This assessment meets the following course Learning Outcomes:
1. Demonstrate knowledge of the basic principles of critical thinking.
2. Identify the things that stop us from thinking critically.
3. Recognize argument structures and begin to evaluate and construct valid arguments.
4. Identify the key fallacies people make in their reasoning.
5. Apply the concepts/principles studied during the course.
Academic Honesty: Breaches of Academic Honesty will be treated with the utmost seriousness. You are reminded the penalties for cheating or plagiarism include dismissal from the HCT.
(for more information please refer to Academic and Student Regulations, HCT Academic Honesty Policy, Student Handbook)
For Examiner’s Use Only
SupervisorApproved Date
LSH-2203 Critical Thinking
Socratic Interview Final Project – Assessment #6
Challenging an Editorial
Basic Idea of the Project:
This is an individual project in which a student uses our familiar list of Socratic questions to cross-examine a recent, published news editorial in a minimum five-minute production in either video, animation, or live acting.
Scoring:
This is your final assessment and should be a grand culmination of all your work this semester. It is weighted at 30% of the entire course mark. You will be assessed on:
Evidence of how carefully you have followed the given instructions
Successfully and cogently completing the Editorial Analysis Form (20% of project grade)
Explanation, analysis, and logical interaction with selected editorial
Knowledge and expression of key principles, tools, and concepts of critical thinking
Showing skills in questioning and counterargument
Speaking, organization, and presentation style
Coherently filling the five-minute minimum time requirement
Providing thoughtful answers to follow-up questions at the end of your presentation
Steps for the Socratic Interview Project:
Find one editorial, with at least three supporting arguments, that you can understand and explain from one of the following news sources:
The National (UAE): http://www.thenational.ae/opinion/editorial
Gulf News (UAE): http://gulfnews.com/opinion/editorials
Arab News (KSA): http://www.arabnews.com/category/main-category/opinion/editorial
Al Jazeera (Int’l): http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/default.html
Any of the Doha Debates: http://www.thedohadebates.com/
Or others with approval
Find and read two news stories on the same topic as your editorial in order to gain more background understanding of your topic. Save the location of these two articles for the Editorial Analysis Form (attached).
Review “The Socratic Question List” we’ve used through the semester (attached).
Review the “Editorial Analysis Form” and the filled-in examples of it to make sure you understand it.
When you have studied your editorial, the two background articles you found, and the Socratic Question List, type-in the answers to Editorial Analysis Form using the online Microsoft Word file on BB9 (not hand written).
When you have checked your answers to the Editorial Analysis Form and are ready to submit it, submit on your BbLearn course by the deadline for the Form (to be assigned by your teacher) for it to be approved or revised. Please mark your calendar now.
When you receive your Editorial Analysis Form back from me, follow the instructions and fix your form then proceed immediately with writing the dialogue (unless I have asked you to fix and resubmit your form to me).
Write out the dialogue for your project in which there are two characters, one the interviewer and the other the author of the selected editorial. Be sure to include at least the following elements, though A grades will add more:
Give an introduction to the editorial by asking several explanation and background questions of the author and have him/her answer (this section can be no longer than 1 minute)
Have the interviewer ask a minimum of 12 Socratic questions (two from each category) and have the editorial author give good answers.
At various points in the dialogue, have the interviewer offer at least three counterarguments to arguments given by the editorial author (and have the editorial author reply).
You can have your dialogue either “side” with the interviewer or the editorial author as the “winner.”
Be sure not to have your dialogue run less than five minutes. Five minutes is the minimum length of actual dialogue (not including any musical or other “filler”). You can go over this time but not under.
If you find yourself short of five minutes, then ask additional Socratic questions.
Once you have completed your dialogue, you can begin producing it in video format (you play both parts) or animation software (as used earlier in the semester) or by creating a live play in which a friend plays one of the characters, with a PowerPoint presentation in the background. Or you can try some other format option with approval from the teacher.
If you are doing the presentation “live,” make sure you schedule a date for your presentation with the instructor.
When you have completed your video or animation, submit on your BbLearn course.
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LSH-2203 Critical Thinking
Socratic Interview Final Project
Editorial Analysis Form
Approved as is. Proceed with writing the dialogue.
Needs some revision as per my comments above. Fix those and proceed with writing the dialogue (you need not turn it in again).
Needs significant revision. Revise in line with my comments above and resubmit it to me before you start writing your dialogue.
The Socratic Question List
