Since 1947, the chairman of the National Turkey Federation has presented a turkey to the current President of the United States. The president will then grant a pardon to the bird, giving it the opportunity to live out its natural life on a farm.
For the past two years, Mrs. Price has had the students of AP English Language and Composition have a friendly competition among one another to demonstrate their skill with rhetorical strategies. Students are divided into groups of 2-4 to make a custom turkey that would hopefully win the class vote to pardon their Thanksgiving turkey. These groups write and present a 2-3-minute speech to the class, arguing why their turkey, above all others, deserves to be pardoned. To make it more interesting, students also create a slideshow introducing their turkey and the backstory of their turkey’s life.
As the curricular connection, students’ turkey stories and speeches must appeal to the audience in a way that will encourage them to vote to save their turkey. Requirements of the speech include usage of rhetorical choices like balance, parallelism, figurative language, appeal to emotions and logic, and many more.
Mrs. Price only has three sections of AP Language, and each class could only have one winner. A1’s pardoned turkey won with 5 votes, B1’s victor also won with 5 votes, and B3’s winner swept out the competition with 10 votes.
Now it’s time to meet the winning turkeys!
A1 – Giblet D. Cluck
The winner of A1, named Giblet D. Cluck was brought to life by Elena Morissette and Hannah Kegan. As a little turkey, Giblet D. Cluck lived with his single mother, living happily even without a dad. That was until his own mother was murdered right in front of him. She was a sacrifice for the Feast of Featherston, a turkey tradition where they eat one of their own kin every Thanksgiving. Giblet was then forced to eat the turkey, knowing it was his own mother chosen as the sacrifice. After he lost the light of his life and his own sense of purpose, he decided to leave the cannibal-eating town and started to search for a world where he felt accepted. After searching, he believed he had found such a world – a place where he found things he loved alongside the humans of the Earth. This was quickly disproven though, when the fateful day of Thanksgiving arrived, and he realized that humans were just like his old townsfolk. They took him away from his freedom and were planning to kill him – that was until he was voted to be pardoned and now, he can live his life on a farm.
B1 – Dr. Jacob Longbeard III
The winner of B1, Dr. Jacob Longbeard III, was brought into existence by Chris Winterstein, Thomas Perez, and Mac Fisher. Dr. Jacob Longbeard III was known as “Uncle Jake” to his family and “the most loving of them all.” Dr. Jacob Longbeard started his life on the streets of the Bronx, but times were tough for him as there were not many turkeys in his area. Even though he faced discrimination due to being a turkey, he powered through, remaining strong. While others let their circumstances define their values, Dr. Longbeard let his values define his circumstances. He dedicated his life to Doctors Without Borders, helping those who had nothing. He was among the few on the battlefield helping the children harmed; while others ran from gunfire, he ran towards it to save defenseless children. Dr. Longbeard’s courage is a symphony among the chaos. His heroic actions are the reason why the class decided to vote him for the president to pardon.
B3 – Gobblestein the Terrible
This horrifying turkey is the twisted creation of Kylie Dwarte and Victoria Curry. In a scenic valley, in small town known as Chernobyl, a sinister turkey named Gobblestein the Terrible lived on a contaminated farm. Gobblestein had been constantly ridiculed by his turkey peers since he had every disease known to man, and the ones he didn’t have were only because he had yet to create them. On top of suffering from constant ridicule, Gobblestein had been beaten daily by his mother, father, uncle, sister, brother, and dog. Throughout these hard times, Gobblestein remained resilient, and endured his constant torture and kept a positive attitude. Even though he had been infected with many illnesses and diseases, Gobblestein’s immune system remained strong, it created many defense systems in the event of his death. For example, his feathers are biologically wired to trigger a nuclear explosion. His razor-sharp feathers, tough skin, and bruised eyes suggested Gobblestein is a ruffian, despite these physical characteristics he has developed a gentle personality because of his hardships. The passing of Gobblestein would have resulted in not only the loss of a gentle spirit, but also the emission into the atmosphere of every disease he hosts, including but not limited to the bubonic plague, HPV, and coronavirus. The pardon of Gobblestein allowed him to live a peaceful life on a happy farm where he can live out his years without his bacteria being exposed to the world.
Congratulations to the winners of each class! Which turkey will be the class favorite next year?
