American Society: What are we about? A lesson in American culture

Students, you are a member of an American delegation and you have been chosen to provide Japanese teens with a presentation on what you believe is the theme of American culture. They are coming to visit the United States and want to know what to expect from American culture. Your job is to provide a graphic organizer or PowerPoint presentation to present the main theme of American Culture. Your theme must be shown across different genres. You may use song lyrics (clean), movies, advertisements, images or photographs, newspaper articles, or news magazine articles. You must have a least four examples of your theme across 4 genres. You will be required to tape your voices over the PowerPoint or present your graphic organizer to the class. Your audience will be giving you feedback on your presentation. Please follow the scoring guide to ensure a successful presentation.

Theme Across Genres

CATEGORY	Struggling	Emerging	Doing well	Excellent
Content	You have no more than one genre represented in your presentation. Your theme does not make sense or is not accurate.	You only have 2 genres represented. Your theme may not make sense.	You only have 3 genres represented in your presentation. Your theme makes sense.	You have all 4 genres represented in your presentation. Your theme is logical and fits American society
Explanation	Your presentation and explanations of your examples is not thorough and the audience is confused in many parts.	Your presentation and explanations of your examples is very vague. The audience sometimes knows what you are talking about.	Your presentation and explanations of your examples makes sense but you don't elaborate on your explanations.	Your presentation and explanations of your examples makes sense and you elaborate on all 4 examples.
Organization	Your organization or your presentation is confusing in places and we cannot follow along with PowerPoint or Graphic Organizer	Your organization or your presentation is confusing in some places in your PowerPoint or Graphic organizer	Your organization is consistent throughout most of the PowerPoint or Graphic organizer	Your organization makes your PowerPoint or Graphic Organizer easy to follow.
Presentation	You use slang in much of your presentation of your graphic organizer or PowerPoint Presentation	You sometimes slip into slang in your graphic organizer presentation and you may be hard to hear or make little eye contact in your PowerPoint	You use standard English most of the time in your graphic organizer presentation or PowerPoint. You make good eye contact and have good volume on your PowerPoint or you have good volume in your graphic organizer presentation.	You have good inflection and remain in standard English in both your PowerPoint or graphic organizer presentation. You make good eye contact in your PowerPoint presentation.