Four-Year Plan: Intro to Psychological Studies
Due March 8 (worth 20 points) | Dr. Sherri Lantinga | Dordt College | Spring 2010
Purpose & Overview: This assignment helps you plan your academic, work, and volunteer activities from now until graduation. These are commonly called "four-year plans," but if you will graduate in (for example) three semesters, then you only need to include those three semesters. You may have done a basic plan like this for Core 100, which you can use again as the basis for this assignment. (NOTE: for students with 0-1 semesters until graduation, please see this alternative One-Year Post-Graduation Plan assignment).
Writing
Your Plan:
(1) Background Reading:
Review the Psychology Advising Handbook for more information about psychology courses, faculty members, policies, etc.
Review Dordt's Catalog, for your major/minor requirements, Core program requirements, elective options, etc.
Review three sample plans here (note that previous semesters' requirements were slightly different so yours won't be exactly like these).
(2) Creating Your Plan
Table: Create a table with columns (or rows) for every fall, spring, summer until you graduate
Contextual information (top of page):
Indicate your name, the current date, and your current major (along with any emphases, minors, or pre-professional programs).
List the course requirements for your major; boldface the courses you've already completed or are currently taking.
List the course requirements for your minor(s); boldface the courses you've already completed or are currently taking.
Filling in courses: In the table, list when you plan to take the following types of courses; make sure you double-check when courses are offered (spring, fall odd, etc.) and for course pre-requisites.
Courses for your major (and any emphases, minors or pre-professional programs)
Core program courses
Electives (you can list possible options)
Filling in work, volunteer, and co-curricular information: After listing your courses, indicate the jobs or volunteer opportunities you'll have, field experiences/internships, an off-campus semester (e.g., Chicago Semester, SPICE), or co-curricular activities (e.g., theatre, choir, volleyball).
Other information: include other professional planning information such your target GPA for each semester, graduate school tests or researching graduate schools, PLIA/AMOR or other service projects, etc.
Narrative Reflection:
On a separate page, identify specific skills, knowledge, experiences, or relationships that you would like to develop and indicate specific activities you could pursue for doing so (e.g., summer or work-study jobs, becoming an RA, a communication course, etc.).
Also reflect on what you learned from doing this assignment. Some sample thoughts: what in your plans will be the hardest to accomplish? Do you have more (less?) time than you thought? Could you pick up a minor in another field? What parts of your plans are flexible? To what extent are you interested in pursuing an off-campus semester?
Attach an APA-style title page to your plan and narrative.
Evaluation: Your plan and narrative, worth 20 points, will be evaluated using this rubric.
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Evaluation Criteria |
Excellent |
Satisfactory |
Unsatisfactory |
|
Course plans |
Accurate and comprehensive course plan (major, Core, electives) |
Course plan has significant number of errors; omits curricular elements (Core, electives) |
|
|
Other planning |
Includes appropriate and comprehensive plans for internships, co-curricular or off-campus activities and other professional planning |
Plans focus only on courses; plans are not appropriate |
|
|
Narrative reflection |
Capably and appropriately identifies specific activities for improvement of skills, knowledge, experiences & relationships; demonstrates self-reflective ability |
Narrative is missing; difficulty identifying relevant or specific activities or doesn't show how activities would develop skills, knowledge, experiences, or relationships; self-reflection is missing or superficial |
|
|
Writing style |
Succinct, clear, and vigorous writing; sentences are grammatically sound and meaning is clear; word choice is appropriate; punctuation and spelling are virtually perfect |
|
Writing is vague, wordy, or informal; number of grammatical errors and other problems impede clarity of meaning |
|
Contextual & Format Requirements |
Contextual information is clear (major, date, etc.) and correct; perfect APA style title page |
Contextual information is missing or incorrect; title page is missing or has significant number of APA format errors |
| IPS 202 Homepage | IPS Syllabus |