Course Guidelines
During the first 5-6 weeks of the class we will be using the work of Daniel Siegel to study Adolescent Development. This approach will bring new depth and a different perspective to the understanding we sought to undertake during the first semester of this course. Those of you joining us for the first time don’t worry. We will make sure to help you catch up with the concepts!
We will decide the rest of the course’s subject content together during the first week or so of the semester. I will present you with topics we can study and ways we could use readings, recorded talks, films, guest lecturers, meditations, research experiments, writing and journaling to study the subjects we choose. You will each be choosing one topic as your co-teaching area. You and I will prepare and present material to teach your fellow class members about that topic.
We will be doing weekly meditation/guided meditation exercises. I will design these experiences to help deepen your personal understanding of the material we are studying. In the first 5 weeks of the course, those exercises will come from Siegel’s Mindsight work.
As with the first semester course, you will keep a journal of your personal learning throughout the semester. I will collect those journals 4 times a semester in order to read and comment. Any entry that is too personal for my eyes can be folded and closed. I will not look at any entries marked in this way.
The basis for my teaching is experiential learning. We will be discussing and trying things on. There are no tests for this course, and there is no final exam. I want to help you learn some of the “soft skills” necessary to succeed as a college student. In college you are not prompted about assignments or reading. You are on your honor to do those things and to do them in a timely manner. Same in this course. You will be responsible to keep up with readings and assignments. I will be responsible to give you prompt feedback on all written work.
Although there is no Psychology textbook for this course, we will be using many chapters from Daniel Siegel’s book Brainstorm. I will make copies of the chapters, but some of you may want to purchase a copy of the book to keep. Let me know if that is the case and I will order copies for you. It is currently only available in hardcover or Kindle editions.
I will again provide you with readings for the term. Your weekly readings, other than book chapters, and source materials of interest will be posted on the class website, psychatchs2.weebly.com. Hopefully I can link to the Siegel podcasts from the website also. We will once again be using TED Talks and RSA Animate presentations to bring “experts” to class. I will also invite friends who are experts in various fields of study in Psychology to come as guest lecturers during weeks where we are co-teaching if that feels like a good teaching method. We may also see movies in class again this term if they relate to the topics we decide to study.
Grades are determined by attendance, participation and the quality of all assignments. If you will be missing class, please text/email me to let me know. Make plans to find out what happened in class and to get the materials.
Graded academic elements of class will be:
Discussion and personal sharing is at the heart of this course. Because of that there is a rule of confidentiality that covers all personal stories/information that people talk about in class. This is done to protect privacy, and is a very important element of class participation. I want students to feel that they can discuss anything in this room and be listened too with respect and curiosity. You are free to share any of the theories we talk about in class with anyone you choose, but no personal information is to be shared outside of class.
Remember to make your entries to Moodle every week. I have no control over the Moodle program, so it is up to you to keep up. Failure to make Moodle entries effects your grade and I can do nothing to reverse that!
Thanks for joining me again this semester and welcome to new students!
Let’s have fun and learn lots!
Ann Wright
[email protected]
(734) 417-2988
We will decide the rest of the course’s subject content together during the first week or so of the semester. I will present you with topics we can study and ways we could use readings, recorded talks, films, guest lecturers, meditations, research experiments, writing and journaling to study the subjects we choose. You will each be choosing one topic as your co-teaching area. You and I will prepare and present material to teach your fellow class members about that topic.
We will be doing weekly meditation/guided meditation exercises. I will design these experiences to help deepen your personal understanding of the material we are studying. In the first 5 weeks of the course, those exercises will come from Siegel’s Mindsight work.
As with the first semester course, you will keep a journal of your personal learning throughout the semester. I will collect those journals 4 times a semester in order to read and comment. Any entry that is too personal for my eyes can be folded and closed. I will not look at any entries marked in this way.
The basis for my teaching is experiential learning. We will be discussing and trying things on. There are no tests for this course, and there is no final exam. I want to help you learn some of the “soft skills” necessary to succeed as a college student. In college you are not prompted about assignments or reading. You are on your honor to do those things and to do them in a timely manner. Same in this course. You will be responsible to keep up with readings and assignments. I will be responsible to give you prompt feedback on all written work.
Although there is no Psychology textbook for this course, we will be using many chapters from Daniel Siegel’s book Brainstorm. I will make copies of the chapters, but some of you may want to purchase a copy of the book to keep. Let me know if that is the case and I will order copies for you. It is currently only available in hardcover or Kindle editions.
I will again provide you with readings for the term. Your weekly readings, other than book chapters, and source materials of interest will be posted on the class website, psychatchs2.weebly.com. Hopefully I can link to the Siegel podcasts from the website also. We will once again be using TED Talks and RSA Animate presentations to bring “experts” to class. I will also invite friends who are experts in various fields of study in Psychology to come as guest lecturers during weeks where we are co-teaching if that feels like a good teaching method. We may also see movies in class again this term if they relate to the topics we decide to study.
Grades are determined by attendance, participation and the quality of all assignments. If you will be missing class, please text/email me to let me know. Make plans to find out what happened in class and to get the materials.
Graded academic elements of class will be:
- Group Project: This will be an assignment growing out of the study of Siegel’s work, the nature of which we will develop in the next week or two. In the past we have created a course website which we present at Arts, Science and Letters night. This could be an option for the group project or we could come up with an alternative.
- Tandem Project: I will be asking students to choose a topic for which they want to help in creating the design and materials for study by the whole class. You will work with me on your chosen unit and together we will create the study materials and experiential learning segments that the members of the class will work with. This unit preparation work will be the second of three major assignments for the term.
- Personal Writing: We will be doing meditation practices on most Fridays this term and you will use your journals to reflect on these meditation sessions. One level of your written observation is to describe how the particular meditation we have done that week ties into the subject area we are studying. These journals will also be used to reflect on and document your understanding of your own “development” in the areas we discuss in class, and explore in our readings. This book is also where you can keep your class and reading notes.
- Individual Project: Your final assignment will be a “Self-Portrait” that works to consolidate your learning for the term into a creative product. This can be done with art, music, writing, speaking, film, or whatever method/media you choose, and the last week of classes we will enjoy each other’s presentations. We will talk lots about this so don’t worry. Each unit and our journal writing will have elements intended to build toward this “Finale”.
Discussion and personal sharing is at the heart of this course. Because of that there is a rule of confidentiality that covers all personal stories/information that people talk about in class. This is done to protect privacy, and is a very important element of class participation. I want students to feel that they can discuss anything in this room and be listened too with respect and curiosity. You are free to share any of the theories we talk about in class with anyone you choose, but no personal information is to be shared outside of class.
Remember to make your entries to Moodle every week. I have no control over the Moodle program, so it is up to you to keep up. Failure to make Moodle entries effects your grade and I can do nothing to reverse that!
Thanks for joining me again this semester and welcome to new students!
Let’s have fun and learn lots!
Ann Wright
[email protected]
(734) 417-2988