Week of 04/11
Final Assessment
Due – May 27, 2016
William Proxmire (D – Wisconsin):
Responsible, respected, prestigious supporters of the treaty [Genocide] rarely discuss it. When they do discuss it, they talk about it in factual, low key, unemotional, reasonable terms. This doesn’t excite anyone. The overwhelming majority of Americans agree with the treaty’s supporters but they aren’t excited about it. They are not moved emotionally. They rarely listen. So what’s the result? We go home to our States. The only time we hear the Genocide Treaty brought up, it’s brought up by intense, bitter people who know the treaty only through what they read in Liberty Lobby’s Spotlight or some publication of the John Birch Society.
After spending some time asking/wondering:
Why?
Who is responsible?
What is our responsibility?
How is this our fight?
At what cost?
Your final assessment is one in which YOU take action!
While I am not trying to turn you into intense bitter, individuals, I do want you to become individuals that make an impact.
Your generation – is characterized as multi-tasking whizzes that are lazy, unaware and apathetic. You are less engaged in politics, have short attention spans and don’t care about weighty issues that confront your generation, the nation and the world; you’re more interested in technology and celebrities than your communities and school.
Now is the time to prove your critics WRONG!
You are to identify a “right” from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) that you feel passionate about and that you feel NEEDS DEFENDING. Look at the local level, national level, or even the international level. The goal is to become a defender and expose your classmates, student body and of course me to something we should care about or at the very least know about. To do this you must:
1. Develop a compelling question related to an issue concerning Human Rights
2. Propose an answer to the question/develop a claim statement
3. Investigate the question
4. Create an artifact demonstrating your learning
5. Communicate with people impacted by the issue and revise artifact
6. Present the artifact to a novel audience
7. Create a narrative documenting steps 1-6 and reflecting on the entire experience
8. Present your presentation to the Payton Student Body
Below is a more detailed explanation of steps 1-6. Since step 7 (the narrative) should be created while you progress through each of the steps, the specific requirements of the narrative are indicated after each step. Look for the word “narrative to see these requirements.
Please note, if you chose to speak the narrative it must be recorded on an audio or video file.
Steps to a Successful Project:
1. Develop a Compelling Question: Think about a question, related to Human Rights, that you would like to explore. This question might be one you’ve always wondered about, one related to your interests or experience, or something related to a future career choice. No matter what question you choose, the important thing is that the question should be open-ended, able to be answered in various ways, and related to Human Rights. Moreover, the answer to this question should not be known in advance. Usually, such questions do not have a single answer or “easy” answer. They are debatable and challenging questions that you must struggle to investigate and propose a solution to.
Narrative: Start your narrative by explaining the question you chose and explain why you chose it.
Your question and the narrative describing how you came to this question is due on:
Orange Day – February 25th
Blue Day – February 26th
Target Length (whether spoken or written): One paragraph. Since you will be adding to the narrative as we go, I strongly advise you to store this narrative in google docs.
2. Propose an Answer to the Compelling Question/Develop a Claim Statement. After you have identified a compelling question (Step 1) you will propose an answer to the question you’ve raised or create a working claim statement. The creation of this proposed answer/claim will require you to do some background investigation of the issue. Though you will not be required to turn in a works cited sheet at this point, make sure to document your sources for later use.
Narrative: Write a claim or proposed answer to the question you are investigating. Explain why you think this is a viable (good) answer to the question.
Narrative Due Date:
Orange Day – February 29th
Blue Day – March 1st
Target Length (whether spoken or written): 1-3 paragraphs (Double-spaced, 11 or 12 pt. font).
3. Investigate the Issue
After proposing a claim/answer, you must investigate the question you have selected. Your investigation can take a lot of forms: reading articles, websites or books; watching documentaries or movies; analyzing works of art or literature; conducting interviews or survey research etc.
You will have a minimum of 10 sources:
A minimum of 2 academic journals (check out JSTOR)
A minimum of 1 non-profit or government report
A minimum of 1 book
Narrative: Prior to embarking on a plan of action, you must develop a detailed description of what you intend to do and how you intend to do it. You must list the people or resources you expect to access and utilize (i.e. experts, interview subjects, books, academic journals, web-sites, personal interviews, survey data or scientific data etc.) and must create a timeline of each of the steps in this process. This timeline must include your investigation, a description of the artifact you plan on creating (See Step 4), and a description of who you expect to communicate with (See Step 5). After you have created this timeline you must get it approved.
Narrative Due Dates:
Investigation plan: a description of the communication you intend to have--i.e. who will you communicated with? How does the issue or topic you selected directly impact these individuals? Where in your project timeline will this communication take place? How do you expect to implement this communication?
Orange - March 14th
Blue – March 15th
Investigation summary: Explanation of results
Orange - March 22nd
Blue – March 23rd
Target Length (whether spoken or written):
Investigation Plan: 1-3 paragraphs +5 Sources (includes at least 1 academic journal and 1 non-profit/government report)
Investigation Summary: 1-3 pages. + 5 Sources (includes at least 1 book)
4. Create an Artifact. After you have investigated the issue you have selected, you will have the opportunity to create an artifact that best reflects what you have learned. Acceptable artifacts include: a Ted Talk style presentation, a series of artworks, or an organized campaign to raise awareness in specific community.
Narrative: The narrative must describe the artifact you intend to create and explain how the idea for this artifact is the direct result of your research.
Narrative Due Date:
Orange – April 11th
Blue – April 12th
Description of Artifact you intend to create:
Target Length:
1-2 pages
5. Communicate with the People Impacted by the Issue and Revise Artifact. After creating an artifact (or in some cases, drafting a plan to create an artifact), you must present it to someone (or a group of people) impacted by the issue you are investigating. The goal of this communication is to explain the issue you are addressing and present your artifact in order to gain feedback. Once this feedback is gained, it must be documented. Then, you must revise your artifact.
Narrative: Describe who you communicated with and why you chose to communicate with this person. Specifically, you must explain how this group is impacted by the issue you are investigating and then describe the communication and specifically how this communication led you to revise your artifact.
Artifact Plan or Rough Draft Due Date:
Orange – April 28th
Blue – April 29th
Narrative Due Date:
Orange – April 28th
Blue – April 29th
Revised Artifact Due Date:
Orange –May 13th
Blue – May 12th
Target Length (whether written or spoken): 1-2 pages.
6. Presentation of the Artifact. Once you have integrated feedback and finalized your artifact, you must present your artifact to a broader audience (i.e. an audience outside of school). The audience selected, should be an audience that will be impacted by the artifact you have created. In other words, the act of presenting the artifact to this audience should have the capacity of affecting change, raising awareness, evoking dialogue about the issue you have investigated. In other words, you are presenting your work to an audience who can benefit from what you have learned and the artifact you presented.
Narrative: Describe how you presented the artifact to a broader audience, why you chose this audience, where you did the presentation, and why you chose to present the artifact in this space.
7. Narrative. Create a narrative that describes the entire project from start to finish. This narrative should include steps 1-6 as well as a final reflection describing what you learned through this process.
8. Present your presentation to the Payton Student Body