Course Syllabus Table of Contents ISS 318: Lifespan Development ...

ISS 318, Page
“All genuine learning is active, not passive. It involves the use of the mind, not just the memory.
It is a process of discovery, in which the student is the main agent, not the teacher.”
Mortimer J. Adler in The Paideia Proposal: An Educational Manifesto. (1982, page 128)
The Course Assignments…
Exams 1, 2, and 3 and Final Exam – 65 points each, 195 points total (one will be dropped)
These tests will include objective questions and short answer/essays questions. They include all information covered in
that part of the course: textbook, lectures, video, and so on. Exam 1 covers Chapters 1,2,3,4 and lecture, video,
readings, activities relating to these chapters. Exam 2 covers Chapters 5,6,7,8 and lecture, video, readings, activities
relating to these chapters. Exam 3 covers Chapters 9, 10 11,12, Death and Dying section, and lecture, video, readings,
activities relating to these chapters. The Final Exam is comprehensive. You may take all four exams and drop the lowest
score. If you miss one of the exams, however, this is the “lowest score” that is dropped. (Note: There are no makeups
–the reason that one can be dropped is because students sometimes are ill or have other unfortunate situations
at the time of an exam. MSU final exam policies are followed.)
CCE: Cross Cultural Explorations - Activities in Culture and Psychology, 5 points each, 40 points
total [12 Total, choose 8 to complete]
These activities involve work from pages 413 to 466 of your textbook. They require that you use critical thinking skills and
be able to look at topics from different perspectives rather than give "one correct answer". They are graded with that in
mind. This is a “stress reduction assignment” and so you may not turn in more than eight papers. Look ahead at the
semester and see when you want to plan to lighten your work load a bit. This is a healthy assignment choice for me as
well because over the course of the semester I will be grading 100 fewer cross-cultural explorations. When we get to the
chapter on Health across Cultures think about ways in which you can add healthy time management skills into your
career! Turn in these assignments on the workbook pages themselves or on Xerox copies of the workbook page
for full points.
MRP: Media Reaction Papers: 5 points each, 40 points total [12 Total choose 8 to complete]
These papers are typed, single-space, single-page reaction papers to the video resources (or audio) that are found in the
Custom Website: http://www.pearsoncustom.com/mi/msu_mylabs/ . You must use your access code in order to register
to see the videos because they are copyright-protected. A 5-point paper will use the information found in ONE of the
videotapes and analyze it in the context of our course. It is possible to write a 5-point paper in two well-written concise
paragraphs. The grading rubric is found later in the syllabus.
There are 12 assigned Media Reaction Papers but you only turn in 8. You choose the 8 that you want to complete. You
may not turn in more than eight. For example, if your birthday falls on one of the due dates or if you have a test on one
of those dates you might choose that as your "stress reduction" day. This is a stress reducer for me, too, because it
reduces the number of papers that I read and grade by 100 papers!! Professors need to make healthy life choices as
well! If you miss one of the deadlines that one will be dropped. There are no make-ups for this assignment since you get
to choose which ones to skip. If you accidentally turned in more than eight then only the first eight would count. An
electronic copy is turned in to the ANGEL drop box (.rtf, .doc, or .docx ONLY or this is one of the papers that is a “stressreduction”
skipped assignment that will not be graded) and a hard copy is brought to class to be shared and then turned
in. Your grade will be seen on the online rubric on the electronic copy.
CDIAL: Cultural Dialogues: 1 point each, 12 points total. [12 Total, Complete ALL 12]
The cultural dialogues are in ANGEL folders at the beginning of each chapter. For example, click on Chapter 1. You will
see a picture of a man and below his picture is a question asking, "How would you conduct research to explore the
cultural experiences of disciples of Sikhism" Below the question you will see a section in which you type a very brief
response. When you have finished then click on "Submit here to submit answer" underneath the question mark! You will
receive feedback about this topic. There are 12 Cultural Dialogue activities. There are no make-ups for Cultural
Dialogues. If you add the class late or miss one then you should do the Extra Credit. This is one of the reasons that we
have it! It is STRONGLY recommended that you complete Cultural Dialogues at the beginning of each week but
you MUST complete them by the Friday at 5:00 p.m. when we start that topic!