Maybe look at the topics contemporary sonnets address. The sonnet started out as a love poem and for many years was only that (though early on there were exceptions, e.g., the Early of Surrey's "The Assyrians' King in Peace With Foul Desire"). But the contemporary sonnet deals with social issues, politics, popular culture. Maybe this is something to go on.
I show my students works like "Love Sonnet for the 90s" (about HIV and AIDS); "As Time Goes By" (about Casablanca); and a really weird one called "Moscow Zoo" (politics) to illustrate how the range of sonnets have changed. This may be too boorishly simplistic but I think one mark of the contemporary sonnet is this exploration of topics outside the traditional scope of topics with which sonnets have traditionally dealt.
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