Papers that have not been picked up by the end of the semester will be disposed of one year after the last day of class. Your first weekly assignment will be the development of a learning contract between you, the class, and your agency. Subsequent weekly assignments will typically be a short description and analysis of your agency experiences. Each week you will be asked to briefly describe that week's experience, to reflect on what you learned in that week, and the sociological aspects of your work. Some weeks there will be requests to address specific sociological questions related to your experience.
Weekly assignments are typically less than one page in length.
Grading will be based on the thoroughness of the reflection and the ability to apply a sociological understanding to your experience. All papers are 3-5 pages in length, each will be explained in more detail on the class web page and during classroom exercises. Unusual might mean that some conflict occurred, that something happened which surprised you or didn't fit in with your usual perception of activities at the organization, or that the interaction brought up some difficult emotions for you. In the paper you will be asked to described the types of interaction, how the ordinary versus unusual interactions differed in terms of the language used and the emotions expressed, and why this situation had an effect upon you. This paper is very similar to the 'critical incident' paper described in Stanton.