"Reaction/Evaluation" papers: Due at the first class session of each month of the semester (Sept. 14, Oct. 5, Nov. 2) are brief commentaries--more or less, informed conversations--of no more than 1-2 pages (double-spaced, typewritten--simply staple pages, no covers or cover sheets). Each paper should focus on one topic and one or more readings or films from one week among the 3 to 4 weeks of the course preceding the due date for each of the three required papers. Present, clearly and to the point, your intellectual response to the topic and the reading and/or visual material related to it for the week you have chosen. You may offer constructive criticism, further ideas or reflections, questions, connections to other aspects of the course or other courses or your own experience. Do not make this task more difficult than it needs to be--it should not occupy a great deal of your time. Keeping up with reading and class work make this kind of writing much easierl

Group research/oral reports*:  On or about the third week of the semester, we will form--following your own choices--groups of 3 or 4 members. All groups will focus on one of the many significant aspects of growing up--childhood,
adolescence, youth--that attract attention today. These may range from day-care, latch-key children, child and family abuse, to teen suicide, adolescent pregnancy, one-parent families and single mothers, gifted youth, etc. There is no limit to the topics. In accordance with your own interests, you will join a group whose purpose is to research the topic historically, that is, to provide
necessary perspectives on today's discussions through longer-term views, comparisons, background, alternative formulations or viewpoints, etc. Each group will ask: what difference(s) does a historical perspective make? A moderate (but not excessive) amount of library research is expected; the instructor will provide bibliographic and other advice and some class time will be allocated for group work. During the final 3-4 weeks of the semester, each group will report orally (approx. 20 minutes) the results of its research and respond to questions from the class. A bibliography of sources, due at the time of the report, is the only written part of the assignment. [*the number and size of the groups depend in part on the size of the class.]

Essays: due at the end of the semester--at the time of last class session:  Nov. 30--are essays of approx. 10 pages double-spaced, typewritten, simply stapled--no covers or coversheets: with footnotes and bibliography as needed [prepared according to the style of your major]; written in non-sexist, gender neutral language). Papers may take one of two forms. Using one of the three collections of life histories available the bookstore (Growing Up Female; Growing Up Southern; The Life Stories of Undistinguished Americans; Coming of Age in America; Growing Up Latino), as your research material, you may writean essay on those aspects of the history of growing up that these first-person sources open to your reading, questions, and investigation. These may take the form of comparisons across time and space; change and/or continuity over time; comparisons across persons growing up at more or less than same historical moment, among a wide range of possible topics, issues, and questions. That choice is yours to make. You are expected to use the ideas, concepts, interpretations, approaches, methods, materials, etc., offered in the course (from readings, films, discussion, lectures) in making your own approach to and in discussing and interpreting the primary saurces collected in each of the three anthologies. Without them, your task would be much more difficult.

The second option is writing a history of growing up in your own family history. This will need the approval of the instructor. Such a project depends on the availability of research materials for your use (including oral history/interview material that you collect yourself) at least a part of which are written and saved. It also requires information on at least two or three generations ending with your own (if you wish). As with the other option, choice of topics, issues, questions, etc., is yours and you are expected to use course materials and ideas in developing the project.

Note:  1) plagiarism results in failure; 2) staple papers in the upper-left corner before turning them in. No folders or covers, no fancy cover sheets.  Indicate on the top of the first page your name and section; 3) please use non-sexist, gender-neutral language (in discussions and reports, too); 4) if you are using a dot-matrix printer, be sure the ribbon is relatively new and the print-out is legible; otherwise paper will not be read or evaluated; 5) should you require special assistance, in addition to the instructor (and teaching assistant), there is the university's writing lab and many reference and guide materials; 6) if you wish your paper to be returned at the end of the semester, please provide a stamped, self-addressed envelope when you turn in
your final essay.

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