Watch Film:
Article being used for correlation Frobel. Follow instructions.
For this assignment, you will correlate the readings we have done in the class so far with the film you choose. Look for events/issues/philosophies regarding education that occur or are raised in the film that resonate with issues/philosophies raised in the readings. Discuss how the assertions and issues discussed in the articles confirm/contradict/support events/issues, etc. in the film.
In the past, many students have come to this course having only been asked to write personal opinion essays and papers. While that type of writing has a certain set of objectives and learning experiences, the writing assignments for this course are NOT personal opinion papers. This form of writing is referred to as “writing in the third person” and involves a different process from that required by personal opinion papers. In social science writing of this sort, your personal input comes from the analytical and critical thinking part you do in STEP 3 of the writing process.
It is important that you always assume that I am not your reader. Assume that your reader is someone who is reasonably intelligent, but who has NO knowledge of the material you are discussing, or of our course. S/he has not read any of the articles or chapters we are reading. This means that you must put yourself in this naïve-but-intelligent reader’s shoes and be sure 1. you give her/him all the information s/he will need to understand the point(s) you are making and 2. s/he know who the author of each piece of information is.
Please do not use the phrase: “The article says….” Authors (NOT ARTICLES) write, assert, state, maintain, contend, comment, argue, etc. In the past, students have been fond of the term “The author mentions…..” Most educational philosophers and social science writers are quite serious about what they write; “mentioning” has a certain casual connotation.
Instead of writing “The author states….” Please use the author’s LAST name. You will see this format often in the articles and chapters we read during the course. Thus you would write “Rousseau (year of publication) states……” or “Moll (year of publication) asserts…..”
When you directly quote (as opposed to paraphrasing) a writer’s work, you must enclose the direct quotation in quotation marks and put the page number on which the quotation is located at the end of the quotation. For example: Locke (1612) states that “children should be educated by private tutors at home” (p. 141).
Avoid using you, we, us, our in academic writing, since it is unclear to whom you are referring.
Avoid making broad, sweeping general statements such as “All children need to go to school.” In social science, in order to be convincing, it is important that you give a specific context for the statements you make. To what precise time period does your statement refer? To what specific geographical location? Which particular group of children? Thus, you might want to revise your sentence to say “Since the beginning of the 20th century in the U.S., in order for children to eventually be qualified for professional employment, a formal education has been necessary.” You would then need to give specific evidence for this statement.
For example: you may read that Pestalozzi believes that educators should utilize materials in the child’s everyday environment as sources of curriculum. You may observe an educator in the film you choose doing this. In your paper, you would first 1. explain what Pestalozzi says about utilizing materials in the child’s environment. You may paraphrase, directly quote the text, or do both. You would then 2. describe the film event in which you see this happening. Finally, if the connection between what Pestalozzi says and what happens in the film is less than crystal clear, you would 3. spell out the connection of the two for your reader.
If possible, try to find at least one film event that contradicts something one of the writers we have read states.
REMEMBER: I AM NOT YOUR READER. YOUR READER IS A REASONABLY INTELLIGENT PERSON WHO HAS NOT SEEN THE FILM YOU ARE USING AND WHO HAS NOT READ THE TEXT TO WHICH YOU ARE REFERRING. FOR THIS REASON, YOU MUST EXPLAIN BOTH THE FILM EVENT AND THE TEXT YOU ARE CORRELATING IT WITH TO YOUR “NAÏVE” READER.
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