Text: Educational Psychology: Theory and Practice, Slavin (12th Ed.)

GOALS

1. that you develop a thorough grasp of many of the course concepts, including an understanding of and appreciation for the manner in which the concepts are interrelated and can be meaningfully applied to the classroom and the world at large;
2. that you further develop your written and oral communication skills;
3. that you further develop your facility with instructional technology;
4. that you further develop your cooperative group skills.

EVALUATION

To give you sufficient opportunity to apply as well as demonstrate what you have learned, I will assign a behavior modification project, two lesson plan analyses, and I will administer three exams in addition to in-class activities.

Behavior Modification Project

Instructions for the Behavior Modification Project can be found on the Assignments page. It will be worth 100 points.

Exams

Each exam, covering assigned readings and class lecture/discussion, will be worth 100 points. Please notify me in advance if you anticipate missing an exam because of an emergency or other legitimate excuse (e.g., course field trip or varsity athletic competition).

Lesson Plan Assignments

For the Lesson Plan Analysis 1 Assignment, you will analyze a lesson plan retrieved from the Internet, evaluating the quality of the plan in terms of course concepts. You must complete this assignment with a partner. Each partner will receive the same grade. You can rewrite the first lesson plan analysis up to two times if you like. If you turn in a rewrite, you will receive the average of the scores on your rewrite and your first draft as your final grade on the paper. The Lesson Plan Analysis 1 is worth 80 points.

Lesson Plan Analysis 2 requires you to apply course concepts to the analysis and evaluation of a different lesson plan. You can complete this assignment by yourself or with a partner. This paper cannot be rewritten. The Lesson Plan Analysis 2 is worth 150 points.

Read more details about the lesson plan analysis papers on the Assignments page.

Except for emergencies, I will reduce late paper grades by 10% per calendar day.

Reading Assignments

I will also give you 12 very brief assignments that correspond with the reading. You will be asked to answer a few short questions prior to class to prepare for the in-class discussion. For these assignments, I will simply be looking to see if you put a "good faith effort" into answering the questions. If you did I will put a (+) on your paper; if not, I will give it a (-). If you receive at least 11 plusses on the brief assignments you will receive the full 40 points. If you receive 10 plusses, you will earn 32 points. If you receive 9 plusses you will earn 24 points. If you receive 8 plusses you will earn 16 points. If you receive fewer than 8 plusses on the brief assignments you will earn 0 points. The brief assignments will be due by the beginning of that class period. Assignments must be typed.The purpose of the Reading Assignments is to encourage the reading of the material and to emphasize what I hope will be the importance of that reading for the class discussion.

Contributions

Given that there will be only two lecture sessions per week (at least for most weeks) I will also ask you to participate asynchronously each week through at least 3 "contributions." Those contributions will be completed through Blackboard discussion posts. All of these contributions will be ungraded, but you will lose 5 points each week if you do not complete at least 3 satisfactory contributions. A contribution will be judged to be satisfactory if it appears you put a good faith effort into it.

Across all the assignments and exams you can earn up to 670 points and will be graded on the following scale:

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