Topic Discussion Assignment

Topic Project

During the last month of class, we will be having student-led discussions of topics from contemporary personality research (chosen from among the topics posted on Blackboard). In teams of ~4 students, you will be developing a lesson plan for one of those topics. There are several parts to this project:

Choosing a Topic - I will assign topics to students in consultation with your choices. Check the class web page for the due date and click here for more instructions.
Class Lesson - your group will be responsible for leading one class session. Check the class web page for the date and click here for detailed instructions.
Topic Discussion Paper - this independently-written paper is due on the same day as your presentation. Click here for more instructions.
Required meeting with me - meetings will be scheduled later in the semester.
- At the meeting, your group should be prepared to go over a final version of everything for your lesson plan,including showing me your Power Point (if you use PP), doing a "dry run" of your activity, lecture, and discussion questions.
- You will also give me a draft copy of your exam questions (and be prepared to verbally answer them).
- This meeting should happen at least several days before your scheduled presentation date.
Exam Questions
- Your group must formulate 2 short answer exam questions. A "short answer" question is one that can be answered in a short paragraph/a half sheet of paper/ or ~5-7 sentences. Your questions should test students' understanding of the material from the text and your presentation, and should require students to do more than regurgitate definitions. The answer to the question should require an understanding of a concept, not just memorization of its definition.
- You will be verbally providing ME with a correct answer for the question during our meeting, but you will not be providing the class with that answer.
- I will gather all the short answer questions from every group and choose/revise questions to include on the topics exam.
- If you give me a copy of your exam questions at least 1 day before your class presentation, I can make photocopies for you. Otherwise, you are on your own.
- Note: Please save paper!! Cut and paste multiple copies of the exam questions on a single page in your Word document. Then, after printing and copying, you can cut the photocopies in the appropriate spots before distributing to the class. And/or: include the exam questions on any other handout you may chose to distribute to the class.

The Lesson Plan

For your topic, think about what major point(s) are most interesting/important and focus on those in your lesson plan. Your lesson plan for the day needs to include each of the following elements:

-The Big Question: Your entire lesson plan for the day should be framed by one, over arching Big Question, which you share with the class. You can almost think of this as a thesis statement, except it is a question. The question should get the class thinking about the topic in a general sense and help organize the information you present/discuss. For example, I often have one lesson in this class which begins with the question "Was Freud Right?" That question loosely guides the discussion and activity we have for that day. For your Big Question, think about what is most interesting to you about your assigned topic. Your Big Question should not be explicitly answered in the readings, but rather a discussion-type question the class can develop at least a partial answer to as part of your lesson plan. You should present this question at the beginning of class (or close to the beginning).

-Targeted Review lecture: In this portion of your lesson, you should carefully explain any concepts or theories relevant to the discussion you want to have about the question. Your presentation does not have to (and shouldn't) review every single concept in your reading or the class's assigned reading. Rather, your group has the freedom to choose the aspects of the readings which seem most useful, interesting and/or which fit best with the overall focus of your lesson plan.

Remember that the class should have some familiarity with the concepts from the assigned reading. On the other hand, it is extremely likely that at least one person didn't do the readings, at least one person read it but can't remember any of it, and at least one person read it but was confused about the very concept you most want to talk about. Given those possibilities, it is a good idea to provide the class with a brief but careful review of important concepts.

During this portion of your lesson, remember that you are much much more familiar with the topic than the other students in the class. So try to remember to speak slowly and to explain things step-by-step.

-Class Activity: Your lesson must also include some sort of activity for students to do. Virtually anything that gets each member of the class to do something besides just sit and listen will count as an activity. Be creative! If you are stuck for ideas, check out this web site for inspiration: http://personalitypedagogy.arcadia.edu/pmwiki/pmwiki.php. This should be a short activity (~10 minutes) that can be completed in-class during your lesson. You can have students do the activity at any point during your lesson plan. In the past, students have had fun with these activities, and I've really enjoyed the creative ideas. For class demonstrations or little class "experiments" - try to set things up so that odds are in your favor for the experiment working. On the other hand, don't be afraid to try something just because it might not work. Even failed demos can effectively make a point if you discuss the activity with the class appropriately.

-Class Discussion: Finally, your lesson should include discussion. Some students have had firm divisions in their lesson plans between lecture time and discussion time, other students have mixed lecture and discussion together. Either is fine. In either case, however, there should be plenty of class time for discussion (at least 20 minutes). The purposes of the discussion are: a) to get students to use the concepts they have learned about in the readings and from your lesson; b) to get students to go beyond just the basic information and consider the implications and interconnections of your topic to others; c) to keep students awake and engaged!; d) to allow students first hand experience grappling with the aspects of this topic you found interesting. You should have many, small discussion questions prepared to ask the class. You might not ask them all - but have an "arsenal" of questions handy. (Arsenal = more than 10, less than 50). I will want to see a list of possible discussion questions at our meeting.

Discussion tips:

To get a discussion started: I've found that it helps if you open with a question about one's personal experience (e.g., "How many of you remember your first kiss? How old were you?") or, at least, a question that does not have an obvious right or wrong answer (e.g., "Do you think men want different things from a romantic relationship than women do?"). It also helps if you open with a question that is small in scope. For example, asking "So, what IS the meaning of life?" as your first question will probably result in silence. Once the ball is rolling, you can begin asking larger questions about the topic material.
Be prepared to re-phrase the question if the initial phrasing is not understood.
Try to ask questions that go beyond the material presented in the reading rather than asking questions that simply review the information. If it becomes clear that a key concept is poorly understood by the class, you can back up and clarify that concept.
Your group needs to have had in-depth discussions of the material and the questions you've decided are most interesting. Things generally go poorly when you ask the class to consider discussion questions that you, yourselves, have not worked through.
For each of the questions you plan to pose to the class, imagine what a student's answer might be. Then, think of a follow-up question to that answer (one that will extend or deepen the conversation). In this way, you will be thinking in-depth about the issues and you will be prepared to really lead an actual discussion, rather than read a list of questions.
Let the discussion flow freely, but also don't be afraid to reel it back if you've wandered too far from the topic you'd wanted to discuss).
Don't feel that YOU must be the one to say something after every comment someone in the class makes... asking other classmates to respond or add to an initial answer can help prevent the discussion from becoming a tennis match (the class, you, the class, you).
Also remember that 1 second feels like an hour when you are nervously standing in front of the class waiting for a response. I often bring water to class so that I can sip on it while waiting for a response - it helps me remember to actually wait. Other instructors have had to teach themselves to slowly count to 5. If you feel like your question wasn't understood - then go ahead and rephrase it or start with a more general question.

Additional Information about the Class Lesson

General presentation tips:

PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE.
Dress presentably. Think about how you would dress for an [informal] job interview: Anything tight, no matter how "nice" or "fashionable" it may be, is typically not considered "presentable" in professional contexts. Similarly, all pants should fit properly, I do not want to see your underwear, etc. etc. No hats.
PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE
If you use Power Point or other visual aids, restrict the words on each slide to one or two key words per bullet point that will help your audience keep up with the broad outline of your presentation. Use 20 point font or larger. See the web links at the top of our class web page for more tips.
PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE.

Grading:

Individual student grades for the Topic Discussion Assignment will be determined largely by my assessment of the quality (clarity, thoughtfulness, interest, accuracy) of your presentation. Your classmates will also contribute their evaluations of the class session and I will take those assessments into account.

Every member of the group is required to contribute to the presentation, and each individual's presentation grade MAY be weighted by my assessment of the individual's preparation for the class presentation. If I feel a group member was exceptionally prepared, or woefully under-prepared relative to the other members of the group, I may allow that extra preparation (or lack of preparation) to reveal itself in that individual's grade. So - be sure each group member gets sufficient "face time" during the presentation.

Do note, however, that the overall grade depends on how well or poorly all the individual group members do together, so work hard for yourself and for your group mates, and make sure that each group member has a chance to show how prepared he or she is.

A small portion of your grade for this section will be determined by the thoughtfulness of your exam questions and level of preparation at our meeting. Your fellow group members will also evaluate your contributions.

Below is an example of the evaluation form your classmates will fill out:

For each question use the following scale from 0 – 4:
0 = very poor, “F”
1 = poor, “D”
2 = okay, “C”
3 = good, “B”
4 = excellent, “A”

How would you rate the group’s apparent preparation for the day?
To what extent was the group’s overall lesson well organized and clear?
To what extent did the group's efforts help to make the class day interesting?
To what extent was the group's lesson plan sophisticated and in-depth?
How effectively did the group provide a setting in which you felt comfortable participating?
To what extent did the group ask thought-provoking questions for discussion?
How effective was the group’s activity (or activities) in making an important point?
What would be your overall evaluation of the group today?

Topic Discussion Paper

Each member of the group must provide an independently written paper containing a discussion of the topic. The paper should have a clear thesis, and should somehow incorporate mention of one or more perspectives on personality we have learned throughout the course (i.e., trait, biological, humanistic, social-cognitive, psychoanalytic).

You should include information from the assigned topic reading(s) in this paper. You must also include one journal article that was not required reading for your presentation. This may be an article you obtain from PSYCHINFO representing more recently published information, or an article cited in your assigned reading that you wish to learn more about. This article may also be one assigned to another topic group, or assigned to the whole class earlier in the semester.

It is likely that you will also want to include information your group generated for your presentation; that is fine and is part of the point of the assignment. Some students write their papers as a response to the "Big Question" proposed in the presentation. If you wish, however, you are free to present your own unique discussion if the group's presentation does not reflect the aspect of the topic that was most interesting to you.

Please note that this work will be graded for accuracy and sophistication. You should aim for a focused, interesting and well-supported essay rather than a mere summary of the relevant information.

This paper should include APA style in-text citations and a References page. The entire document should be no longer than 7, double-spaced pages. The paper is due the day of the presentation.