Learning Experience Design Proposal
Part 2: Assessments
Summative Assessment
Introduction
You have leveraged several skills and concepts to enhance your critical thinking by applying them to several contexts. You have identified and discussed facts and inferences, implicit and explicit premises and conclusions, and logical fallacies. In so doing, you examined underlying assumptions in context with the intended audience(s) and the goals of author. The goal of this assessment is for you to continue to leverage these concepts to evaluate the logic and reasoning of a more complex work and communicate this evaluation in a clear and engaging way.
Assignment Prompt
Evaluate the logical reasoning of a text of your choice. In your evaluation, identify and discuss key arguments, support, underlining assumptions, and logical fallacies and determine the extent to which the arguments in this text represent sound or faulty reasoning.
The term "text" is defined loosely. A text can written, visual, and/or spoken. You may decide to evaluate a speech, debate, a spoken performance (poetry slam or short, one-act play), an article, a website (of an organization or politician, for example), or a creative work such as a short story, music video, or short film.
As you select and evaluate your text of choice, consider the following critical thinking questions to help you generate initial ideas for evaluation and discussion:
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What are the explicit and/or implicit arguments being presented?
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What are their explicit and implicit premises and conclusions?
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What are the underlying assumptions and reasoning in each argument?
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What contexts (social, political, cultural, psychological) give rise to this reasoning?
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If applicable, which logical fallacies best describe this reasoning?
Mode of Creating
You can compose your evaluation in a way that makes sense to you. You can write an academic paper or create a narrated presentation, a reaction video, a Powtoon, or any other multimedia composition that best communicates the goals of your project.
Required Components
Regardless of the modality of your evaluation, your assignment should include the following requirements:
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An introduction that offers an overview of your evaluation and includes necessary context
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A concise statement that articulates your overall evaluation of the text's reasoning (i.e. a thesis statement)
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At least four developed evaluative points with offer context, support, interpretation, and discussion (as well as in-text citations in MLA format as necessary)
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A conclusion that summarizes your evaluation and offers ending remarks
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A works cited page or slide
Academic Honesty
Citing sources in academic work is a skill that takes time to master, particularly when you are asked to apply different formatting and citation styles, such as APA and MLA, in different class. For this class you will use MLA formatting and citation style. Make sure to provide accurate in-text citations as you integrate your sources and provide corresponding citations in a works cited page. As you do so, you may have many questions about when you should cite your source, and how that source should be cited. I'll work hard to help you learn how to cite your sources, and in return, I ask that you work hard to note your sources--we'll work on the format together. Please be sure to always note where your ideas came from.
Formative Assessments (in reverse chronological order)
Discussion Board: Draft & Peer Review
Prompt: Complete a draft of your evaluation assignment and submit it by replying to this discussion board as you normally would. Your draft may be all or a portion of a written essay, a script for a video you plan to record, and/or a series of slides you are working on. Whatever modality you are working with, submit what you believe is valuable to share and receive feedback on. In your post, add a note briefly describing the work you are evaluating and your evaluative points. You can also note any particular questions or concerns you have, or any particular parts you want readers to focus on and give you feedback.
Reply to at least two of your peers with your evaluation of their work by identifying and affirming its strengths and offering constructive suggestions to improve its organization, development, and/or analysis. You can do this in any manner, but make sure to consider all required components:
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An introduction that offers an overview of your evaluation and includes necessary context
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A concise statement that articulates your overall evaluation of the text's reasoning (i.e. a thesis statement)
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At least four developed evaluative points with offer context, support, interpretation, and discussion (as well as in-text citations in MLA format as necessary)
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A conclusion that summarizes your evaluation and offers ending remarks
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A works cited page or slide
Discussion Board: Text Selection, Planning, and Generating Ideas
Prompt: Introduce the text you have chosen to evaluate by briefly summarizing it and explaining why you chose this particular text. Then, introduce your ideas for evaluations. Explain the main arguments you are planning to evaluate at this point and briefly offer your preliminary evaluation of them. You can complete this task in the form of a written paragraphs and/or outline, a short presentation or video, an infographic, or whatever modality helps you to communicate your ideas with clarity. Make sure to include a link to your selected text.
Reply to at least two of your peers by acknowledging their ideas and helping them focus and build on them. You will need to read/view the text they chose and should suggest further ideas for evaluation and development. You can do this by offering a different evaluative perspective; pointing out underlying assumptions, logical fallacies, or implicit arguments; mentioning any additional arguments that are not represented in your peer's post but are included in the text; and/or suggesting additional support to include and discuss relevant to your peer's ideas.
Reflection & Discussion: Logical Fallacies in Everyday Ongoings
Prompt: Spend two or three days observing your everyday interactions, those with friends, family, and co-workers as well as those with the daily media we come in contact with, such as social media, news or entertainment websites, music videos, and movies or shows on Netflix or other sources. Take note of the arguments you encounter, any underlying assumptions those arguments rest on, and any logical fallacies that are reflected in their reasoning.
Compose a reflection that captures the highlights of your observations by describing both the context(s) and argument(s) of note as well as the assumptions and fallacies you identified. You can compose your reflection as a written text, as a presentation, as a video, or any modality that helps you effectively communicate your ideas.
Please post your reflection in the discussion board by pasting or embedding it into your reply. Read through the posts of your classmates and reply to at least two posts to stimulate discussion on the various everyday contexts logical fallacies function in.
Group Annotation: Identifying Logical Fallacies in Written Texts
Prompt: Read the selection of short articles and annotate them in Hypothesis together with your group. The goal of your annotations is to identify and discuss the arguments, assumptions, and logical fallacies in each text and engage in a dialogue with your peers by responding to their annotations.
Discussion: Introduction to Logical Fallacies
Prompt: Select three logical fallacies from those that you have been introduced to, describe how each fallacy functions, and include an example of each. Your examples should be original, meaning that you should make them up on your own or relate those you happened upon in your everyday interactions.
Reply to at least two of your peers by examining how the examples reflect the definition of the respected fallacy, offering a different perspective or interpretation if applicable, and adding on an additional original example of one of the three fallacies presented by your peer.