Assignments and Assessments

Assignments begin with a connection to the goals/outcomes of the course. Consider what you want students to be able to do after completing the assignment can help you focus on the various tasks, processes, and outputs you are hoping students engage in. This process is called backwards design. For those teaching in Foundations Writing and/or the General Education Writing Attribute courses we recommend mapping how the assignments map with the larger program outcomes. 

Example: Connection to Learning Objectives from a General Education Classics Course

In this assignment, you will demonstrate your ability to:

• identify a primary document produced under the Roman empire and place it in its specific historical context
• identify and analyze the impact of Roman imperialism on the creation of a particular artistic, literary, or historiographical work produced under the Roman empire

You will draw on the following skills developed during our class to design and implement your podcast:

• Find and collate primary and secondary sources on a chosen topic
• Conduct a close reading of a chosen ancient artifact
• Summarize secondary scholarship on a chosen topic
• Express your ideas in clear, engaging language
• Structure your ideas in a logical, compelling manner
• Record, sample, and edit audio files

One way to increase student engagement and meaningful opportunities for writing is to identify authentic audiences or genres of writing students will repeatedly write. For example, in a business class have students write memos or cover letters to actual corporations. Another possibility is to have students engage by picking their own topics or genres of writing.

Example: Engagement from an Environmental Resource General Education Assignment

Choose an audience for your infographic. Your choice might be students outside of your major, elementary school children, volunteers at a local nature center, members of your family, or a group of your friends. Your choice should shape how you present the information.

Choose a context for your infographic. Where do you imagine this infographic will be posted or shared? Will it be posted at a local conference, used as an advertisement for a new club, part of a social media campaign? This context can be entirely fictional – but knowing what you are aiming for will help you to give shape to your content.

Choose your topic. In this Module, we have covered many topics, any of which would be fair game for this assignment.

Determine your primary message. For my example, my primary message is that water is critical for all life on Earth, so we need to protect it.

The rhetorical situation describes the circumstances of the writing scenario and includes the following: purpose, audience, context, text, and writer. The rhetorical situation helps students navigate the meaning of the writing and how to approach the topic. Make sure to make explicit the rhetorical situation. For example:

1. Purpose
   1. Why are students completing this assignment?
   2. How does this relate to learning outcomes or future situations?
2. Audience
   1. Who is the primary or intended audience for this assignment? 
   2. What are you hoping the audience gets out of this writing?
3. Genre Conventions
   1. What genre of writing is this and what are some of the expectations of the genre? For example, an email to a professor has a subject line, salutation, brevity, a formal tone and no citation style.
   2. Other conventions of the genre include: citation style, organization, register, formatting, and evidence.

Example: Rhetorical Situation from a Plant Science Course

Purpose: To persuade. Once natural science researchers have made an important discovery in their research, they communicate their findings to other scientists. Then, other people with experience in natural science summarize the research for a broader (less technical) audience, in the field of science communication. After that, people need to take the initiative to lobby people/groups/the government to make changes based on the research findings.

Context: Obesity, heart disease, and Type 2 diabetes are major health concerns in the USA and some other developed countries. These conditions can often be lessened by a change in diet but even though the scientific evidence exists for this, it can be hard to effect changes in individuals' behavior. 

Audience: A person (e.g. a friend or family member) or an institution (e.g. a school, summer camp, or prison) that you think should make a change to their diet or menu to help mitigate the problems of obesity, heart disease, and/or Type 2 diabetes. 

Genre and conventions: Your submission should be in the form of a persuasive letter. You should mention where you got your factual information from, but this should not be in the form of formal citations/references - instead, you should just refer to them more naturally, as in "I just read an article called...". If you are writing to someone you know well, your letter should take the form of an informal letter. If you are writing to an institution or someone you don't know well, your letter should take the form of a formal letter. For more information on writing letters, read the article "How to write a good letter" on Indeed.com - scroll down to the sections "Formal vs. informal letters" and "How to write a letter", which has instructions for formatting each type of letter.

Scaffolding assignments helps students navigate new writing scenarios, transfer writing from one context to the next, and build from lower-order to higher-order skills. Scaffolded activities can include readings, writing to learn opportunities, reflection, and revision. In your assignment you can identify the following:

1. Where is the assignment broken into manageable chunks?
2. What low-stakes activities are occurring? What are the different due dates for the various activities?
3. What suggestions or expectations do you have for different stages (e.g. word count for draft v. final)?

Example: Scaffolding from a Public Health Course

Prewriting & Scaffolding: There will be numerous activities leading up to your first draft that will support you through selecting your topic/issue, choosing your audience and genre, and research. Whatever audience and genre you choose, you must incorporate 4 secondary sources, and at least 2 of those sources must be scholarly sources.

Workshop Component: This assignment will involve a draft and workshop. While you are participating in the workshop process, you are required to make your draft available to your workshop partners, as peer review is required.

Students benefit from explicit explanations of how their work will be evaluated by the instructor and/or instructional team. This is also an opportunity to explain the importance of assessment/feedback on writing and clarify your expectations of student work. On your assignment sheet consider the following:

1. How are you planning on assessing student learning? How does it relate to your learning goals?
2. How are you sharing the rubric or feedback criteria with students? 
3. Which instructional team member will respond to which items (e.g. peer, self-assessment, TAs, instructor feedback).

Example: Assessment Language from a Business Course

The assessment rubric for this assignment is on the next page. It will follow the same five standards we have used this semester to assess written, visual, and verbal communications: Critical Thinking, Logic & Reasoning, Structural Coherence, Information Design, and Error Interference. However, as a class, we will view samples and discuss what each standard criteria should include for scoring purposes. Your voice in creating the criteria is appreciated. 

Students benefit from seeing student examples, models, and understanding additional resources. Models from past students that are annotated to illustrate useful writing choices can help students reflect on similar choices they can make and apply. Additionally, you can utilize models for a sample peer review to help students view, assess, and understand the assignment expectations. We also recommend highlighting campus resources such as the Writing Center, Thrive Center, WISP, Library, and more.

Example: From a Fashion and Merchandise Undergraduate Course

• Feedback is important throughout the writing process; but the main feedback cycle usually occurs after you have written a draft. 
• Making an appointment at the Writing Center or the Writing Skills Improvement Program should become an essential part of your writing process. The key to a successful appointment is having specific goals going into the appointment. Instead of asking for general help on a paper, identify 2-3 smaller areas within your writing that you would like to focus on in the session (overall structure, transitions, citations, etc.). The more specific your goals, the more you will most likely get out of your session.