In this assignment, I asked small groups of students to identify a problem, develop a plan to solve that problem, and create a proposal to convince an authentic audience to choose their plan over those of their classmates.

I used this instead of a test at the end of our rhetoric unit with my Honors sophomore English students. They are asked to employ rhetorical techniques to persuade an audience that their plan is the best.

This assignment could be used (with different expectations) with any group of students from about middle school age onwards.