Sociology Grad Standard Assessment

Interaction And Social Change

1. As a class you will brainstorm answers to the question, “How has the institution of school changed over the last 20-30 years” and record your responses on the board.
2. Mr. Stutz will then help establish aspects of study from the list of student responses.
3. In groups of two or three, you will be assigned a specific aspect of school change to study.
4. In your small groups brainstorm possible sources of information on your particular aspect (i.e. people to interview, documents to review…) to answer the following four focus questions:
1. Trace the history of your aspect within the institution of school for the past 20-30 years.  How has your aspect changed over time and how have changes in society’s norms and values influenced these changes?
2. What affect has cultural diversity issues such as gender, race, social class, status, and role had on your group or institution’s level of conflict or cohesion?
3. Examine the things that have stayed that same in your institution over that last 20-30 year.  Why have they stayed the same?
4. How does the institution of school bring about continuity and change in the rest of the community?
5. Before you begin researching, it is important to reflect on your own personal biases.  You may already have some preconceived notions of how things are and why they are this way.  You must be aware of them in order to not let them influence the results of your analysis.  Record these biases in your notebook to eventually be incorporated into your individual paper.
6. You must have a minimum of two interviews in your final analysis paper and you may need more depending on the aspect and the amount of primary sources available.
7. In your working groups decide on the types of questions to ask in your interviews and establish a time and place to conduct them.  Remember to keep notes of the interviews and paraphrase the interviewee’s response in your paper.
8. After the interview process had been established, you should conduct your primary source research.  This is done by gathering yearbooks from the last thirty years and examining your aspect within them.  You should find percentages and hard fact data as much as possible to use for your analysis of change in the institution, in the societal concepts, and in the areas of conflict and cooperation.  Information from the yearbooks and other primary sources should also be used to answer the focus questions for your paper.
9. After the information is gathered it is time to create your analysis paper on your aspect of school.  Remember that everyone must turn in his or her own paper.  Please follow the guidelines below when creating your paper.

Introduction

Include introductory statements, purpose of the paper and summary of what will be discussed. Remember to end the paragraph with a thesis sentence that spells out exactly what is in the paper’s body.

Body

Paragraph 1: Personal opinions recorded prior to research (you may use personal pronouns).
Paragraphs 2 - 5: Discuss findings in regard to the four focus questions used to research and interview.
Give credit to your sources parenthetically within your paper and in a separate works cited page.

Conclusion

Summarize results and explain biases or inaccuracies that may have influenced your findings. Draw conclusions regarding the four focus questions.

Performance Criteria Checklist

• Students thoroughly conducted original research and followed the instructions given. 
• Students are able to accurately identify research methods used to gather data 
• The paper’s introduction clearly describes the purpose of the paper and successfully summarizes what will be discussed. 
• The body of the paper clearly identifies biases and opinions of the researcher and thoughtfully examines them 
• The history of the institution is thoroughly traced in terms of change 
• The changes in society’s norms and values are thoughtfully discussed and clearly reflect on the changes in your aspect of school. 
• The paper clearly discusses the affects gender, race, social class, status, and role issues have had on the level of conflict and cohesion found in your groups or aspect of school. 
• The paper identifies aspects of the institution that have stayed constant and clearly explains the reasons why. 
• The paper creatively addresses the affects this institution has had on the continuity and change in the community. 
• Conclusions accurately reflect information gathered in research 
• Conclusion thoroughly summarizes major ideas presented in paper.