Student Responses about
Assignments
Aspects of writing assignments we discuss in our classes and faculty training program:
- Purpose of the assignment (Learning or Assessment)
- Amount of prior knowledge needed/assumed
- Roles of opinion and support
- Audience for the assignment
- Specificity of topic.
In English 376, the course that trains all peer tutors and Writing Fellows, we spend some time discussing how to work with faculty assignments. Inevitably, the class discussion turns to ways for teachers to improve their assignments. We share this information every year during a faculty luncheon.
To begin the discussion about good and bad assignments in class, I gave the students two prompts, "The best assignments…" or "The worst assignments…," and ten minutes to write anything they wished in response.
Excerpts from the student responses follow:
Writing to learn? Writing to assess?
Assignments which ask the student to analyze text merely to test whether the student actually read the material are the most disheartening assignments. . . .the result is lifeless, robotic composition devoid of thoughts, feelings, ingenuity, and personal voice.
Q of context for the assignment
[The best assignments] do not simply ask the writer to compare and contrast two things but give ideas as to [the] context [in which] the two things should be compared.
[A Mythology assignment asked me to] illustrate the Greek axiom "moderation in all things" in Euripides’ dramas. [This idea could] be applied to many classes. [I] liked it so much I used it again. . . . [this type of assignment] spans a time gap [of] Euripides to the present, still a valuable axiom.
For me, and many of my peers who have never been asked to think critically or analytically before, such a vague assignment is an absolute nightmare. We don’t know yet what counts as "a point worth making."
Most often, I prefer assignments given later in the course, so I can draw off my previous writing experience in the class.
Assignments that allow a write to express his/her opinion are often good "beginning" assignments because they get the student involved in the subject. While this cannot always achieve the level of analysis expected by the professor, it is a jumping-off point.
Specific or general topics?
The best assignments allow for a clear structure/format. They are not too vague or confusing but rather specific.
My favorite assignments are those I write myself. . . .I understand [that] Core teachers or professors of 100 and maybe 200 level course may feel uneasy letting students chose their own topics. In that case, I feel the best assignments are specific in terms of purpose, structure, and context of analysis.
The worst assignments are those that specify what exactly [sic] the professor wants to read in a thesis statement. These assignments become boring and feel like busy work.
The best assignments are the middle-ground ones. Those are the assignments that are halfway between being completely directionless and write-to-order assignments.
In general, the best assignments I’ve had have been very specific. They left room for my application and interpretation, but the questions that the professor wanted me to answer were made very clear….In my world religions class, we were asked to compare the four historical periods of Hinduism and decide whether or not we thought they were four different religions or only four evolutions of the same religion. Not only was I given ample background information in class and in the readings, I was allowed to express and prove my own opinion. . . .In general, assignments which allow the student to express an opinion and also make a comparison I have found to be the best.
The worst assignments sometimes ask a question/state a topic, and then are followed by numerous smaller questions. These additional questions are helpful if they inspire a good idea for the paper. Yet students often misuse these questions by trying to answer all of them and then arrive at a cookie-cutter answer.
Group Work
The worst assignments have to be those geared toward group work. I don’t think teachers quite understand the implications behind group assignments, especially for busy and overly involved UR students. One of my groups this year had to meet at 12 o’clock at night because it was the only time everyone could get together.