OBSERVATION TERM PAPER TIPS FROM UNIVERSITY PROFESSORS WE INTERVIEWED

My advice would be to first review what you observed and noted during your observations. My guess is that you had ample opportunity to observe many behaviors that relate to the chosen topic and your learning.

If you are writing an Observation Essay about learning, you need to keep in mind the following things: Differences in student maturation; gender differences; student conditioned responses (to teacher behaviors); preoperational thinking or concrete operational thinking; and student learning modalities.

The body of this Observation Paper should be composed of 4-6 paragraphs, I suggest--that connect observed behaviors, events, interactions, or learning contexts to the developmental and learning principles you have been studying. Warning: since essay writing involves mental activity-and is not actually observable, be clear about the events and behaviors you observed that led you to make the inference about some facet of thinking or mind. The key here is to "Tell them".

Next, the introductory paragraph of the Observation Paper should state in general terms the phenomena you observed and the ideas you will be connecting. ("Tell them what you are going to tell them.")

Your concluding paragraph should provide a general synthesis of what you have explained in the body paragraphs ("Tell them what you told them."), and it might also indicate how the experience influenced your learning or thinking about children, education, or schooling--a concluding thought you might call this.

It may seem odd, but I do recommend writing your intro and conclusion only after you are finished with the body paragraphs.

Review the format of your Observation Essay to see if it complies with proper referencing standards (I demand my students to use APA), prep you cover sheet, and voila, you are done.

All written work must be in a 12 point, readable font and spell-checked.

Writing is a critically important skill for successful students! Therefore, please carefully revise and edit any Observation Papers before submitting them to the facilitator. If Writing is not your strong suit, write, edit, edit, re-write, and then seek some assistance with your writing. Naming conventions for submitted files are outlined in the directions provided in Week-by-Week content.