Your final assignment consists of four parts.
1. First, describe the most significant ways (mentioning at least two topics) in which your knowledge about child language development and/or education has changed as a result of this course. You should compare your "Beliefs" quiz item answers Before and After to help you see where your knowledge has changed. Include in your description an account of:
(a) the state of your knowledge about the topic before the course
(b) your present understanding of the topics, and
(c) the activities (e.g., reading, small-group discussions, class discussions, lectures) which led you to revise your knowledge.
2. Second, discuss how this growth of knowledge will have an impact on your interaction with children in and/or out of school.
3. Third, describe those aspects of child language development (e.g., how children learn vocabulary, how they acquire reading and writing skills, how they attain knowledge of rules of syntax or phonology) about which you feel your knowledge needs most improvement.
4. Fourth, describe any plans you may have to improve your knowledge in this (these) above-mentioned area(s).
Please be as specific as you can in answering the three or four parts above.
It is strongly advised that you create an outline of your paper (including major headings, any sub-headings and major ideas) before beginning to write. Also, be sure to use section headings (and perhaps subheadings) to organize your paper and make its organization clear to your readers.
The total length of this assignment should be equivalent to approximately 5 to 8 double-spaced typewritten pages.
This final assignment must be submitted in two forms--printed copy and electronic. The electronic version of the final assignment is due the day before the final regular class meeting of the course. The paper version is due on the day of the final class meeting. The printed copy can be given to me personally, put in my mailbox in 226 Education, or sent to me via campus mail to: Gary Cziko, Educational Psychology, 210F Education, MC-708. The electronic copy should be posted (as message or attachment) to the Compass Discussion > General > Final Assignment. fAter posting it, check to make sure it is there. It will soon disappear as I remove the assignments for grading. They will be moved back to the "Final Assignment" forum after grading.
You should first prepare your assignment on a word processor and save the file to disk. Then after printing a copy for submission, you can either copy and paste the assignment into the message composing window of your Compass Discussion message, or attach it as a Miscrosoft Word file to the message. If you paste it in, make sure that you have a blank line between your paragraphs. If you attach it, you may want to first try doing this by attaching it to a "dummy" message sent to the "Practice" forum. Please be sure to keep both printed and electronic copies of your assignment.
Your assignment will be graded on its oranization, completeness, clarity, specificity and the evidence it provides that you have improved your knowledge of the course's topics over the course of the semester.
I look forward to reading your assignments. I hope that it will provide you with a useful summary of what you have learned in the class and a guide for your interactions with children. For me it will provide a source of feedback concerning the impact of the course and its activities.
--Gary