FORMAT You are free to address ANY topic that is covered in the course that is of interest to you in a paper of 225 to 250 words. Be sure to use the following guidelines when writing your paper: 1. Begin with a clear restatement of a conclusion or observation that is presented in the text or in lecture. The writing examples in this folder give illustrations of how this should be done. 2. Relate the content of Point 1 to some additional observations or reading of some kind. For example, you may have been a babysitter or teacher or coach for kids and made observations that either support or challenge the content of Point 1. Other sources of your new information beyond the course could be readings, movies, travel, or your own childhood experiences. Be sure to relate your new information to Point 1 clearly. 3. Finally, in some way integrate parts 1 and 2. Is a new conclusion required, is the original Point 1 strongly supported, are new studies or observations needed to help clarify what we know about children’s development? Again, in some clear way tie together or integrate the information of parts 1 and 2.******************* Assignment Example 1: GENDER AND ACHIEVEMENT Gender differences on most mathematics sections of standardized achievement tests are very small. Teachers often encourage gender-stereotypic behavior for both boys (e.g., high performance in mathematics) and girls (e.g., high performance in language arts). In considering the impact of teacher attitudes and behaviors on academic success, I am left wondering what happens when teachers attempt to correct the common misperception that boys are better at quantitative reasoning than girls. My experience in math classes all through grammar, middle, and high school was that boys were expected to excel in quantitative courses such as physics and mathematics, whereas girls (and other underrepresented groups, for that matter) were held to much lower standards in terms of achievement in these courses. For example, if a boy received the highest score on a math test, the teacher did not make a big deal about it. If, on the other hand, a girl outperformed all others on a similar test, the teacher always called attention to this, either by the comments he/she made on the test or by announcing to the class who had the highest score. When trying to correct the misperception that boys are better at math than girls, teachers may actually be reinforcing this stereotype by overtly drawing attention to the fact that girls can perform just as well as boys. Public achievement is often threatening to girls; therefore, teachers who make a big deal about girls’ superior academic performance may actually prevent many girls from outperforming boys in the future. Feel free to write anything about Gender and Achievement (#1 topic)
