Chapter 4. Creating Assignments
In this chapter, we suggest how to begin creating meaningful assignments that are integrated with the goals of the course. We then offer a number of assignments that you can adapt to your specific teaching context.
Chapter Outline
Flexibility in Your Course
Site Visit Report or Reflection
Things to Consider
It takes a fair amount of time, trial and error, and reflection to design assignments that allow you to meet your goal as an instructor while effectively facilitating your students’ growth within the context of the course. Students may be most used to experiencing assignments as vehicles for assessment, which may generate some anxiety and pressure. There are moments where assignments are indeed necessarily intended for assessment in a course; we call these assignments “high stakes.” But not all assignments should be high stakes; indeed, most should not be. The pressure that accompanies these experiences can be an impediment to learning. “Low stakes” assignments emphasize process over product, welcome error as a necessary component of learning, and are designed in ways to make learning processes visible. This visibility is important data for students and teachers alike; it lets us know the limits of our understanding, and often provides a road map for how to improve student comprehension. When creating an assignment, think about its purpose and how it is connected to the broader work of the course.
“Clarity” and “scope” are two critical components of the assignment-design process which should be forefront in your mind as you’re planning.
Clarity
When creating assignments it is important that you are direct and clear with your students about your expectations. Use language that’s accessible and familiar. Be direct about constraints, timelines, benchmarks, process, and support that will be available throughout the course of the assignment. Articulate to students how the assignment fits in with the goals of the course, and help them understand why it is structured as it is and how it connects to other learning experiences. Be clear about what flexibility students have within the constraints you’ve laid down, and, if their flexibility is limited, why it is so. It is crucial that students understand how their work will be assessed, evaluated, and responded to.
Scope
Think through the amount of work required in order to meet the expectations of an assignment, and ensure that it is appropriate for the role the assignment will play within the course. Higher stakes assignments likely take weeks to complete, and require more detailed scaffolding and support, whereas lower stakes assignments may be shorter with less expectations that they’ll be polished. Constraints are important here, as they can help students focus more specifically on the elements of the assignment that are intended to help them grow. Asking students to “write a five-page paper on African American poetry from the 1960s” is much more difficult than asking them to compare the work of two African American poets from the 1960s that the class has already engaged, or to interpret three poems from a list that you’ve provided.
Here are some additional questions you might ask yourself when planning assignments and activities:
- How will your assignments promote student learning? How will they connect to the learning goals of your course?
- Will your assignments provide lower-stakes scaffolding for work that builds towards a higher-stakes culminating assignment or project?
- Will you vary the types of assignments you’ll require? If so, how will you decide what to assign and when?
- If you’re breaking your course into modules or units, might it be beneficial to think about assignments in terms of micro (unit-specific) goals, and macro ones that ask students to make connections across units?
- How will you represent these assignments on your course syllabus? One option is to include a three-column table that lists, in the first column, the date; in the second column, the reading due; and, in the third column, assignments due. Another option is to include a table or list of key due dates on your syllabus. Since you want your syllabus to be a manageable document, consider passing out or posting assignment-specific instructions in a separate document.
As you design assignments, keep in mind how you’ll calculate grades:
- What percentage of the course grade do you want the major assignments (exams, papers, projects, etc.) to be?
- How will you balance those with other coursework such as homework, participation, presentations, attendance, etc.?
Think, too, about your assignment return process:
- Are you planning on returning papers the next time you meet?
- If so, does it help if you have the weekend to grade? Or do you want to avoid weekend grading?
- Do the students need feedback on the assignment before completing the next homework?
For more about grading and assessment methods, see the chapter on “Grading and Evaluating Student Work” in this handbook.
Scaffolding
In assignment design, scaffolding refers to a process where assignments begin with a series of low-stakes exercises which build up to a final, larger assignment. Scaffolding allows you to break down the component parts of a skill or assignment and to offer students the opportunity to check in and receive feedback at each juncture. In this way, scaffolding is both a planning and learning tool and follows a similar process to backwards design to consider what a student needs to know in order to complete a task or assignment. For many students, especially those who are not familiar with what goes into larger academic assignments, it is very important to make potential structures and processes for completing larger projects more visible. Modeling that building academic work is an iterative process can help students tackle more complex projects later on in their careers.Sequencing large assignments into manageable building blocks also opens up the learning process for both instructor and student. You might begin with ideation or brainstorming by asking students to create mind maps, identify a few sources, or create an outline and bibliography to build toward the ultimate assignment. Asking students to share drafts with their peers and instructor, give and respond to feedback, and revise and refine their work lets them reflect on their own process of knowledge making. It’s through this kind of meta-cognitive (thinking explicitly about how one learns/thinks) activity that students become conscious of how they learn, and more likely to discover what forms of support they require to learn most effectively. A simple way to encourage meta-cognition is to ask students to submit a short note along with an assignment in which they describe how it went. Such self-assessments will also help you respond more constructively to student work. When you know students were struggling to formulate their argument or synthesize material, or were happy about their improvements in clarity and style, you can focus your own comments accordingly.
Examples of Scaffolded Assignments for Various Disciplines
Scaffolded Writing Assignments (Multidisciplinary)
Flexibility in Your Course
“Effective teachers are not so devoted to their practice that they ignore the students in front of them.” - Leila Christenbury, “The Flexible Teacher.”
No matter how much teaching experience you have, you will never be able to predict with complete accuracy how your students will best learn in your course, because different students have different needs and learn in different ways. By approaching your course and teaching with a willingness to adapt, you can be more responsive to your students’ needs, as well as your own.
Being flexible does not mean not planning or preparing for class, changing plans on a whim, or doing whatever your students ask you to do. Instead, we suggest an approach that embraces flexibility within structure. Decide which elements of your course are non-negotiable, based on what you want your students to get out of the course and what your personal and professional boundaries and limitations are (such as how much time you’re able to spend grading, or how much mental bandwidth you have for class planning). Then, craft an overarching structure for your course. Stick by your non-negotiables, and then enable student choice by offering students a limited number of options within a particular framework. In this way, you empower students to take agency over elements of their learning, encourage productive metacognition (thinking about how they think), and validate that their individual needs and interests matter. At the same time, providing flexibility within your established structure ensures that students accomplish your non-negotiable goals for the course, and abide by your personal and professional boundaries and limits.
Specific examples of where and how you might practice flexibility within structure include:
- Learning Goals: In addition to the learning goals that are important to you and/or required by your department, consider doing an activity early in the semester in which students devise their own learning goals individually, in groups, and/or as a whole class. Then, include these on the syllabus, and build in elements throughout your course that accomplish these goals.
- Lesson Structure: Sometimes it can be a good idea to approach a particular lesson with a firm idea of the goal/s of that lesson, but with different options and tools prepared for how to achieve those goals. For example, if you expected to cover topic B today but discover that students are still struggling with topic A from last class, consider integrating more opportunities for them to engage with topic A in today’s lesson, using different tools than you used last class. If you find that students are very interested in topic A, find meaningful ways to connect topic A to topic B, or create opportunities for students to pursue issues related to topic A while still accomplishing the day’s goals.
- Deadlines: Strict deadlines are a major cause of anxiety among students, and there is little research to show that students learn better or are better prepared for the “real world” when subjected to them. Consider incorporating flexible deadlines into your course. You might implement “makeup days”: one or more days throughout the course when students may submit some or all late work with no penalty and no excuse needed. Or you might implement “late days”: give students a certain number of late days they can use at any point in the semester, with no penalty and no excuse needed. Or, you might implement “soft” (suggested) and “hard” (definitive) deadlines for some or all assignments. We encourage you to consider adopting a flexible deadline policy that does not ask students to provide excuses, and that offers students the chance to turn in some or all work late without penalty.
Related resources:
- Advice for managing late work that minimizes overwhelm and maximizes compassion for students
- Course policies section introduces the “Late Days” concept, which allows students breathing room with specific assignments within a fair and clear set of guidelines
- Outlines different ways to approach deadlines with compassion that emphasizes equity and student collaboration
- Reflection questions, considerations, and possible pathways for handling late work with pre-college students that is both compassionate and prepares them to take accountability for themselves
- Assignments & Assessments: There are many ways you can be flexible and provide choices in your assignments and assessments. Here are some examples:
- Use a “total points” grading structure with points that exceed 100%, so students can choose which assignments/assessments to do
- Assign students select “core” assignments, to be supplemented with additional assignments that they choose from a list
- Provide options for assignment formats, such as essay, podcast, or presentation
- Allow students to choose assignment topics from a list or within certain parameters
- Allow students to choose which or how many assignments to do, such as two smaller assignments or one larger one
- Offer multiple types of questions on assessments, such as multiple choice or short answer, and ask students to choose a certain number to complete, allowing them to choose the types of questions they prefer.
- Participation: Provide multiple diverse ways for students to participate in your course, including online and offline, synchronous and asynchronous options. For example, students might speak up in class, post to a Slack or Discord channel, or be active on a discussion board. Consider each of these acts participation.
- Class Schedule: Schedule your classes such that what you cover and when depends on what the students need at the moment. For example, leave one or more days for catch-up or review as needed; switch the order of lessons or delete content depending on what students need more or less time on; take instant polls to survey students when they would rather take that quiz, cover that topic, or do that reading; choose or swap content based on student interests or needs. Leave blank or flexible spaces in your class schedule at the beginning of the semester, and provide an updated schedule later in the semester. Always provide plenty of notice to students that changes to the schedule have been made, refrain from making a plethora of changes as this can cause anxiety and uncertainty among students, and avoid making changes that end up giving students more work, or less time to complete their work.
- Attendance: See “Cours Policies” section in Chapter 3 about Attendance, which includes suggestions on flexibility.
- Grading: For example, you might drop the lowest grade/s of a particular assignment/assessment type, or of multiple types (e.g. students take five quizzes but only the highest four grades count). Or, you might give students the opportunity to choose how different assignment types are weighed in their final grade, from a range of options (for example, see “A Model of Flexible Grading” document available here).
Assignment Ideas
Below, we have included some assignment and project ideas that can be scaffolded, aligned with common learning outcomes and skills, and adapted across disciplines. Each category includes a brief description of the assignment, skills that can be developed and assessed through the assignment, and some tips and notes.
This list is not exhaustive or prescriptive. Rather, these examples represent the various types of activities that you may ask your students to undertake and are intended to generate creative thinking and adaptation. You can find more examples of Section IV: Resources, but these are some of the most universal and easily adaptable.
Review of the Literature
Description: A literature review is a scholarly paper focused on synthesizing current knowledge and major contributions to the area of research that students are interested in pursuing. This is a useful method of enabling students to become more familiar with scholarship on a particular topic. If assigned as part of a larger research project, completing a literature review also provides students with the opportunity to contextualize their research interests and ideas, and/or refine their research questions. This assignment works very well across the disciplines, and can function as a precursor to a research project or as a stand-alone assignment.
- Learning Outcomes: Intermediate-to-Advanced Research Skills
- Collect and analyze literature and data to address a research question.
- Identify relevant sources needed and required for the research project.
- Critical Thinking/Analysis Skills:
- Evaluate claims and arguments in a text.
- Draw connections between and contextualize a series of texts.
- Persuasive Writing Skills:
- Construct a clear and cohesive rationale for a research project through writing.
- Integrate elements from secondary sources into your narrative.
Site Visit Report or Reflection
Description: A site visit is a great opportunity for students to connect theory to practice. This is especially powerful in a discipline that is preparing students to become practitioners in their respective fields. You should consider pre-selecting a list of sites where students may visit, and think through ways in which the site can provide opportunity for students to reflect on or develop an awareness of praxis.
The site visit can be conceived as a place-based learning assignment. Guidelines for the report or reflection can function as a means of facilitating how you want the students to engage and interact with the space. It could be beneficial to include a set of questions or prompts for guidance.
- Learning Outcomes: Intermediate-Advanced Research Skills
- Connect theory to practice or real-world applications, and make sense of an experience within a larger framework.
- Critical/Analytical Thinking Skills:
- Test, challenge, and/or problematize theory by examining how it works in practice.
- Narrative Writing:
- Construct a clear and cohesive narrative.
- Employ writing to reflect on theory and practice.
Notes:
You may consider asking the students to take photographs or record audio if and when it is appropriate and permitted, and integrate visual media into a final report or reflection on a digital platform.
While this assignment can work well as a group visit, be mindful that off site visits can be difficult to schedule with a large group of students. It is important to be mindful of student’s schedules and accessibility issues when designing this assignment.
Case Study Report
Description: Invite students to identify a relevant site for doing research, and then use an appropriate methodology to gather data from that site. Ask students to engage with theories presented in class to contextualize their findings. Alternatively, you can provide students with published case studies and ask them to analyze these case studies using disciplinary criteria. In this version you can focus on evaluating and critiquing the methodology and/or findings of the case study.
- Learning Outcomes: Intermediate-Advanced Research Skills
- Analyze and evaluate research tools and methodologies.
- Read and interpret scientific measuring instruments and research findings.
- Design a method of collecting data from the site.
- Critical Thinking/Analytical Skills:
- Identify connections between theory and practice.
- Evaluate best practices for data collection.
- Examine and critique research findings based on a disciplinary standard or course criteria.
- Weigh the validity of claims based on a careful analysis of how evidence is used and claims are supported.
- Close/Critical Reading:
- Conduct a thoughtful analysis of the text, and evaluate the argumentation and claim presented.
Notes:
This assignment is suitable for a midterm or final assignment as a vehicle to assess students’ comprehension of research methodologies and analytical skills. It is an opportunity for students to practice evaluating how theory fits into real-world applications. Students can also practice using disciplinary language as they engage with doing or analyzing a case study. Alternatively, this assignment can work as a low-stakes in-class group activity if they are using preexisting case studies. Consider modelling a case study with the students before asking them to undertake this assignment.
Interview
Description: Conducting an interview provides students with opportunities to engage in collecting their own primary source data. Depending on the needs of the course, you can couch this assignment within a larger research project that invites students to contribute primary source data. It can also work as a stand-alone exercise. You may ask the students to present their interview findings in the form of an edited video, as part of a research project or a short essay.
- Learning Outcomes: Intermediate-Advanced Research Skills
- Design a basic interview protocol.
- Conduct an interview using appropriate methodology.
- Record and report findings in an appropriate format.
- Descriptive or Narrative Writing Skills
- Construct appropriate interview questions.
- Describe the process of gathering data in a written format.
- Communicate research findings in a clear and descriptive written narrative.
- Oral Communication Skills
- Effectively pose interview questions.
Notes:
This assignment provides an opportunity for students to make original contributions to a research project. By asking them to step outside of the class and draw on resources around them, this assignment empowers students to engage in knowledge construction. Consider coupling this with a site visit or case study if you want to guide students through a project.
Survey
Description: Designing and implementing a survey is an effective exercise to engage students in quantitative research methods and enable them to grapple with the process of data collection. Students can gather data by using a range of free online tools, and can work individually, in pairs, or in small groups. Findings can be integrated into a larger research project, or as a stand-alone presentation or report.
- Learning Outcomes: Intermediate-Advanced Research Skills
- Design a basic survey.
- Record, report and cite findings in an appropriate format.
- Collaboration Skills:
- Communicate and coordinate with peers (either in person or virtually) towards a common goal.
- Digital Literacy Skills:
- Engage digital technology to collect data.
- Writing Skills:
- Construct clear, concise and appropriate questions.
Notes:
Creating and implementing a survey does not have to be complicated or grand in scope, and students do not necessarily have to become trained survey designers. Rather, this assignment can function as a rich opportunity for students to make decisions about data collection. There are a number of easy and free digital survey tools that students can use to create and implement their survey.
Speakback/Feedback
Description: This reading assignment provides the conditions for students to engage and interact with texts closely. For the speakback/feedback paper, ask students to respond to a written piece with critical comments, questions, and ideas. They can do this on the margins of a text or as a separate document. You may consider integrating an annotation tool if you want students to do the work digitally. This assignment also works well for gathering student responses to instructor feedback. You can ask students to write a response to your feedback, with an emphasis on how they will develop their work by integrating the feedback.
- Learning Outcomes: Beginner-Intermediate Research Skills
- Close/Critical Reading Skills:
- Conduct a thoughtful analysis of a text by evaluating the argumentation, claims, and/or use of evidence presented.
- Critical/Analytical Thinking:
- Formulate responses to an argument.
- Weigh the validity of claims based on a careful analysis of how evidence is used and claims are supported.
Notes:
The speakback/feedback assignment provides an excellent low-stakes opportunity to use an online reading tool and for students to digitally interact with a text together or individually. There are a number of annotation tools that can facilitate this process. It is also an effective way to ask students to engage with your feedback on their work. By asking them to write a short paper on how they might incorporate your suggestions, it enables them to consider the feedback critically and to draw up a plan of action for the next draft or phase of their larger assignment.
Finally, you might explore the Teaching and Learning Center’s Assignment Library, which features assignments designed by fellow Graduate Center students that have been shared and openly-licensed. Many of these assignments move beyond the canon to include marginalized knowledges, leverage the resources and opportunities of teaching in New York City, and incorporate current events to connect course content to wider publics.
Activity: For an interactive guide to walk you through creating activities, click on the following green box. |