shapes show tracks, droppings, and marks made by deer rubbing their antlers on trees. Details of the animal images sometimes show which prey were desirable and which were dangerous. Art during this time may have been a teaching tool. Exposing young people to it taught them lessons about the hunt. Painting may also have been a kind of information storage system—a remote forerunner of CD-ROMS!
• Theory 4: Vision quest for spirit-animals. Paleolithic people may have thought of walls and floors of caves as boundaries between this world and the spirit-world, which many spirit-animals inhabited. A shaman, or specialist in communicating and interpreting supernatural phenomena, could, according to belief, get in touch with spirit-animals while under the influence of sensory deprivation (dark, silence, isolation), hallucinogenic drugs, or pain (handprints on cave walls sometimes show mutilated hand prints). Geometric images may be interpreted as similar to what we know of the early stages of trance. Most features of cave art can be related to altered states of consciousness known from various societies in later historical periods.
Scholars have also given radically different explanations for specific kinds of art. For example, female or “Venus” figurines have been variously interpreted as:
• Fertility magic—showing figures of women as pregnant to help make women pregnant. • Erotic objects for men. • Forerunners of the mother-goddesses of later times.
http://worldhistoryforusall.sdsu.edu/ Page 26
World History for Us All Big Era 2 - Panorama Unit
• Female ancestor figures in societies where descent and inheritance were reckoned through women.
• Objects by which women communicated ideas and messages to one another. Stencils of handprints, which have appeared in large numbers cave walls or rocks in Europe,
Australia, and the Americas, have been interpreted as:
• An effort to seal the hand to the world of spirits that lies behind the wall or to reach through the wall to enter that world.
• The artist’s signature. • The message, “I was here!” (Like carving one’s initials into a surface or painting graffiti.) • A territorial claim on the part of a group.
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