Assignment Purpose

The purpose of this assignment is seven-fold:

1. To encourage students to review past course materials and synthesize themes from the course into a student-centered summary of their learning over the semester.
2. To ask students to identify and critically reflect on the themes that have mattered the most to them.
3. To develop students’ public speaking skills by creating a short video that summarizes their essay.
4. To provide a “flipped classroom” space in which students teach each other about the course issues most important to them.
5. To offer a capstone experience in which students reflect on each other’s work and progress in the course.
6. To give the instructor an opportunity to accurately assess students’ grasp of the course material and identify strengths and weaknesses that can be emphasized or addressed in future semesters of the course.
7. To present a final project assignment that requires authentic engagement with the course curriculum, rather than use of AI.

Course Learning Outcome universally addressed by this assignment:

1. Organize and synthesize information and ideas into a coherently structured, thesis‐driven, evidence‐based argument in oral and written form.

Course Learning Outcomes addressed by this assignment (will vary based on students’ topic selections):

1. Distinguish the difference between human rights and civil rights.
2. Explain how the concept of citizenship has developed over time.
3. Explain the relationship between the arguments from the focal case and a selected work of art.

• One single module should be created to house Final Project-Part One and Final Project-Part Two.
• Final Project-Part One should be formatted as an Assignment.
• Final Project-Part Two should be formatted using VoiceThread (located in Brightspace under “Existing Activities”). The option for student commenting on videos should be selected.

1. Choose TWO of the following topics that you have connected with the most this semester:

2. In an essay of approximately 800 words total, explain how your understanding of these two issues has changed or evolved since you took this class. Address your topics in two separate sections of approximately 400 words and clearly label the topic you have chosen for each part.

3. For each section of your essay, cite a minimum of three different assigned readings or resources from the course.

4. You do not need to include a works cited page. When citing a video, include the timestamp. When citing a reading, include the page number. When citing a webpage, specify the name of the webpage and the URL.

5. Once you have uploaded your assignment here, navigate to Final Project – Part Two for the second half of the assignment.

Each of the following will be considered when determining the grade for this paper:

• Writing is clear, professional, and free of errors
• Citations include the information required above.
• The essay contains the minimum number of required citations.
• The essay contains two sections, each addressing a different topic from the course
• Paper is free of plagiarism and AI writing

Optional Extra Credit Opportunity:

One point of extra credit will be added to your final grade for the class for citing a peer-reviewed source in your essay. You may include up to five peer-reviewed sources for a possible maximum of five extra credit points.

If you include the extra credit, make sure to note that in the heading for your paper, so it is clear to me that you included this.

To make sure your source is peer-reviewed, here is a guide on how to make sure a source is peer-reviewed.

You do not need to include a Works Cited section if you are doing the extra credit, but make sure to include in-sentence citations following these guidelines.

Here is the link to the John Jay Library. It is world-class and has everything you need!

If you cite a source that does not exist (i.e., a ChatGPT hallucination), you will receive a 0 on this project.