Stuck in Neutral and Cruise Control Literature Debate on Perspectives

Your assignment is to perform a mock debate of opposing perspectives from Stuck in Neutral and Cruise Control. You will be in groups of two to complete the task. Choose from the following options:

Option #1: Debate your own perspective of the book, an event in the book, or a character from the book against your group member’s perspective.

Example: Group member #1 : “Shawn’s life is more exciting than Paul’s life” Group member #2: “Paul’s life is more exciting than Shawn’s life”

Option #2: Act out a character and debate their perspective on something or someone from the book against another character’s perspective from the book.

Example: Group member #1 (acting as Shawn): “Dad tries his best to be a good father and really does care about me” Group member #2 (acting as Paul): “Dad never has and never will care about Shawn”

Option #3: Both group members choose the same character and one acts out a perspective from the beginning of the book(s) (or at one point in time) and the other acts out a perspective at the end of the book(s).

Example: Group member #1 (acting as Paul): “Shawn makes me look uncool and I wish he was dead” Group member #2 (acting as Paul): “I really love my brother and I am glad he is here”

*Each debate must be at least 2 minutes long and include 3-5 textual citations or quotations for each group member to defend their perspective. The student must introduce themselves and/or the character the will play before beginning the debate. Students may adlib character interactions that may occur if the debate occurred in the book. Cited textual events and quotes must be written on notecards (prior to the day of the debate) with their page numbers and any notes to go along with your debate.

Cruise Control/Stuck in Neutral Perspective Debate Rubric

Meets or Exceeds Needs development Well Below Expectations 0-10 Expectations 21-30 pts 11-20 pts pts Use of Each group member uses 3-5 Use of less than 3-5 textual Very few or no textual citations Textual relevant textual citations citations each and/or some are used or relevant to the Evidence citations are not relevant to the debate. debate. Literary The debate shows an in-depth The debate shows that students The debate shows little to no Analysis understanding of the use of have some understanding of understanding of character perspective as a literary character perspectives. Students perspectives or perspectives on element. Students are able to are not able to fully describe the events of the book. describe or imitate character character’s attributes and point attributes. of view. Overall Presenters were enthusiastic; Presenters lack enthusiasm and Presenters were unable to Presentatio well- rehearsed, made eye showed evidence of a lack of communicate effectively due to n contact, used time wisely, and preparation. There were pauses lack of preparation, rehearsal, communicated effectively. in discussion and/or students and/or lack of direct verbal relied solely on notecards. communication.