Topic Preferences
During the last month of class,
we
will be having student-led discussions of various topics in
contemporary personality research. The student groups will have about 4
students each, and, as a team, you will develop a class lesson plan and complete additional, independent assignments related to your topic.
The
first step in this process is for you to let me know which topics are of greatest interest to you. Your choices are posted on Blackboard. I would recommend you skim the
assigned readings and the notes I have provided to help
you choose your topics.
Please provide
me with:
- A list of
your three
top choices of topic, in order of preference from most to least
preferred. I will
try to assign
everyone to their first choice of topics, but that
may not be possible.
- In the
event that
I can’t even make your third choice work, please also
indicate what one topic you do NOT want to cover (i.e., you would rather drop this class than
be assigned that topic!)
- If you
have preferences for people you would like to work with, let me know. Also, please
coordinate your topic choices with those people. Each student must
turn in an individual topic preference (i.e. I need a piece of paper
from every student).
I will post
the topic
assignments on the class web page.
Once you
see which topic you have been assigned, you should immediately begin
the reading. For most of the readings, you should plan to read
a chunk at a time across multiple sessions. You will not be able to
digest everything in one sitting - so don't try. By the time
you lead your class lesson, you will have read your assigned readings (or at least some sections) multiple times.
With that in mind, your very first reading should be casual
- just to see what the text says
(don’t concern yourself with details or
“memorizing” or even
taking notes). On a
second
reading, now try to really understand what each section is saying.
Also, as you read, jot down any specific research questions that are of
interest to you – it is just those sorts of questions that
may be useful for your final paper. By your third,
most detailed and
careful reading (which may only
have to cover a portion of the text), you will be ready to discuss the
key
points with confidence.