Where Do You Go From Here?
Closing out Sociology of Guns with two capstones: the Celebration of Learning presentation and final reflection essay
And now, the end is near. And so students face, the final assignments. In Sociology of Guns. (With apologies to the Chairman of the Board.)
We’ve come a long way in this series of posts on my seminar, as the students will have when they reach this point in the semester.
To recap, we’ve covered my reorienting Sociology of Guns from topics to questions; the reasoning behind that shift; my class policy on the use of generative artificial intelligence; the mandatory field trip to the gun range and opening reflection essay; assignments specifically designed to encourage the practice of curiosity; active reading and class participation requirements; and the Stand Your Ground law analysis assignment.
We end the semester with two capstone-like assignments: A presentation at the year-end Celebration of Learning Symposium and a final reflection essay. These two assignments give students the opportunity to look back over the previous semester and to look forward to the rest of their lives.
The Celebration of Learning Presentation
CELEBRATION OF LEARNING YEAR-END EVENT PRESENTATION (10% of total grade):
On the last day of class, you will give an 8-minute (maximum) presentation as a preview of your Final Reflection Essay (assignment #9).
Although your presentation should be polished, your thoughts do not have to be finalized. Use this time to think out loud, in conversation with the class, about where your semester of curiosity, open-mindedness, and humility has taken you. Where did you start and where are you now? Where did curiosity get you? How has your mind changed (or not) over the course of the semester? What do you still not understand well enough and want to keep exploring? You might even speculate about where you’re heading in your final essay’s conclusion.
You do not need to cover everything you’ll eventually write about in your Final Reflection Essay. Choose the part(s) of the assignment that feel most worth exploring right now in the time allotted.
A grading rubric will be provided in advance of your presentation.
AI Rules for this assignment: You may use AI for diagnostic feedback: to check spelling/grammar and to suggest areas for improvement in clarity and organization of your talk. You may use AI to help format or design slides (e.g., layout, color scheme, images) if you choose to use presentation software, but the content of your slides (the actual reflections, ideas, and connections you present) must be your own thinking. You may not use AI to develop the ideas or connections you’ll discuss. You may never cut-and-paste any language provided by AI into your talking points or slide text. If you use AI for any part of this assignment, you must provide your “receipts.”
More on the Celebration of Learning Presentation
This day is always a highlight of the semester for me. Although student participation is required throughout the semester, this is an opportunity for the students to take the center stage and more formally share their thoughts with the peers (and me, of course).
With 16 students, the 8-minute time limit is needed to complete all of the presentations in our 2.5 hour class session (and to allow set-up, a toast, transitions, and a break halfway through).
Note, again, the specific AI rules for this assignment differ in certain ways from previous AI rules. I’m trying to stay flexible and adapt to the specific tasks I give the students.
The Final Reflection Essay Assignment
FINAL REFLECTION ESSAY (15% of total grade):
Over the course of this semester, you have practiced the intellectual virtues of curiosity, open-mindedness, and humility in relation to guns. In this essay, you will revisit your previous personal experience with and understanding of guns in the U.S. (as expressed, for example, in your Field Trip Reflection Essay) in light of your work this semester, bringing your practice of these virtues together into a coherent reflection on your own growth.
Drawing on your Field Trip Reflection Essay, Gun Curiosity Journal, Bring Something New to the Table submissions, and the course readings and discussions, address each of the following:
Curiosity: How did you practice curiosity about guns this semester? Point to specific moments — journal entries, finds you brought to the table, discussions, readings — that best capture your own curiosity in action. What did that practice teach you about guns, or about yourself?
Open-mindedness: Did your thinking about any aspect of guns change over the course of the semester? If so, what changed, and what specifically prompted the shift? What experiences, observations, readings, classmates’ perspectives, and/or reflections made a difference? If your thinking did not change, what did the semester confirm or deepen about views you already held and how/why?
Humility: What do you still not know or understand well enough about guns in America? Having spent a semester studying this topic closely, what has become clearer to you about the limits of your own understanding? What would you still want to learn?
In your conclusion, address this open-ended question: Where do you personally or we as a society go from here on guns? Whatever you conclude, be sure to ground it in your reflections on curiosity, open-mindedness, and humility in relation to your work this semester.
Length: 750 words minimum (no maximum, but remember to be coherent in your writing).
AI Rules for this assignment: You may use AI for diagnostic feedback: to check spelling/grammar, to proofread your analysis, and to suggest areas for improvement in clarity and organization. You may not use AI for generative work: to make improvements for you or to develop any ideas for inclusion in your reflection. You must improve and develop those ideas by (and for!) yourself. You may never cut-and-paste any language provided by AI. If you use AI in any way for this assignment, you must provide your “receipts.”
More on the Final Reflection Essay
I love this assignment because it sends students back to where they started their journey — at the gun range 15 weeks earlier — to see how far they’ve come.
Although the assignment is structured, it is also open-ended. It is a truly authentic assignment: there is no predetermined “correct” answer that the students need to give. That’s what makes these very satisfying to read.
Series Finale
This brings us to the end of this walk through Sociology of Guns, Version 11. I’ve now explained the seminar’s nine assignments, from the initial mandatory gun range field trip to a final essay that asks student to reckon with who they were on day 1 of the course.
When I started this seminar redesign, the goal was to move the course from topics to questions, and to make curiosity, open-mindedness, and humility explicit practices rather than incidental byproducts of a good class.
Looking back at these nine assignments together, I think they do that. Whether the students agree, I’ll find out in December and let you know.
David - such a wonderfully designed course. I hope the “kids” weren’t hoping for a cupcake of a class!
Your course should be a required one for this reason: to be considered an "educated person" one must learn how to learn.
Not regurgitate facts, but actually learn. After dropping a few $1K at SUNY; that was the most important education I recieved. What was written on the diploma was incidental to the process.