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The start of a new "semester"

I hate to call what we are doing a semester since it is only a month long, but WOW the workload is a semester's worth.  This month I am taking an educational psychology course along with an elementary literacy course that focuses on assessments as well as teaching.  Both are very interesting so I can say at least while I'm being overwhelmed with a lot of work, it isn't boring work!  The biggest difference I'm seeing with this month's workload versus last month's work load is the amount of papers I have to write.  There are an ENORMOUS amount of papers. 

One of my paper's that I must write this first week focuses on Piaget;s theories of cognitive development.  I've found a little YouTube video that discusses what they are so you can get an idea of what I'm learning about at this stage in the program.


I missed the first psychology in class lecture due to my daughter having to go to the hospital, and now I am feeling like I'm flying blind on my work.  The syllabus tells me what the topic each paper has to be on, but it does not tell me when it is due, or the requirements of the paper.  I guess I'm looking for a rubric!  I need to know if I should be persuasive, informative, length of the paper, and even though I've already said it, the due date is just as important!  I'm going to try and email the professor again to see if I can get those questions answered.

My question for you today is when you are writing a paper or doing any assignment, what kind of information do you find helpful to have to complete your task?  I ask this because as a teacher I want to be sure that I don't leave any room for discussion on my assignments.
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