Local Politics

Click HERE to see 16 ways to get more involved in local politics!

Learning Outcomes

This assignment is designed to address Critical Thinking outcomes. These specific outcomes are incorporated into the grading rubrics for the papers.

If you wish, you may click HERE to download the American Association of Colleges and Universities VALUE rubric on Critical Thinking

Teaching

The point of this particular assignment is to have you go into your community and participate (passively or actively) in a political meeting of some sort.

Meetings that can be used may include:

• Town Meetings
• School Board Meetings
• Club Meetings (not social...they have to be business meetings)
• Church Meetings (not services...they have to be business meetings)

The organization needs to be addressing an issue and debating different approaches to the issue.

You are to do the following:

• Attend the meeting.
• Take notes and participate (as much as you wish) in the exploration of a topic that is discussed in the meeting.
• Take notes on the viewpoints and evidence that is presented by participants in the debate.
• After the meeting, conduct some fact-finding research on the topic (make sure you look at both sides of the issue).
• Evaluate your own thoughts on the issue in light of your participation in the meeting and your research.
• Write the paper in accordance with the rubric below.
• Submit the paper in MS Word or PDF format to the appropriate drop box.

Grading Rubric

The following criteria will be used to evaluate and grade your submission: