ISNA and their involement with civic engagement and service learning

The Literature Review
The topic is the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and their involvement in Civic Engagement and Service Learning.

This week, we will be expanding on the work we started in week two of this course. Rather than just analyzing resources, this week we will be blending our resources into a larger frame, drawing connections between each of the resources and to our project thesis. For a refresher on the final project criteria, see our Preview of Final Project listed below.

A literature review has two specific goals:

To demonstrate that you, the researcher, have done your due diligence in exploring the work other researchers have done in the area; and
To ground the theory in the current research available.

You should think of your literature review as a way to tell a story about your research using sources as guideposts along the way. Think about your role in this as a moderator in a discussion between your sources, and your job is to keep them focused on your thesis (this is usually the first section of a research article, so you should use the literature reviews of your sources as a model for what we are doing here).

You will need a minimum of five (5) sources in your literature review (you will need a total of ten in your Final Project). Consider the following to help you gather these sources:

Do a library search using Grantham’s EBSCOhost library database or from Google Scholar
Use key words to search (try different variations)
Only use scholarly books or peer-reviewed journal articles
Choose sources from within the past 5 years (you can set your EBSCO search to only show articles within this range)
Read titles to see what looks relevant (don’t waste your time reading things that don’t look like they will work for your project)
Read the abstracts and only choose the most pertinent articles (once again, don’t waste your time—if the abstract doesn’t seem promising, move on to the nerxt article).

Please note: information from the Internet may not be used for this project unless the source is from an e-journal (a peer-reviewed journal that is published on the web). The organization’s website is an exception to this rule, but it can only count as one of your ten sources.
Assignment

Create a literature review, incorporating each of your references (minimum of five), tying them to each other and to the thesis of your project in a single narrative. You should cite each source in the body of your literature review and in a references page at the end of your paper.

Your literature review should be arranged in the following way:

Introduction: A concise definition of the topic and organization with which you are working. A clearly stated thesis of your project. A brief description about how this project might be interesting and/or important to your readers/adudience.
Main Body: A discussion of each of your sources, including what they are claiming, how they relate to other sources you are using, and how they support your thesis (make sure you identify and cite each source as you use them). Each work should be summarized and evaluated for its premise, scope, and conclusion. In addition, address any inconsistencies, omissions, or errors, as well as accuracy, depth, and relevance you find compelling or think might be useful to your readers/audience. Use logical connections and transitions to connect sources.
Conclusion: The conclusion summarizes the key findings of the review in general terms. You may want to revisit commonalities and differences between your sources, whether favorable or not. Make sure you tie your work throughout this review back to your thesis.

References: As well as accurate in-text citations, your literature review must contain complete and correct APA citations for every source in a references page at the end of your review.

Preview of Your Final Project

Over the next several weeks you will be learning about service learning and also investigating a community organization. You will be reading about service learning, as well as completing a research project about a community organization of your choosing in order to evaluate their role in the community and the impact they have.

The Community Organization: Clearly indicate the focus of the organization and the community needs that the organization. A brief historical background of the organization should also be included.

Discuss any community partnerships that they have. Suggest additional partnerships that you feel they should have.
Explore how the cross-cultural challenges and humanitarian considerations are involved.
Demonstrate how the organization uses volunteers and the economic benefits associated with this (not just “free labor”).
Illustrate any roadblocks that the organization has faced or potential could face and how they did or might find solutions.
Describe the organization’s vision for the future.
Indicate what areas in which you feel the organization could improve. What challenges (technological, political, economic, laws and regulations, community-based initiatives, educational, etc.) will they need to overcome?
Discuss potential ways you might be able to contribute to the organization. How could your own interests, talents, and skills benefit this organization?

Research:

You will need to include a minimum of ten (10) sourcesto support your project claims.

For All Assignment Types
Your assignment should be well-organized and demonstrate an orderly flow of information that clearly addresses the subject chosen. In addition to the above criteria, your final project should include the following elements:

You will be evaluated over the following five soft skills throughout the course:

Communication
Critical Thinking
Respect for Diversity
Professional, Ethical, and Social Responsibility
Lifelong Learning

The expectations for each of the skill areas are:

Communication – For this skill demonstrate the following criteria for proficiency as you develop your final project:

Your writing is clear and concise and is free of errors, demonstrating proficiency in using citations, and following style guidelines in terms of formatting, conventions, and grammar, and is structured in a way that readers can easily follow. Appropriate tools and graphics are used.
Approaches the analysis of the research project purposefully and critically, fully exploring the learning experience. Demonstrate a full comprehension of Service Learning, showing an ability to blend the learning experience each week.
Capture a clear tone in your writing. Your paper must demonstrates an awareness of your target audience, seeking to meet their needs and expectations.

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Critical Thinking – For this skill demonstrate the following criteria for proficiency as you develop your final project:

Your information is drawn from source(s) and through experience and observation. Thoroughly applying a comprehensive analysis or synthesis of the materials you review and apply to support your paper.
Identify and evaluates relevant points of view. Use questions to determine accuracy, relevance, and completeness of information.
Your evaluation of solutions considered in important factors in problem-solving, such as the context of the problem or challenges, applying logic and reasoning, and the feasibility and potential impact of your solutions. Your discussion is well documented and comprehensive
Examines all issues with a full, thorough understanding in your formulation of ideas, the decision-making process, and in presenting a position in your paper

Respect for Diversity – For this skill demonstrate the following criteria for proficiency as you develop your final project:

Demonstrate an ability to suspend judgment of culturally challenging ideas and awareness of the benefits of multiple perspectives (variety of sources) as they apply to your understanding and problem-solving strategies.
Ask questions as you move along with the developing your papers. The weekly reflections assignment are a good springboard to keep your traction as you develop your paper and assignments and move through the assigned books for the course.

Professional, Ethical, and Social Responsibility – For this skill demonstrate the following criteria for proficiency as you develop your final project:

Demonstrate the ability to recognize and understand complex professional, social, and ethical issues and their complexities as encountered through your project.
Be able to identify and adapt to relationships among ideas beyond those presented within the issue itself.
Ensure your work matches assignment requirements, is thorough and comprehensive, and advances the issue being examined.
Demonstrate your willingness to embrace your role within and your responsibilities to a community, and keep those elements central to the decision-making process in an effort to better the community.
Demonstrate an understanding that success is reliant on the engagement of all members within the community, and actively seek ways to mutually benefit the group.

Lifelong Learning – For this skill demonstrate the following criteria for proficiency as you develop your final project:

Review prior learning, both inside and outside of the classroom, and note connections between formal and informal learning experiences, drawing connections between life-learning and formal learning, and show an understanding of how each can inform the other as they apply to new situations.
Demonstrate that you see academic learning as a process of examining ideas addressed in one discipline and be able to apply those ideas to another situation.
Demonstrate that you see learning, both inside and outside of the classroom, as valuable and interconnected.
Show an ability apply learning from different sources to develop a broader, more comprehensive perspective about the implications of individual learning experiences.

You have three options in how you can present your final project:

As a Paper
Your paper should be creative and interesting, and demonstrate what you have learned. It should be a minimum of 5-7 pages in length and you will use APA style formatting with a title page and reference section. You should use Times New Roman, 12pt. font, double-space your lines, and set your page up with one inch margins (See the APA Template included in the Course Resources folder)

As a Presentation
Like the paper option, your presentation should be creative, interesting, and demonstrate what you have learned throughout the project. Your presentation should be 8 to 10 minutes in length, include visual elements (graphics, pictures, etc.), be presented using a program such as PowerPoint or Prezi, and you should record yourself giving the presentation (consider using screen capture programs such as JING or Eyejot to record your voice—be aware, you may need to create more than one file).

As a Speech
As it is in the other two options, your speech should be creative, interesting, and demonstrate what you have learned throughout the project. Your speech should be 8 to 10 minutes in length and include a typed handout.

Writing:

Title your Project
Introduction:Begin with the attention-getter, tie in the background information, and end the introduction with your thesis.
Body:
- Clearly identify the topic of each section. The topic must be a statement, not a question, and should begin with your own ideas and your own words.
- After identifying your topic, use quotations or paraphrase from your sources to help illustrate the point you are making (be sure to identify the author(s) and source(s)).
- After you have given support, spend a sentence or two explaining how the example(s) support the section topic.
- A compilation of your research, your literature review, your methods, (how the data was collected or generated and analyzed), and your results should be included in the body of your project.
Conclusion:
- Restate your thesis. This means that you say about the same thing as you did in your thesis, but you say it differently.
- After stating your thesis, restate the topics from each of your body sections and emphasize what is important for your audience/readers to remember.
- End your conclusion with a call to action that illustrates what your audience/readers should do with the information you presented.

Please note: You will have the opportunity to revise and perfect this project, but you should do your best to make each step as complete as possible so you can receive more relevant and constructive feedback from your instructor and your peers.