CREATING EFFECTIVE ASSIGNMENT SHEETS

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1 CREATING EFFECTIVE ASSIGNMENT SHEETS Assignment not only tell the students what they are expected to write about, they define (taken as a group) the emphases and structure of the course, an signal some of the values held by the teacher. So the instructions should be as thoughtfully prepared and as precisely xpressed as possible. A poor assignment, or a potentially good assignment poorly described, is always an invitation to weak papers from students ~Larson & Lehman (109) The most common problem with student papers is confusion created by lack of written assignment [sheet]. This confusion leads to problems that appear to be the student s lack of ability: lack of focus, disorganization, inconsistent usage of terms, misassumptions about how much the reader needs to know, sloppy formatting, awkward sentence structure, etc. Besides merely confusing and thus hurting the student, non-written or vaguely-written assignments mean that teacher get no reliable information about their students actual abilities or needs. ~Thais (43) Problems/Questions Students Encounter with Assignment Sheets What kind of paper does the professor want? What content should be in the paper? How long should the paper be? If there are sections, how long should each be? Do I need sources? If so, what kind? Can I use the Internet for sources? Is there a specific font size, writing style, or format? How will this paper be graded? How will it affect my grade in the course? Do I need to submit any preliminary writing, such as rough drafts? The Need for Written Assignment Sheets Gives students a written document that can be referred to while researching and writing. Shows the relationship between the course goals and course work Aids instruction and helps to improve quality and consistency in student papers Aids in reducing corrective feedback Planning Your Prompt 1. Is the task the student must accomplish clearly defined? 2. Have you a clear idea about what a desirable response to the assignment might look like? 3. If appropriate, are the students given a clear idea of what steps or cognitive/conceptual activities they will need to undertake in writing the paper? 4. Is it clear why students are asked to write this paper that is, is it clear how the writing is related to the overall plan for the course? 5. Is the assignment likely to be of interest to the students and lead to some conclusions about the subject that the students did not have before doing the assignment? 6. Does the assignment help the students envisage a credible writing situation an honest purpose and an interested, responsive audience? (Larson & Lehman) 1

2 HOW TO SUCCESSFULLY INTEGRATE NEW & IMPROVED ASSIGNMENTS A. Include the Principle Elements of Effective Assignment Sheets 1. Relate the assignment to course learning outcomes 2. Construct assignments that require original thinking about significant issues 3. Identify the task what the students are to write about 4. Leave some room for student choice 5. Specify a purpose and audience for writing 6. Specify the format of the paper 7. Specify evaluation criteria 8. Specify the required or expected writing process or drafting stages B. Align the Assignment with Course Outcomes: By referencing the learning outcomes for the course on the assignment sheet, you will encourage students to enlarge their perspective of the assignment s purpose. This also provides consistency between the stated and actualized goals of the course. C. Show Sample Assignments: This is instruction by example. Make sure you provide students with sample essays to demonstrate anticipated outcomes of the assignment. Even if you have to generate your own rough sample, make sure students read and understand what the assignment looks like completed. D. Provide Students with a Rubric: You can also discuss how this rubric will apply to the particular assignment they are working on. They may even find it useful to practice with the rubric as an instrument for evaluating the sample essay you provide. Other things to consider: Writing assignments are designed to enable students to demonstrate what they think, how they think, and why they think as they do about what they are learning. Writing prompts should empower students as writers. A generic purpose ( tell me what you know ) addressed to generic audience (the professor, the class) will yield a generic response. Define the tasks expected for a satisfactory response (i.e., define, compare, explain, analyze, etc.). Locate the prompt within a context. Suggest what the writer needs to do in the pre-drafting, drafting, and revising stages of writing. This helps demystify the writing process. Structure the prompt within the context of the course. In other words, the prompt should be a natural outcome of the reading, discussion, and happenings within the course. Provide the writer a varied opportunity. This allows for less-confident writers to work towards a successful response, while engaging the more confident writers in a challenge. Give specific information about length, deadlines, stylesheet expectations, and evaluation. Update and revise writing assignments to suit the needs of the specific class. If a prompt does not elicit the anticipated response, revision is certainly in order. 2

3 COMPONENTS OF EFFECTIVE ASSIGNMENT SHEETS Assignment sheets serve a very important purpose not only for your students, but also for you as an instructor and for Writing Center personnel. In order to be effective, assignment sheets should, ideally, include each of the following elements: INSTRUCTOR S NAME, CLASS SECTION, NUMBER, AND THE DATE These items are helpful to your students and to members of the Writing Center. ASSIGNMENT TITLE Providing a title that corresponds to the assignment helps students remain focused as they write, aids in your organization of materials, and provides Writing Center mentors with immediate access to the nature of the assignment itself. GREETING Including a welcoming statement on each assignment helps students feel more relaxed about the assignment as well as the pending evaluation. Some students tend to have negative views about writing and are often intimidated by college-level composition assignments. Therefore, anything that can be done to make them feel more at ease will result in better communication between you and your students. Enhanced communication should also result, ultimately, in better drafts. REVIEW OF PREPARATION FOR THE ASSIGNMENT One of the most difficult challenges that you ll face during the semester is getting your students to see the importance of the work they are doing. By taking the time near the beginning of your assignment sheet to point out how the preliminary reading and writing assignments, as well as class discussions, have served as prefaces for the assignment at hand, you can achieve a greater level of motivation and understanding among your students. ASSIGNMENT You should do your best to provide your students with an in-depth, one-page description of the assignment task itself, while paying particular attention to a detailed description of the projected audience for the essay, as well as the purpose for composing it, making explicit references to the course objectives. Due dates for required prewriting, the rough draft, and the final draft, as well as formatting requirements, such as font size, margin width, length of the actual essay, etc., are also worth mentioning. STIPULATIONS You should be sure to inform your students in writing of any limitations you are placing on the assignment (e.g., do not write about anything you do not feel comfortable discussing with your peers, choose issues that will be of interest to your readers, avoid overused topics, etc.) PROBLEM AREAS It is extremely helpful to notify students of common problem areas/pitfalls that are inherent in specific writing assignments (e.g., students often have difficulty in deciding 3

4 where to incorporate synopsis material and how much to include. Many times, informing student of suspected problem areas will help them avoid or minimize these problems. WHERE TO GO FOR HELP You should remind your students of where they can go for assistance at any stage of the writing process. Providing phone numbers, your office hours, mandatory conference times, and Writing Center and library information can cut the time spent searching for these details. OTHER MATERIALS All writing assignments should also be accompanied by an evaluative rubric (specific to the assignment) and at least one sample of writing based on the essay assignment. CONCLUSION By concluding assignment sheets with a congenial closing you can once again touch base on a more human level with students. As with the greeting, the conclusion can help put students at ease as they consider and begin fulfilling assignment requirements. 4

5 A. Choose the appropriate term TERMS TO USE IN ASSIGNMENT SHEETS Bloom s Ranking of Thinking Skills Knowledge Comprehension Application Analysis Synthesis Evaluation List Summarize Solve Analyze Design Evaluate Name Explain Illustrate Organize Hypothesize Choose Identify Interpret Calculate Deduce Support Estimate Show Describe Use Contrast Schematize Judge Define Compare Interpret Compare Write Defend Recognize Paraphrase Relate Distinguish Report Criticize Recall Differentiate Manipulate Discuss Justify State Demonstrate Apply Plan Visualize Classify Modify Devise Note that in designing writing assignments, it is probably not a good idea to think of Bloom s succeeding levels of complexity as a sequence of objectives. Although evaluating may be more complex than the act of recalling... Students just embarking in a new discipline ought to be encouraged to practice the full array of higher-order thinking skills even while their subjectmatter is fairly limited. B. Define the term Assignment key words from East Tennessee State University Analyze: Break something down into its parts, for example, a theory into its components, a process into its stages, an event into its causes. Analysis involves characterizing the whole, identifying the parts and showing how the parts relate to each other to make the whole. Assess/Criticize/Evaluate: Determine the importance or value of something. Assessing requires you to develop clearly stated criteria of judgment and to comment on the elements that meet or fail to meet those criteria. Classify: Sort something into main categories and thereby pigeonhole its parts. Define/Identify: Give the special characteristics by which a concept, thing, event, can be recognized, that is, what it is and what it is not. Place it in its general class and then differentiate it from other members of that class. Describe: Give an account of and present that characteristics by which an object, action, person, or concept can be recognized or an event or process can be visualized. Discuss/Examine: You are given room to analyze, and/or evaluate a particular topic. You must decide on your own question concerning the things to be discussed. Instructors usually expect you to go beyond summary. 5

6 Explain/Justify: Make clear the reasons for, or the basic principles of something; make it intelligible. Explanation may involve relating the unfamiliar to the more familiar. List/Enumerate: Give essential points one by one in a logical order. Interpret/Explain: Write about what the author of a quotation means (not what you mean). Illustrate: Use a concrete example to explain or clarify the essential attributes of a problem or concept. Outline/Trace/Review/State: Organize a description under the main points, omitting minor details and stressing the classification of the elements of the problem or the main points in the development of an event or issue. Prove/Validate: Establish that something is true by citing factual evidence or giving clear, logical reasons for believing the truth of something. Source: Kevin O Donnell, Coordinator (odonnell@etsu.edu) East Tennessee State Univ., Johnson City, TN Some materials adapted from a presentation by Cheryl Hoy at Bowling Green State University on September 20, 2002 and from Truman State University Writing Center documents. Further reading: University of Maryland University College. Effective Writing Program October Other Works Consulted Bean, John C. Engaging Ideas: The Professor Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, (83-84). Larson, Richard L. & Herbert H. Lehman. Making Assignments, Judging Writing, and Annotating Papers: Some Suggestions. Training the New Teacher of College Composition. Ed. Charles W. Bridges. Urbana, IL: NCTE, Soven, Margot. Write to Learn: A Guide to WAC. Cincinnati, OH: South Western College, (4-6). Thaiss, Christopher. The Harcourt Brace Guide to Writing Across the Curriculum. Fort Worth: Harcourt,