Guest of honor: A presidential banquet

A research assignment in which students plan a banquet in honor of a president.

By Melissa Thibault and David Walbert

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Rethinking Reports

Creative research-based assignments provide alternatives to the President Report, Animal Report, and Famous Person Report that ask students to think about old topics in new ways, work collaboratively, and develop products that support a variety of learning styles.

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Related topics

• Learn more about American history, food, history, presidents, reports, research, and social studies.

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The president you have been assigned has just been elected to office for his first term. You will research this president, the time period, and the other people of influence at the time, and plan a banquet to be given in the president’s honor. You will create for this banquet a program that is to be handed out to all guests. In this program you will include the following:

Time, date, location and sponsor of the banquet

Who would have been likely to want to throw a big formal party and impress the new president? Be sure to include somewhere in the program a few references to the host’s interest in this president and their administration.

Keynote address:

Who might have been asked to speak to this group, and what would be the topic of the speech? Give the name, a short introduction to this individual, and the title of the speech.

Menu and courses:

What would be served at the time? What might this president like to eat?

Presidential information:

Include a section honoring the president, bringing attention to his platform, strengths and hopes for the coming years.

Assessment

Areas you will need to assess include:

• accuracy and use of factual information
• understanding of the time period as demonstrated in choice of keynote speaker and recipe
• proper citation of sources used
• writing style and mechanics

Depending upon the student’s needs and their prior experience with desktop publishing, you may or may not choose to evaluate the layout, design and use of graphics.

A rubric would be useful in assessing the student’s final banquet program. Rubistar, an online rubric generator that allows you to make customizable rubrics to print and/or save online, is a great tool for making this rubric. You can also use the rubric below as a starting point. It is also available in PDF format for easy printing.

Rubric

Category	Performance
	Excellent	Good	Satisfactory	Needs Improvement
Writing — Vocabulary	The author correctly used several new words and defines words unfamiliar to the reader.	The author correctly used a few new words and defines words unfamiliar to the reader.	The author tried to use some new vocabulary, but may use 1–2 words incorrectly.	The author does not incorporate new vocabulary.
Writing — Mechanics	Spelling, capitalization and punctuation are correct throughout the brochure.	Spelling, capitalization and punctuation are correct throughout the brochure.	There are 1–2 spelling, capitalization and/or punctuation errors in the brochure.	There are several spelling, capitalization or punctuation errors in the brochure.
Content — Accuracy	All facts in the brochure are accurate.	99-90% of the facts in the brochure are accurate.	89-80% of the facts in the brochure are accurate.	Fewer than 80% of the facts in the brochure are accurate.
Attractiveness & Organization	The brochure has exceptionally attractive formatting and well-organized information.	The brochure has attractive formatting and well-organized information.	The brochure has well-organized information.	The brochure’s formatting and organization of material are confusing to the reader.
Sources	Careful and accurate records are kept to document the source of 95–100% of the facts and graphics in the brochure.	Careful and accurate records are kept to document the source of 94–85% of the facts and graphics in the brochure.	Careful and accurate records are kept to document the source of 84–75% of the facts and graphics in the brochure.	Sources are not documented accurately or are not kept on many facts and graphics.
Knowledge Gained	Student can accurately answer all questions related to subjects in the brochure and to technical processes used to create the brochure.	Student can accurately answer most questions related to subjects in the brochure and to technical processes used to create the brochure.	Student can accurately answer most questions related to subjects in the brochure and to technical processes used to create the brochure.	Student appears to have little knowledge about the subjects or technical processes used in the brochure.
Graphics/Pictures	Graphics go well with the text and there is a good mix of text and graphics.	Graphics go well with the text, but there are so many that they distract from the text.	Graphics go well with the text, but there are too few and the brochure seems "text-heavy".	Graphics do not go with the accompanying text or appear to be randomly chosen.