Your weekly reading journals should address the following three questions:

1. What does this week’s reading(s) illuminate about the CFS 134 topic of the week?
   Consider the key messages that were covered in the readings as it relates to the topic of the week (noted in the Course Schedule).
2. How has this week’s reading(s) deepened or changed your perspective on children or families? Consider how the readings challenged or altered your thinking about children or families, or what was particularly interesting or surprising to you in the readings.
3. What questions have been spurred for you as a result of this week’s reading(s)? Consider what the readings made you wonder, what you are curious to learn more about as a result of the readings, or what critiques or challenges you have of the author’s claims. You are encouraged to explain the origins of your questions as they relate to the readings, and/or to propose what you think or suspect.

Requirements

• Weekly Reading Journals should be submitted on time and BEFORE class zoom meetings.
• Minimum 300 word count
• Include your name, journal entry #, and topic of the week
• Entries should be in your own words and should reflect your independent reactions from the readings and should not reflect the idea of your peers or others.
• Responses to the three questions should be equal in length.
• Responses should clearly demonstrate that you read the entire assignment(s).
• Your responses should both address all three questions, but also demonstrate your depth of understanding.

Each student will provide a brief cultural write-up relating to his/her representative country (chosen for Making Acquaintances: Do’s and Don’ts): (20 points)

1. Historical background
2. Communication styles (language, both verbal and non-verbal)
3. Beliefs (religion, family, nature, etc.)
4. Society structure (gender equality, role of children, family, ethnic groups, leaders, government, political ideologies, hierarchies)

VERY IMPORTANT – your final score will greatly depend on this.

In the next sections, associations SHOULD be made with the value orientations addressed in the Values portion of this course:

• Human Nature (Universalism-Particularism, Good/Evil, High-Context/Low-Context, Uncertainty Avoidance)
• Relation to Nature (Subjugation, Harmony, Mastery, Inner-/Outer-Directed)
• Activity Orientation (Achievement/Ascription, Doing-Being-Being-Becoming)
• Human Relationships (Affectivity/Affective Neutrality, Instrumental/Expressive, Self (Individualistic)/Collective (Collateral)/Linear, Egalitarian/Hierarchical, Power Distance)
• Relation to Time (Past-Present-Future, Monochronic/Polychronic, Low-Context/High-Context

2. Each student will provide a list of ‘Reasons for Codes of Cultural Behavior’ for tourists visiting his/her representative country. This list will explain to tourists why it is important that they follow each of the Do’s and Don’ts (that you listed in your Making Acquaintances: Do’s and Don’t’s assignment), from the hosts’ cultural (values of the culture) perspective, and should include the following: (40 points)

Your initial discussion thread is due on Day 3 (Thursday) and you have until Day 7 (Monday) to respond to your classmates. Your grade will reflect both the quality of your initial post and the depth of your responses. Refer to the Discussion Forum Grading Rubric under the Settings icon above for guidance on how your discussion will be evaluated.

While standardized assessment provides valuable insight into a child’s academic strengths and needs, “in contrast, teacher-conducted classroom assessments allow the teacher to obtain more specific information about each student’s knowledge and skills relative to the instructional objectives of the class” (Wortham & Hardin, 2015, p. 111). As classroom assessments can be informal in nature, teachers have more choice in the strategies used. With more choice, it is important that teachers both understand their options, but also have a plan in place for how they will approach assessment in their classrooms. “By systematically observing children and using other appropriate strategies, educators create educational long-term and short-term plans centered around the interests and needs of individual children and groups, providing both scaffolding and challenges for future achievement” (p. 28). Not only is it important that you have a plan, but included in this plan should be how you will engage families in their child’s developmental progress. Remember, families provide a perspective of their child’s growth that is different from what we as educators might see. Therefore, families play an integral role in the assessment process. For this discussion, you will explore classroom assessment strategies and explain how your chosen strategies will meet the needs of Principle 4.1 of the Competent Educators of the 21st Century: Principles of Quality Pedagogy (Links to an external site.) (pages 28-31). You will also devise a plan for including families in the assessment process.