Critical Thinking Project General Guidelines

Grading Rubric for Part 3 (wiki help)

Part 3 "Analyzing Your Results" (final project) is due Thursday, April 26, (end of day). (40 points)

Individual Assignment (Everyone must do all of this!). Should be 2-3 pages in length. Create a new page in the wiki for each individual's (team's) report on their theoretical analysis, and insure these pages are linked to and from the "Part 3" page and each individual's personal page. Make sure to include references and citations in ASA manuscript submission style (local copy with web citation guidelines or a full version of the ASA Style Guide).

Applying the Three Sociological Perspectives (Functionalism, Conflict Theory, and Interactionism):

• Not everyone need focus on all three perspectives, but all three perspectives need to be addressed by the group (if you are doing this project individually, you'll need to address all three perspectives).
• You need to focus on the significance of the Poverty from each of the three theoretical perspectives.  Make sure to define the three perspectives and their views on economic stratification and poverty, discuss main assumptions, list scope, and apply.
• You are expected to check the group communication page and contribute ideas, provide information, and ask questions at least twice a week throughout the semester. All group related interactions must be documented on the group communication page in order for credit to be assigned.
• All individual assignments must be completed 2 days before the due date for this part, to allow time for the group to make final changes, and to develop a group report.
• Do not attach Word documents and the like--do your work on the wiki page, use the wiki to display your ideas and your research work--write your essays as wiki pages.
• Leave comments on your group members' page to provide help and assistance and point out minor edits you've done for them, etc.
• Be sure to complete the "Email Feedback Consent." You can find the email feedback consent "test" in the Group Areas section of MyGateway. Until you give consent, you will have to visit Prof. Keel or a TA to receive full feedback on the group project.

Be sure to correctly cite all information used from research resources (in-text citations and a list of references for each page) using the ASA manuscript submission guide (local copy with web citation guidelines or a full version of the ASA Style Guide).  Additional assistance with referencing online resources can be found here. Also, remember we are undertaking an academic activity, so please refrain from using opinion, unreliable or invalid resources, sensationalism, and other non-academic practices. See academic integrity statement and Turnitin information.

Group Assignment: Discuss and analyze your experiment in detail. Remember, you are expected to contribute ideas, provide information, and ask questions at least twice a week throughout the semester. All group related interactions must be documented on the group communication page in order for credit to be assigned.

• Analyze and discuss the observations recorded in part 2, along with the theoretical explanations developed for the individual component of this part (3).
• Create a final wiki page to present your findings and conclusions.
• Focus on patterns, variations and consistencies in responses related to the situation (time and place), the various individuals involved (variables like gender, race, social class), and the impact of living life at the poverty line.  Make sense out of what happened.  Sociological sense!  Then connect your ideas to the sociological perspectives worked on individually.
  • Interactionist perspective:  Compare life at the poverty line to the "typical" American family. What insights would be relevant from an interactionist perspective? Include the following discussion points:  "Typical" family vs. reality of poverty, "Looking-Glass Self," "Self-fulfilling Prophecy," "Definition of the Situation," Relativity of Poverty, Impact on attitudes, Impact on behavior?
  • How do Functionalist and Conflict theorists differ in their analysis of the significance of this data?  You must discuss both the central issues addressed by the theoretical perspectives concerning inequality and poverty, and also analyze your research findings from the point of view of these three perspectives.
• Include a summary discussion of the individual theoretical analyses and links to the individual (team) analyses. Do not attach Word documents and the like--do your work on the wiki page, use the wiki to display your ideas and your research work--write your essays as wiki pages. (if you are doing this project individually, you won't need to do this, but you will need to include the topics from the rubric below in your theoretical analysis, above--it'll be worth 20, rather than 10 points.)
• Interaction and collaboration (we'll use wiki stats, comments you leave on other's pages, and what you document on your "group communication page" to assess your collaboration).

Be sure to correctly cite all information used from research resources (in-text citations and a list of references for each page) using the ASA manuscript submission guide (local copy with web citation guidelines or a full version of the ASA Style Guide). Additional assistance with referencing online resources can be found here. Also, remember we are undertaking an academic activity, so please refrain from using opinion, unreliable or invalid resources, sensationalism, and other non-academic practices. See academic integrity statement and Turnitin information.

Grading Rubric and Scoring for this part of the project (40 points possible): General Evaluation Criteria for Written Work and Critical Thinking

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