HISTORY HOMEWORKS:
Assignment 1:
Directions
Based on this film and our textbook Chapter 5, write about the complexities of building the Transcontinental Railroad and the role The Big Four had in carrying out this project. Were they saviors or unscrupulous tycoons? Your response should be between 250-300 words.
Assignment 2:
Directions for Writing Assignment
Watch Film entitled “Virginia City and The Comstock Lode .” Using the back drop of our reading in the textbook and the lecture, to what degree does the film highlight how connected the Comstock Lode was to California history in terms of the individuals who were involved and how California materially benefited from this silver bonanza. Please write approximately 300 words.
Assignment 3:
Directions for Writing Assignment
Write an approximately 350-400-word mini essay based on your analysis of your reading of pages 117-136 of our textbook, Competing Visions: A History of California History. Specifically, answer the following questions: Based on your reading do you feel that the Vigilante Committees were necessary to address the violence and criminal behavior? Were they effective? Or, were they overreactions and ultimately problematic?
COMMUNICATIONS ASSIGNMENTS:
Assignment 1:
This assignment is a re-do of your Best. Worst. Rank. Outline. You are re-writing the speech outline to improve it based on your experience giving the speech, the grading rubric notes from the speech, and feedback you may have received from classmates.
The changes will be minor for those who correctly formatted your outline the first time (i.e., language, better traditions, etc.). The changes will be more significant for those who missed points on outline formatting.
💡 Pro-tip: Students are encouraged to use student services like the writing or tutoring center for this module’s outlining assignments. You can reach student services from Week 1: Start Here.
Your submission contains two parts—
Your revised outline.
300-350 word self-reflection explaining changes.
There are no required references.
Feedback for classmates is not required.
Read the instructions for the assignment by scrolling below or linking directly to the Google DocLinks to an external site..
Checklist to success
Did I revise my outline and correctly format the revision?
Have you written a 300-350 word self-reflection on the revision?
Have you checked your grammar and spelling using a free grammar checker like Scribins?
Rubric scores appear in your grade book, as well as personalized notes. If you are still getting familiar with the grade book, read the instructions for the student view of the Canvas grade book.
Submit
You submit by copying and pasting your paper into the text entry box or typing directly into the text entry box.
You do not upload a document or link to a shared drive or doc.
Do not worry about indents.
Copy and paste your outline into the submission box using the ‘Start Assignment’ icon.
If you need a refresher on how to post your answer, open Canvas’s ‘how to page’ on assignmentsLinks to an external site..
My Old Best. Worst. Rank. Outline:
Manage Discussion Entry
I. Introduction
A. Attention getter: “Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak, and to sit down and listen.” – Winston Churchill
B. Thesis: This speech will talk about my best and worst speech and what I would rank myself
C. Transition: Now that we know the topic of this speech lets get started on my best speech
II. Body
A. Main Point 1: My best speaking experience
My best speaking experience was when I was leading a sermon at my Mosque talking about the tests of god
2. During my speech, I felt like it came from the heart and spoke passionately about the patience and trust in Allah
1. I was able to explain how I was able to counter hardship using my pasts experience I had with it.
2. I was able to make a clear understanding using prophet stories as an example
3. After this experience, I was able to be more confident in my speaking abilities and was more confident overall.
B. Transition: Along with the best speech performance, there’s a worst speech performance that I had in high school.
C. Main Point 2: My worst speech ever came from my US History class when I had to present
I procrastinated the days before because I thought I was able to wing my presentation
I wasn’t listening too much in class which caused me to only read off my slides
I kept stuttering when I was presenting and eventually just gave up coming up with it from my mind and read the slides
I was so embarrassed because of my friends looking at how prepared I was and that I almost ruined their grade since it was a group project
I look back to that speech and laugh because of how stupid I looked and how I know I’ll never make that mistake again.
D. Transition: After my best and worst experiences, I would like to rank myself as a speaker overall
E. Main Point 3: I would rank myself as a speaker on a scale of 1-10
I am a 3 at my worst speeches.
At my best speech, I am a 9.5
If I am passionate about a topic, my speeches should be amazing and meaningful, if I’m not, I would stutter and not know what I’m saying
F. Now, after I shared my speeches just now, I would like to end this speech.
III. Conclusion
A. I shared both my best and worst speeches in which it had a range of emotions.
B. I ranked myself as a speaker and got an average of 6.25 in speeches and hope to get better
C. “In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.” – Albert Einstein
FOLLOW THE RUBRIC PROVIDED IN THE SCREENSHOT I PUT IN THE FILES!!!
Assignment 2:
You have a class discussion.
You submit—
Your typed answer (no videos).
Written feedback for two classmates.
1
Ensure you distinguish between a neutral presentation and one designed to call the audience to action or change a perspective. Review the informative vs. persuasive speaking video from pages:
4.2a—Informative Speaking
4.2b—Persuasive Speaking
⚠️ USE OF AI WARNING ⚠️
I run answers through internal college AI checkers that are connected to Turnitin.
2
Using your own words, differentiate neutral speeches from persuasive speeches to inform. Use the “I” pronoun. For example, “I believe that…”
Why do you think it is impossible to remain 100% neutral while presenting topics such as politics, exercise, eating preferences, lifestyles, parenting, adopting a pet, CPR, climate change, etc.?
Explain why it is inappropriate to use words such as benefits, like, impacts, outcomes, effects, importance, issues, preferred, should/should not, better, and good, etc., to appear in a neutral, informative speech.
This entire response should be between 350 and 450 words. Be consolidated and concise.
3
Leave written feedback for two classmates. Ensure each piece of feedback contains at least one concept from one of the two videos found in:
4.2a—Informative Speaking
4.2b—Persuasive Speaking
Directly quote Coach Alex.
For example, “As Coach Alex stated in min 3:23 of the video….”
Use different concepts for both pieces of feedback.
BOLD each quote you use.
Each piece of feedback should be 100-150 words. If you see one classmate has a ton of feedback and another has no feedback, spread the love.
Checklist to success
Did you cover each of the prompts/questions?
Is your word count between 350-450 words?
Did you leave feedback for two classmates incorporating at least one directly quoted concept from the video or reading into each piece of feedback?
Did you remember to BOLD the quoted concepts?
Is each piece of feedback between 100-150 words?
Have you checked your grammar and spelling using a free grammar checker like Scribins?
Feedback and rubric scores appear in your gradebook.
The rubric shows where you earned points.
DO THIS ASSIGNMENT AND RESPOND TO 2 PEOPLE (DO NOT USE THESE AS A SOURCE OR EXAMPLE, THIS WORK ISN’T MINE. THESE ARE ONLY TO RESPOND TO A CLASSMATES WORK:
Person 1 you respond to:
I believe that informative speech is speaking to teach people how to do something. For example, a professor explains to their students how to solve a math problem. In this example, they’re informing their students of the steps to solve an algebraic equation. The teacher would support their informative speaking with perhaps visual aids on how to solve the math problem using a step-by-step process. Another example of informative speaking is a basketball coach who explains to their players how to run a basketball play. The basketball coach can support their informative speech by showing a step-by-step play on their whiteboard and then explaining the process by running the play as a team. By using data or visual aids, it will allow the students to understand the message.
In contrast, the goal of persuasive speech is to motivate or nudge people to change their behavior, beliefs, or their perspective on a key topic. In essence, the goal of persuasive speech is to convince people to do something or think differently. People who use persuasive speech make an argument or a case to persuade the audience. It is not simply to inform an audience, but to motivate a persons’ actions to change. This is done through presenting data, but the data is used as evidence to influence others to change their mind or behavior. For example, persuasive speaking is a teen who tries to convince a parent for a later curfew. Persuasive speech may be rooted in identifying a problem and then nudging the audience to change their beliefs with identifying a better outcome to the problem. Lastly, persuasive speech requires thinking about the naysayer or the opposing person’s viewpoint who will try to debunk your claim. As a persuasive speaker, I believe it’s crucial to give credibility to all opposing arguments and then support the argument with substantial evidence to influence the audience. This will give the speaker credibility and the audience can analyze their position on the claim.
I believe it is challenging to remain 100% neutral while presenting on topics such as politics, parenting, or climate change because these topics are based on individuals’ opinions and beliefs. These are not informative topics because it requires the speaker to make a claim that is arguing for or against something. In essence, it requires the speaker to nudge people to change their behavior or their perspective on the topic. Lastly, I believe it is inappropriate to use words such as should, should not, better, or preferred in neutral speeches because these words influence or denote the audience to do something. These words are not supportive of a neutral speech and emphasize an action to change on behaviors, beliefs, or attitudes.
PERSON 2:
I believe that neutral speeches are best suited to inform others. Informative speeches that are neutral are centered around the notion that the speaker is simply conveying knowledge to the audience and teaching them about a topic that may be of their interest. Informative speeches do not present specific opinions so as to ensure that the audience is open-minded and can generate their own opinions after listening to the speaker. In informative speeches, the speaker does research regarding the topic they are presenting on because they are sharing accurate information in a transparent manner so that the audience can learn and take interest in the topic. Informative speeches can address a wide variety of topics such as people, events, or objects. I think that persuasive speeches are meant to encourage the audience to adopt a certain opinion or take action regarding the topic that is being talked about. Persuasion will influence the audience’s attitude, values, beliefs, or behavior. Persuasive speeches are intended to cause a reaction among the audience and spark a movement of change or influence.
It’s difficult to remain 100% neutral when presenting topics like politics, lifestyles, parenting, or other delicate topics because they carry a sense of humanity, dignity, and responsibility so it evokes a response from the individual presenting despite any attempts to remain neutral. These topics are also very relatable amongst communities and different groups of people which is why a speaker may share their opinion on a topic, even without intending to do so, because it is their attempt to connect with the audience. These topics are also very critical to human beings and we all feel emotions
In a neutral speech it is important to omit any words like benefits, effects, impacts, etc. because it gives the audience a feeling of anticipation of any consequences that may arise now that they have learned about the topic. For example, if a speaker is addressing climate change in a neutral manner but then implies that there are certain outcomes or effects, then the audience will feel obligated to take immediate action with regards to the topic and will fail to construct their own opinion prior to taking action accordingly. By leaving these words out of the speech, it gives the audience time to formulate ideas of their own and plan as to how they’d like to change their beliefs or behaviors after everything they’ve learned. (400 words)
