Q Assignment Objectives • In a short paragraph, summarize the most important points about growth mindset in Carol Dweck’s TED Talk, The Power of Believing You Can Improve. • In a second paragraph, using examples from your own experience and concepts from Dweck’s talk, explain whether you were encouraged to have a growth mindset or a fixed mindset when you were a kid. (You can focus on your home life, or school, or both.) In that second paragraph, you’ll also address how that childhood learning mindset has impacted your education or your work as an adult. In the concluding sentences, explain whether or not reading about Dweck’s ideas has changed anything about how you think about learning now. • Cite the Dweck talk in–text and on the References page using APA format. Details are below. Assignment Format • Standard heading in the top left corner of the first page (single-spaced): First and last name, class name, assignment name, date, draft # (Please do not include a separate title page.) • Centered above your two paragraphs, include an assignment title in title caps (This is the name you give your work to help readers understand what the content will be about. It’s not the name of the assignment, e.g. Application Paper #1. That goes in the heading. Also, your title should refer to both paragraphs at the same time, not just one or the other.) • Total length approximately 2 – 2.5 pages (excluding the heading, title, and References page). Going over by a few lines is fine, but you should not go over by more than ¼ of a page. Writing concisely is part of the challenge of this assignment. (Note: I won’t read or grade anything longer than 3 pages, so please don’t turn in anything that long.) • Double-spaced; 12-point Times New Roman font • Standard 1 inch margins; left-aligned Assignment Content (IMPORTANT: 2-paragraph limit) Summary paragraph (Paragraph #1) • Topic sentence/introductory sentence = General summary statement that identifies the name of the TED Talk, the speaker, the year the talk happened, and provides a big picture understanding of what the talk is about • Length = Approximately ½ - ¾ a page (not including the heading or assignment title) • Content = In your words, identify the most important content from Dweck’s talk. Keep in mind that you are writing for an audience that has not seen the TED Talk or read the transcript. Ask yourself what that audience needs to know about Dweck’s talk in order to understand the analysis of your own learning mindset in the second paragraph. That’s the information you should include in the summary. • Links/Transitions between one sentence and the next (and one idea and the next) • Concluding sentence(s) + transition to the second paragraph. This transition should tell the audience that the next paragraph will be about your experience with learning mindset. Application paragraph (Paragraph #2) • The topic sentence tells the reader what the rest of the paragraph will be about and should include 2 topics: o Topic #1: What sort of learning mindset (growth or fixed) you were encouraged to have as a kid/teen o Topic #2: What sort of impact that early learning mindset has had on your adult (18+) learning experiences either in higher education or work • The body of the paragraph should include: o One claim about your early learning mindset (Topic #1) o One claim about the impact of your early learning mindset on learning experiences as an adult (either in school or at work) (Topic #2) ? What’s a claim? A claim is a sentence the audience can reasonably disagree with and that introduces evidence -- in this case, the evidence is likely to be examples from your experience, e.g. One example of how you were encouraged to have a fixed mindset might be how your 3rd grade teacher rewarded the kids who got the right answer in class, but didn’t encourage kids to keep trying if they started by giving a wrong answer. She just moved on to the next kid if that happened. o You need a minimum of 2 pieces of evidence after each claim ? What’s evidence? Evidence is data, examples, and/or expert opinion that support(s) the claim. Again, here, the evidence is likely to come from your experience. o Sufficient explanation to make the claims and supporting evidence persuasive ? What’s explanation? Explanation provides any necessary context for understanding how the claims and evidence work together to create a persuasive argument. o Links/Transitions between one sentence and the next (and one idea and the next) o Concluding sentence(s) About the conclusion: o The conclusion is not a separate paragraph. It’s a few sentences at the end of your second paragraph. Use the conclusion to explore your current thinking about growth mindset and learning, now that you’ve read Dweck’s talk. For example, are you making any changes when talking to friends or family about learning? Are you changing the way you talk to yourself about taking on challenges? Or has nothing changed in light of Dweck’s talk? Either way, how do you explain these changes or lack thereof? o Please do not simply repeat or re-state your topic sentence position in the conclusion. The paper is quite short, so the reader will still remember what your topic sentence position was at the end of the paragraph. There is no need to repeat that same idea in the conclusion. APA format: References page & in-text citations • See the APA information I’ve posted on eLearning in Week Two. It explains what the in-text citation should look like in the summary paragraph, as well as what the reference citation should look like on the References page in Paper #1. • I referred to the GGU Business Library’s APA Citation Guide for the APA format guidelines you’ll see on eLearning. It’s important that we all use the same APA guidelines so that I’m looking at the exact same guidelines as you when I’m grading APA format. Let me know if you have any questions. • In addition to the topic sentence, include at least 2 uses of reporting language in the summary paragraph. Some examples of reporting language are: “According to,” “So-and-so writes,” “So-and-so reports,”... explains, maintains, argues, emphasizes, etc. See eLearning Week Two for a more comprehensive list of reporting language. • **Please note that we will not be using direct quotes this term. Paraphrasing is an important skill that requires a great deal of practice, so that’s what we’ll be working on. If quotes are permitted in other classes, the Library’s APA Guide explains the necessary format requirements for quotes quite well.