Stuck in Neutral and Cruise Control Literature Debate on Perspectives

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