GENERAL EDUCATION COURSE PROPOSAL CONTEMPORARY CHRISTIAN ISSUES (P)

general education course proposal: contemporary christian issues (p) ====================================================================

GENERAL EDUCATION COURSE PROPOSAL: CONTEMPORARY CHRISTIAN ISSUES (P)
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DEPARTMENT:  
===============
D ATE:  
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CURRENT COURSE TITLE and NUMBER:  
NEW COURSE TITLE and PROPOSED NUMBER:  
IF THIS IS AN EXISTING COURSE:
1.
Will course title be changed? (If so, please state new title.)  
2.
Will catalog description be changed? (If so, please show new
description.)  
3.
Will the level of the course be changed? (If so, please describe
how the change is demonstrated in the course material.)  
CONTEMPORARY CHRISTIAN ISSUES CATEGORY DESCRIPTION:
Explores selected topics that challenge Christians to make personal
and collective choices in light of their Christian values, education
and personal experience. Emphasizes deeper levels of
self-understanding or a sharpened sense of some of the complex issues
present in our contemporary society. The primary goals are to
cultivate holistic and biblically based views of oneself and the world
and to facilitate ethical decision-making when facing these issues.
Students explore alternative Christian worldviews that can define and
guide decision-making and/or developing oneself. They examine a theme
pertaining to one’s personhood and/or relationship to a facet of
contemporary society in order to personalize and integrate varied
approaches to that issue as part of the process of formulating a
personal ethic.
DESCRIBE HOW THIS COURSE WILL CONFORM TO THE FEATURES INCLUDED IN THE
CATEGORY DESCRIPTION:
1.
Explore selected topics that challenge Christians to make personal
and collective choices in light of their Christian values,
education, and personal experience.  
2.
Cultivate holistic and biblically based views of oneself and the
world.  
3.
Facilitate ethical decision-making.  
4.
Explore alternative Christian worldviews that can define and guide
decision-making and/or developing oneself.  
5.
Examine a theme pertaining to one’s personhood and/or relationship
to a facet of contemporary society in order to personalize and
integrate varied approaches to that issue as part of the process
of formulating a personal ethic.  
DESCRIBE HOW COURSE ACTIVITIES (ASSIGNMENTS, TESTS, WORKSHEETS,
PAPERS, LABS, AND/OR CLASS DISCUSSION) WILL BE USED TO ASSESS
ACHIEVEMENT OF THE CATEGORY OUTCOMES: The students will
Knowledge
1.
Explore and evaluate Christian worldviews.  
2.
Increase awareness of an utilize personal decision making
strategies.
3.
Critique alternative points of view to various life issues.  
Skills
1.
Write correctly, convincingly, and ethically.  
2.
Communicate with others clearly, authentically, and ethically.  
3.
Pursue a healthy Christian self-identity.  
Writing
1.
Draw from a variety of sources  
2.
Address the target issue from various points of view.  
3.
Critique alternative points of view (including their own) on the
target issue.  
4.
Identify personal judgements and decisions with regard to the
target issue and justify those in light of data and worldview.
5.
Demonstrate a writing process that includes drafting and response
to feedback.
DESCRIBE HOW THIS COURSE WILL FOSTER THE DEVELOPMENT OF THESE VALUES:
1.
Christian Piety  
2.
Integrity  
3.
Scholarship  
WILL THIS COURSE ALSO FOCUS ON ANY OF THESE VALUES? (If so, please
describe how.)
*
Peacemaking  
*
Serving  
*
Stewardship  
Proposed by: _________________________________ Signature:
___________________________ Date: ___________
=========================================================
Signature of chairperson
____________________________________________________________ Date:
___________
Submit form to: Office of Academic Affairs
Written Communication VALUE Rubric
for more information, please contact [email protected]

The VALUE rubrics were developed by teams of faculty experts
representing colleges and universities across the United States
through a process that examined many existing campus rubrics and
related documents for each learning outcome and incorporated
additional feedback from faculty. The rubrics articulate fundamental
criteria for each learning outcome, with performance descriptors
demonstrating progressively more sophisticated levels of attainment.
The rubrics are intended for institutional-level use in evaluating and
discussing student learning, not for grading. The core expectations
articulated in all 15 of the VALUE rubrics can and should be
translated into the language of individual campuses, disciplines, and
even courses. The utility of the VALUE rubrics is to position learning
at all undergraduate levels within a basic framework of expectations
such that evidence of learning can by shared nationally through a
common dialog and understanding of student success.
Definition
Written communication is the development and expression of ideas in
writing. Written communication involves learning to work in many
genres and styles. It can involve working with many different writing
technologies, and mixing texts, data, and images. Written
communication abilities develop through iterative experiences across
the curriculum.
Framing Language
This writing rubric is designed for use in a wide variety of
educational institutions. The most clear finding to emerge from
decades of research on writing assessment is that the best writing
assessments are locally determined and sensitive to local context and
mission. Users of this rubric should, in the end, consider making
adaptations and additions that clearly link the language of the rubric
to individual campus contexts.
This rubric focuses assessment on how specific written work samples or
collectios of work respond to specific contexts. The central question
guiding the rubric is "How well does writing respond to the needs of
audience(s) for the work?" In focusing on this question the rubric
does not attend to other aspects of writing that are equally
important: issues of writing process, writing strategies, writers'
fluency with different modes of textual production or publication, or
writer's growing engagement with writing and disciplinarity through
the process of writing.
Evaluators using this rubric must have information about the
assignments or purposes for writing guiding writers' work. Also
recommended is including reflective work samples of collections of
work that address such questions as: What decisions did the writer
make about audience, purpose, and genre as s/he compiled the work in
the portfolio? How are those choices evident in the writing -- in the
content, organization and structure, reasoning, evidence, mechanical
and surface conventions, and citational systems used in the writing?
This will enable evaluators to have a clear sense of how writers
understand the assignments and take it into consideration as they
evaluate
The first section of this rubric addresses the context and purpose for
writing. A work sample or collections of work can convey the context
and purpose for the writing tasks it showcases by including the
writing assignments associated with work samples. But writers may also
convey the context and purpose for their writing within the texts. It
is important for faculty and institutions to include directions for
students about how they should represent their writing contexts and
purposes.
Faculty interested in the research on writing assessment that has
guided our work here can consult the National Council of Teachers of
English/Council of Writing Program Administrators' White Paper on
Writing Assessment (2008; www.wpacouncil.org/whitepaper) and the
Conference on College Composition and Communication's Writing
Assessment: A Position Statement (2008;
www.ncte.org/cccc/resources/positions/123784.htm)
Glossary
The definitions that follow were developed to clarify terms and
concepts used in this rubric only.
*
Content Development: The ways in which the text explores and
represents its topic in relation to its audience and purpose.
*
Context of and purpose for writing: The context of writing is the
situation surrounding a text: who is reading it? who is writing
it? Under what circumstances will the text be shared or
circulated? What social or political factors might affect how the
text is composed or interpreted? The purpose for writing is the
writer's intended effect on an audience. Writers might want to
persuade or inform; they might want to report or summarize
information; they might want to work through complexity or
confusion; they might want to argue with other writers, or connect
with other writers; they might want to convey urgency or amuse;
they might write for themselves or for an assignment or to
remember.
*
Disciplinary conventions: Formal and informal rules that
constitute what is seen generally as appropriate within different
academic fields, e.g. introductory strategies, use of passive
voice or first person point of view, expectations for thesis or
hypothesis, expectations for kinds of evidence and support that
are appropriate to the task at hand, use of primary and secondary
sources to provide evidence and support arguments and to document
critical perspectives on the topic. Writers will incorporate
sources according to disciplinary and genre conventions, according
to the writer's purpose for the text. Through increasingly
sophisticated use of sources, writers develop an ability to
differentiate between their own ideas and the ideas of others,
credit and build upon work already accomplished in the field or
issue they are addressing, and provide meaningful examples to
readers.
*
Evidence: Source material that is used to extend, in purposeful
ways, writers' ideas in a text.
*
Genre conventions: Formal and informal rules for particular kinds
of texts and/or media that guide formatting, organization, and
stylistic choices, e.g. lab reports, academic papers, poetry,
webpages, or personal essays.
*
Sources: Texts (written, oral, behavioral, visual, or other) that
writers draw on as they work for a variety of purposes -- to
extend, argue with, develop, define, or shape their ideas, for
example.
Written Communication VALUE Rubric
for more information, please contact [email protected]

Definition
Written communication is the development and expression of ideas in
writing. Written communication involves learning to work in many
genres and styles. It can involve working with many different writing
technologies, and mixing texts, data, and images. Written
communication abilities develop through iterative experiences across
the curriculum.
Evaluators are encouraged to assign a zero to any work sample or
collection of work that does not meet benchmark (cell one) level
performance.
Capstone
4
Milestones
3 2
Benchmark
1
Context of and Purpose for Writing
Includes considerations of audience, purpose, and the circumstances
surrounding the writing task(s).
Demonstrates a thorough understanding of context, audience, and
purpose that is responsive to the assigned task(s) and focuses all
elements of the work.
Demonstrates adequate consideration of context, audience, and purpose
and a clear focus on the assigned task(s) (e.g., the task aligns with
audience, purpose, and context).
Demonstrates awareness of context, audience, purpose, and to the
assigned tasks(s) (e.g., begins to show awareness of audience's
perceptions and assumptions).
Demonstrates minimal attention to context, audience, purpose, and to
the assigned tasks(s) (e.g., expectation of instructor or self as
audience).
Content Development
Uses appropriate, relevant, and compelling content to illustrate
mastery of the subject, conveying the writer's understanding, and
shaping the whole work.
Uses appropriate, relevant, and compelling content to explore ideas
within the context of the discipline and shape the whole work.
Uses appropriate and relevant content to develop and explore ideas
through most of the work.
Uses appropriate and relevant content to develop simple ideas in some
parts of the work.
Sources and Evidence
Demonstrates skillful use of high-quality, credible, relevant sources
to develop ideas that are appropriate for the discipline and genre of
the writing
Demonstrates consistent use of credible, relevant sources to support
ideas that are situated within the discipline and genre of the
writing.
Demonstrates an attempt to use credible and/or relevant sources to
support ideas that are appropriate for the discipline and genre of the
writing.
Demonstrates an attempt to use sources to support ideas in the
writing.
Control of Syntax and Mechanics
Uses graceful language that skillfully communicates meaning to readers
with clarity and fluency, and is virtually error-free.
Uses straightforward language that generally conveys meaning to
readers. The language in the portfolio has few errors.
Uses language that generally conveys meaning to readers with clarity,
although writing may include some errors.
Uses language that sometimes impedes meaning because of errors in
usage.
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