The final project for this class is the Learning Vignette. The best way to explain the connection between the biblio and the LV is to tell you about the LV first, although, chronologically you will complete the biblio first.

Here is a brief description of those two components of the class and how they are related. Of course, there are also detailed guidelines for each assignment separately. Over the years, I have noticed quite a few people have the same questions and confusion about those two assignments, so read carefully  (And ask as many questions as you have after you read this.)

The final project for this class is the Learning Vignette. The best way to explain the connection between the biblio and the LV is to tell you about the LV first, although, chronologically you will complete the biblio first.

Learning Vignettes – This is a 15 mins skit/act out of your understanding of the material you have learned. Since this is an entirely online course you will (sadly) not be able to act out the skit – therefore, this assignment will be basically writing the script for the skit. In this group project, you will do what is known as closing the gap between theory and practice. Remember that in your LV group (which I will form on the basis of the grade levels and topics you have expressed preferences towards in your survey), you CANNOT have two people with the same biblio topic. That is why, I decided to start with this early, so you can all finalize your topics within your groups. Once you all know what you will be doing your biblios on, you will be expected to share your knowledge with your groupmates and teach them the strategies you have learned from your research on your topic.

For your LVs, I will provide you with an instruction sheet including grade level, topic, specific activity and understanding goals. Your task is to incorporate all the strategies you have learned about for your biblio topic into the skit. Remember, the goal for this assignment is to portray how well you understand the principles of educational psychology and how to implement those in the classroom. Knowing definitions for this project will not be enough. I give you the what, you show me the how. The idea is to get to see (and do it yourself) how those concepts LOOK like in reality. As you write your script, I encourage you to use the “Comments” option on MS Word to provide comments throughout. You can identify what concepts you are covering. That said, make sure that in the actual script, you do not actually tell us. Meaning, when we teach, you don’t say things like: “Ok, now we will spend a little time to work on your identity development by exploring who we really are.” This would be considering you “telling” us about your topic (Identity development), rather than showing us how a teacher would promote identity development in the classroom. Does that make sense?

Annotated Bibliography – For this assignment you will be asked to come up with a topic of you are interest that is in the realm of Educational Psychology. You will then look for 3 articles from a list of journals I will provide you with. Once you know your topic, you can use variety of strategies to find those articles in the specified journals. If you are having hard time finding articles, I encourage you to seek help of the librarians and you can always email me and I will gladly help you. The reason why I will give you a specific list of journals is that the articles you need for your assignment need to be practice-oriented, sources that will be more “how to” oriented, not as much as theory or research-oriented. The detailed guidelines for the biblio are already posted on Blackboard. By the end of your research and write up of the Annotated Bibliography you will be considered somewhat of an expert on your topic in your LV group and you should have a nice list of strategies that can be applied in the classroom.

Feel confused? Ok, here is what you need to do step-by-step
1) Complete the survey and wait until I put you in your LV group
2) Come up with biblio topic – once in your LV group, make sure to check out what others’ topics are. No 2 people within a group can have the same topic.
3) Share it with your LV team-mates on Blackboard
4) Complete your draft and eventually your final Biblio
5) Start writing your script. Blackboard doesn’t offer really good tool to do so. I encourage you to use Google Docs. It is a really good tool in which all of you can work on the script at the same time. They have really revamped the program and it is pretty awesome now!
6) Once skit is done, transfer it to a proper MS Word file. Add the Comments throughout indicating what concepts are covered where.
7) Write your introduction: In it, you need to include all LV members and their Biblio topics. You need to also give us the settings and any possible props you would have used if you were to act the skit out in a classroom.
8) Submit it on Bb by the deadline
9) Submit your peer evaluations (if you are having concerns about any of your LV team-mates even before the submission of peer-evaluations, please email me!)
10) Evaluate other LV groups’ scripts and submit your evaluations.

In order to ensure everyone participates in the group project, at the end of it, everyone will be asked to complete a peer-assessment sheet for each of your LV team-mates. While this is a group project, everyone will receive an individual grade. Your grade will be effected by:
1) LV group grade
2) How well your biblio topic is represented in the LV
3) Your evaluation of other groups’ LVs
4) How well you worked with your peers (based on the peer-assessments)