The 9th grade world history teachers Michelle Schuler and Andrew Leniton recently assigned a project to the 9th grade students tasking them with creating a persuasive speech about a modern issue.

The project’s purpose is to create connections between the age of enlightenment and modern political/social issues. Students must research a topic which interests them, and build arguments supporting or criticizing the chosen topic. The students will be given two class periods to develop their speech, and the presentations are to take place in Mr. Leniton’s and Ms. Schuler’s classes in high school.

This project was designed by Ms. Schuler based on previous work with students, as well as taking inspiration from the model UN. Students must create a minute long speech which aims to convince their fellow peers to take action on a modern political/social issue.

“Students are going to give around a minute long speech on a certain issue that could be local, national, international or global. Hopefully, it should be a politically relevant issue,” Michelle Schuler, 9th grade/AP world history teacher, said.

This project has multiple goals, among them is demonstrating history’s importance. The project aims to create connections between the social problematics presented and major historical events such as the era of Enlightenment.

“We try to learn the important aspects of history, especially in major important eras like the French revolution which had a role in the formation of our modern world, “ Andrew Leniton, 9th grade world history/AP human geography teacher, said.

A lot of freedom was given to the students for the duration of this project. Students were allowed to research about any topic which interests them, as long as it granted some sort of rights to a group of people. This allows students to shift their focus on what really interests them.

“The idea is that students move beyond high school and move into the real world, they can have some initiative and have some ideas of what is important to them and what their values are,” Leniton said.

As this was a skill based learning project, students had to overcome difficulties on their own. Skill based learning teaches multiple skills that will be useful for the students in the future, no matter the career they wish to pursue.

“Skill based learning is really important to me because I care that they get skills necessary for life,” Schuler said.

The project was enjoyable for the students overall, but some have suggestions which may make the project more appealing. One of these suggestions comes from Antonio Lugo, who is a 9th grade student in Mr. Leniton’s class. He stated that making the project more interactable may make the project more interesting.

“I enjoyed it, but I would’ve liked something more interactive than a speech. Something like a poster or maybe a debate,” Antonio Lugo, 9th grade student, said.