Many people feel that there is room for improvement in the area of campaign finance spending. What is the current status of campaign finance reform? Is reform a realistic expectation of the American political process? What is the role of soft money? Should there be limits on independent campaign spending by corporations and labor unions? Why? Why not? Be specific. Provide concrete examples.Possible Site TripsFor detailed information about current campaign election laws and for the latest filings of campaign finance reports, go to http://www.fec.gov. This site has lots of good information.To find excellent reports on where campaign money comes from and how it is spent, be sure to view the site maintained by the Center for Responsive politics.Another excellent site for investigating voting records and campaign-finance information is that of Project VoteSmart.

Assignment 2: Short Descriptive Essay—Narrative and LiteracyInstructions In this assignment, you will demonstrate your knowledge of narrative theory, competencies, and literacy with reference to course readings. Choose at least one reading each for Units 4, 5, and 6, plus at least one other reading chosen from Units 1 to 3 that you did not discuss in Assignment 1. Apply narrative theory to explain some aspect(s) of narrative in texts written or produced for or by children. For instance, you might discuss story grammar, inference, and structure-based approaches, or assessment of narrative competencies, strategies, and behaviours that help people to process narrative across different media. This should be addressed in at least one third to one half of your paper. Then apply the theoretical concepts that you have chosen in exploring one of the following options, which you should specify in your title or in a subtitle. Option A: Printed Text Reading Program Using a framework for narrative competence for children from pre-school to the age of thirteen, outline and describe a library program involving reading stories in printed text (lasting a day, a week, a month, or more). Explain the program in terms of two or three of the texts that you have chosen and explain why you chose those texts. Do they match children’s reading interests and abilities, or do they challenge them? Which competencies do you think that the children will bring to, or develop in, the program? What cognitive and affective abilities are involved? What strategies and behaviours would you expect in narrative processing activities? Option B: Information Book Lesson Plan Using the criteria for judging information books outlined in the course readings, consider three information books on one topic that include visual images for children. Write a background rationale for your choice of one or two of these books as resources for a lesson plan. Comment on the complex relationship between words and pictures. How well do the books incorporate narrative to inform children? What static visual components and narrative strategies are involved, and what methodologies would you use to analyze them? How and why would these books be suitable to use to develop narrative competencies and/or cognitive and affective abilities? What strategies and behaviours would you expect in narrative processing activities?