Psychology - ACCESS

Farabee

Course Description: This is a general psychology class especially designed to allow students to explore the various aspects of the world of psychology. The class explores the field of psychology by engaging students in a series of class discussions and thought-provoking activities. Psychology is a study of the history of psychological inquiry, methods of scientific research, biological basis of behavior, human development and individual differences, states of consciousness in learning and memory, psychological disorders and treatments, and terminology and theories. With ACCESS Distance Learning, this is ½ credit, elective course.

Course Objectives: After instruction and activities throughout this course students will understand and apply:

1. contemporary perspectives used by psychologists to understand behavior and mental processes in context 2. major subfields and career opportunities that comprise psychology 3. research strategies used by psychologists to explore behavior and mental processes 4. purpose and basic concepts of statistics 5. ethical issues in research with human and other animals that are important to psychologists 6. development of psychology as an empirical science Course Procedures:

. Teacher and student led discussions . Activities . Investigations and research questions . Critical thinking activities . Essays . Quizzes

Notebooks: Students need a notebook for this class. Students should print course syllabus, study guides, and handouts and keep in notebooks. Students should have a section in notebooks to take

General Class Policies Psychology will be a very challenging but interesting course. To get the most out of it, you should learn these policies and procedures for the course. Writing Assignments All writing assignments should be done in MS Word. If you do not have that program, convert the finished document to RTF format. (If you do not know how to do that, check the technology requirements in the online module “Getting Starting.”) The exact directions for submitting the assignment depend upon the Course Management System you are using, and you will receive instructions.

Discussions Throughout the class, you will be asked to participate in discussions. These are very important for many reasons, and you need to participate early and often. You need to think carefully about what you write. In the first unit of the class, you will read much more about discussions and why they are important to the class. You will also see the rubric/scoring guide for how you will be graded in your discussions. You will not be graded on each specific discussion. You will receive three discussion grades per semester, each one covering all the discussions during that grading period. Homework Expectations Most high school Psychology classes have homework assignments. This class does expect that you will do homework in addition to your regular class time each day. In the course schedule, a "day" is considered to be about an hour of regular class time plus homework. Typically, you should expect to work an average of 1 - 1 1/4 hours per day during the week. Multi-tasking Because of the fact that online students are rarely participating at the same time, we will be doing some things a little differently. We will multi-task, which means we may be doing several different assignments at once. You may find yourself participating in a discussion that does not seem to have anything to do with the unit you are studying. In most cases, the purpose of that discussion is to prepare you for the next unit. Rubrics You will be given rubrics for almost all written work. These are descriptions of what you need to do to score well on those assignments and tests. Many students ignore these. That is a mistake! Read them carefully and you will find you will be graded much higher. Before you submit an assignment, check your work according to the rubric given. Plagiarism Plagiarism, speaking in the simplest possible terms, is presenting the work of others, whether a classmate or a professional writer, as your own. Recent research indicates that a very high percentage of students in almost all classes plagiarize at least part of their assignments. Plagiarism will be treated very seriously in this class, not just because it is cheating or even violating the law, but also because the experience you get doing an assignment correctly is where you get all the important learning in the class. Your first unit will go into the rules of plagiarism in detail. The penalty for plagiarism depends upon the nature of the particular offense. If a major assignment is wholly or partially plagiarized, the student will receive a zero on the assignment and be turned in to the school administration for further action. Each school will have its own set of penalties, so you should check with your school if you want to know what will happen to you. In rare cases, plagiarism may be an honest error in documentation, in which case the student may receive deductions for improper citations. It is teacher discretion as to the appropriate action in each case. Quality Worker All research on online indication indicates that the most important quality a student must have to be successful is the ability to sustain active participation in the class. This means that the student checks in regularly and does all work thoroughly as designed when it is due. The student does not fall behind and need reminders from the teacher to keep up with the assignments. For that reason, you will get three Quality Worker grades during each semester. These grades reflect the degree to which the teacher feels you are participating actively in the class. Your teacher may ask you to write a personal reflection on this when these grades are due. Grading/Evaluation

 D2L averages all grades for this course  Assignments will generally be due by the end of the school day each Friday. Expect zeroes to be populated each week.

 Points will be deducted for late submission: 25% points will be deducted for work submitted between 1-7 days late; 50% points will be deducted for work submitted more than eight days late.

 The course contains self-checks and homework assignments; each homework assignment is worth 20 points and quizzes are worth 10 point each. Most quizzes can only be taken once. Quizzes will be set for certain times. Students must take the quiz on the dates set. All quizzes have a time limit. If a quiz has the multiple attempt options, the highest grade will be taken. Most quizzes will be password protected; passwords may be obtained through ACCESS facilitators at individual schools.

 Each unit contains a 50 point exam which can be taken only once. The course ends with a final exam worth 50 points. The activities must be manually graded by the teacher

 All assignments have a rubric given prior to students completing the assignment. Make sure all elements of the assignment are completed and review the rubric before starting the assignment and then again before submitting the assignment.

Class Time/On-line

Students are expected to log in everyday during assigned class time and to be on task when online.

Technology In online education, you must use available technology to communicate with your teacher. Converting Files to RTF If you hand in written work that will be read by your teacher, you must put the writing in a format that can be read by your teacher. In many cases, your teacher will have Microsoft Word, which is usually a part of MS Office. If so, you can hand in work in that program. You can also use a program called Open Office, a free program that works like MS Office. Don't make the mistake of confusing MS Office with MS Works. MS Works often comes free with a computer, and many students don't realize there is a difference. MS Word cannot read a MS Works file. If you do not have a file that is compatible with your teacher, you must convert your document to Rich Text Format (RTF). All programs can convert files to RTF, and all files can create RTF. When saving a document, click “file”, “save as” and then look to where you see “save as type.” From there, click the down arrow and find “rich text format” and then save. Email Etiquette Email etiquette does not just mean being polite. It describes important rules about using email so that you can communicate effectively. Communicate by email with your teacher and classmates as you would in a face-to-face class. Use proper grammar, proper capitalization, and polite terms. Oral Communication You will be asked to hand in some oral assignments. To do this, you will need a microphone and appropriate software. Communication

With an online course, it is imperative that students communicate frequently. Students are expected to communicate with the teacher primarily through ACCESS email. Students are expected to check their ACCESS email daily. Students may contact the teacher by phone occasionally. Please send a “phone conference” request through ACCESS email. Students will then be given a time and number for the conference.

Absences

It is the student’s responsibility to make up any work missed due to an absence. Students may work on assignments outside of the school day; however, quizzes must be taken during assigned class time. Please be diligent in making up assignments when absence. When possible (such as with school trips, events, etc.), please notify the teacher prior to an absence. Access Psychology Pacing Guide

*Guide dates are tentative.

Due Date TASKS

Week 1  Orientation

Week 2  Unit 1- History: Methods of Study 8/27-8/31  Discussion 1-1  Read section 1 content  Assignment 1-1  Read section 2 content  Discussion 1-2

Week 3  Assignment 1-2 9/03-9/07  Read section 3 content  Assignment 1-3  Read section 4 content

Week 4  Review for Unit 1 exam 9/10-9/14  Unit 1 exam  Unit 2- Biological Basis of Behavior  Read section 1 content  Discussion 2-1

Week 5  Assignment 2-1 9/17-9/21  Quiz 2-1  Read section 2 content  Discussion 2-2

Week 6  Assignment 2-2 9/24-9/28  Read section 3 content  Assignment 2-3  Discussion 2-3  Read section 4 content

Week 7  Read section 5 content 10/01-10/05  Read section 6 content  Review for Unit 2 Exam  Unit 2 Exam

Week 8  Unit 3- Learning and Memory 10/08-10/12  Read section 1 content  Discussion 3-1  Read section 2 content

Week 9  Discussion 3-2 10/15-10/19  Assignment 3-1  Read section 3 content  Assignment 3-2 Week  Read section 4 content 10/22-10/26  Read section 5 content  Assignment 3-3  Review for Unit 3 Exam

Week 11  Unit 3 Exam 10/29-11/02  Unit 4- development and Individual Differences  Read section 1 content  Discussion 4-1

Week 12  Discussion 4-2 11/05-11/09  Assignment 4-1  Read section 2 content  Assignment 4-2

Week 13  Discussion 4-3 11/11-11/16  Read section 3 content  Assignment 4-3  Read section 4 content  Assignment 4-4

Week 14  Read section 5 content 11/19-11/26  Discussion 4-4  Review for Unit 4 Exam  Unit 4 Exam

Week 15  Unit 5- Stress and Mental Illness 11/27-11/30  Read section 1 content  Discussion 5-1  Assignment 5-1  Read section 2 content  Discussion 5-2

Week 16  Assignment 5-2 12/03-12/07  Read section 3 content  Quiz 5-1  Discussion 5-3  Assignment 5-3

Week 17  Read section 4 content  Discussion 5-4 12/10-12/14  Unit 5 Exam  Review for your notes and lessons to study for Final Exam

Week 18  Final Exam 12/17-12/20