Symposium on Social Justice

Symposium Research Topic Proposal Presentation

You will be given 10 minutes to convince your classmates and teacher to approve your chosen Symposium topic. The format of this presentation will be determined by your group. Feel free to be creative as long as you fulfill the requirements below.

Proposal Requirements

The problem must be real and current and you must be able to provide proof it exists.
The group (oppressed) must be suffering from at least 3-4 violations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and you must be able to identify the specific articles of violation.
You must be able to identify at least one current organization working to improve the conditions of your oppressed group.
Using easily identifiable appeals to ethos, pathos, and logos, make a compelling argument that you are capable of creating a meaningful and informative symposium presentation on the topic.
At least 70% of the class and teacher must approve your proposal. (Duplicate proposals will be chosen based on the highest approval percentage.)

Goal:

The comprehension of the theme of social injustice in the world by the Language Arts II Honors students, which will in turn, be incorporated into an open forum of instruction, discussion, and activism.

Objectives:

In the course of researching a specific topic related to social justice, students will become educated, caring and involved individuals. They will become experts on their topic by analyzing causes and solutions to their specific topic while understanding the ultimate impact of their issue on humanity. Students will also take a stand on their topic, use persuasive tactics, and develop a campaign on their topic to inform their audience about the implications and personal connections of the issue in a 20-25 minute presentation. Students will be able to develop and execute public speaking skills by sharing facts and information with parents, school staff, and their peers.

Expectations:

The topic you choose for your symposium presentation must focus on a group of people who are victimized through systematic oppression by other humans. This means that a government or group in power is knowingly and/or purposefully withholding basic rights from a group under their control. You will need to develop and deliver a proposal to be judged by the class and teacher in terms of whether your chosen group meets the required criteria allowing you to move forward with your project.

Students will decide on a topic that has the following:

The problem must be real, current and solvable (helped, reduced, etc.) and you must provide proof of its existence. The cause should have some implications to humanity.

The oppressed group must be suffering at least 3-4 violations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and you must identify what they are

You must identify at least one current organization working to improve the conditions of the oppressed group

You must make a compelling argument that you are capable of creating a meaningful and informative symposium presentation on this topic.