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Night of the Notables Presentation Information

Middle School Historical and Social Science Analysis Skills

The intellectual skills noted below are to be learned through, and applied to, the content standards for grades six through eight. They are to be assessed only in conjunction with the content standards in grades six through eight. In addition to the standards for grades six through eight, students demonstrate the following intellectual reasoning, reflection and research skills:

Chronological and Spatial Thinking

1. Students explain how major events are related to one another in time.

2. Students construct various time lines of key events, people, and periods of the historical era they are studying.

3. Students use a variety of maps and documents to identify physical and cultural features of neighborhoods, cities, states, and countries and to explain the historical migration of people, expansion and disintegration of empires, and the growth of economic systems.

Research, Evidence, and Point of View

1. Students frame questions that can be answered by historical study and research.

2. Students distinguish fact from opinion in historical narratives and stories.

3. Students distinguish relevant from irrelevant information, essential from incidental information, and verifiable from unverifiable information in historical narratives and stories.

4. Students assess the credibility of primary and secondary sources and draw sound conclusions from them.

5. Students detect the different historical points of view on historical events and determine the context in which the historical statements were made (the questions asked, sources used, author’s perspectives).

Historical Interpretation

1. Students explain the central issues and problems from the past, placing people and events in a matrix of time and place.

2. Students understand and distinguish cause, effect, sequence, and correlation in historical events, including the long- and short-term causal relations.

3. Students explain the sources of historical continuity and how the combination of ideas and events explains the emergence of new patterns.

4. Students recognize the role of chance, oversight, and error in history.

5. Students recognize that interpretations of history are subject to change as new information is uncovered.

6. Students interpret basic indicators of economic performance and conduct cost-benefit analyses of economic and political issues.

7^th Grade Listening and Speaking Skills

Deliver focused, coherent presentations that convey ideas clearly and relate to the background and interests of the audience. Students evaluate the content of oral communication.

Comprehension

1. Ask probing questions to elicit information, including evidence to support the speaker's claims and conclusions.

2. Determine the speaker's attitude toward the subject.

3. Respond to persuasive messages with questions, challenges, or affirmations.

Organization and Delivery of Oral Communication

1. Organize information to achieve particular purposes and to appeal to the background and interests of the audience.

2. Arrange supporting details, reasons, descriptions, and examples effectively and persuasively in relation to the audience.

3. Use speaking techniques, including voice modulation, inflection, tempo, enunciation, and eye contact, for effective presentations.

Analysis and Evaluation of Oral and Media Communications

1. Provide constructive feedback to speakers concerning the coherence and logic of a speech's content and delivery and its overall impact upon the listener.

2. Analyze the effect on the viewer of images, text, and sound in electronic journalism; identify the techniques used to achieve the effects in each instance studied.

7^th Grade Speaking Applications (Genres and Their Characteristics)

Students deliver well-organized formal presentations employing traditional rhetorical strategies (e.g., narration, exposition, persuasion, description). Student speaking demonstrates a command of standard American English and the organizational and delivery strategies outlined in Listening and Speaking Standard 1.0. Using the speaking strategies of grade seven outlined in Listening and Speaking Standard 1.0, students:

Deliver narrative presentations:

1. Establish a context, standard plot line (having a beginning, conflict, rising action, climax, and denouement), and point of view.

2. Describe complex major and minor characters and a definite setting.

3. Use a range of appropriate strategies, including dialogue, suspense, and naming of specific narrative action (e.g., movement, gestures, expressions).

Deliver oral summaries of articles and books:

1. Include the main ideas of the event or article and the most significant details.

2. Use the student's own words, except for material quoted from sources.

3. Convey a comprehensive understanding of sources, not just superficial details.

Deliver research presentations:

1. Pose relevant and concise questions about the topic.

2. Convey clear and accurate perspectives on the subject.

3. Include evidence generated through the formal research process (e.g., use of a card catalog, Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature, computer databases, magazines, newspapers, dictionaries).

3. Cite reference sources appropriately.

Deliver persuasive presentations:

1. State a clear position or perspective in support of an argument or proposal.

2. Describe the points in support of the argument and employ well-articulated evidence.