Text: Educational Psychology: Theory and Practice, Slavin (9th 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, a lesson plan analysis, 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 Assignment, you will analyze a lesson plan retrieved from the Internet, evaluating the quality of the plan in terms of course concepts. You can complete this assignment by yourself or with a partner. If you turn in a joint analysis, each of you 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 is worth 100 points.

As an alternative to rewriting the Analysis Assignment, you could instead complete the second Lesson Plan Analysis Assignment or the Assessment Assignment. If you complete either one of these assignments, I will substitute its grade for the first Lesson Plan Analysis if the grade is higher.

Additionally, you can earn extra points on your Lesson Plan Analysis if you turn it into a web page as described on the Assignments page. If you turned in a joint paper, each of you needs to create your own web page to receive the extra points.

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

Reading Assignments

I will also give you some 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. 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 at the end of the term you are within 5 points of the next highest grade level and you have a (+) on at least 90% of the brief assignments, you will receive the higher grade for the term. For example, if you have 445 points (which is 5 points below an "A-") and 90% good faith efforts you will receive an "A-" for the course. However, if you are 5 or fewer points above another grade level and you receive fewer than 70% (+) on the brief assignments, your grade will be lowered a grade level. For example, if you have 455 points (which is 5 points above an "A-") and 69% good faith efforts you will receive a "B+" for the course. 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.

Across all the assignments and exams you can earn up to 500 points and will be graded on the following scale:

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