What To Think About When Creating Any Assignment.

Yesterday, I discussed some general points to think about when creating an assignment but today I’ll be exploring parts of the assignment in more detail. When looking at creating an assignment, it is important to think about what the assignment being anything that is assigned to students from the warm-up to the exit ticket and everything in between including the actual assignment focused on learning the content.

  

First one needs to look at the type of assignment being given.  Is it a short task of under 15 minutes such as bell ringer, journal entry, or the exit ticket or is it a task spread out over two days or is it a project that takes longer than two days such as a performance task.  Does the assignment focus on content standards associated with the grade level or does it use standards from other grades.  Does the assignment include any mathematical practices.  Are the directions clear and easily interpreted by the student.  

Next, does the assignment require high levels of cognitive thinking of the students.   If the assignment does not require higher levels of cognitive thinking, look at how you can change  or adjust it so it demands more.  This includes warm-ups, journal entries, and exit tickets.

Think about the rigor involved in the assignment.  Does it allow students to develop mathematical understanding of the skills and processes as well as concepts.  Does it provide opportunities for developing an authentic understanding of math via the use of multiple representations. It is important to use multiple representations of the material because that makes it better for students to learn the material.

Does the assignment help students learn to discuss topics mathematically?  Does it ask students to provide a response to an argument, justify a response, or explain their thinking to others while using the language of mathematics.  Did the assignment include opportunities for whole class discussion, small group conversations, or talking between peers. It is important for students to develop the ability to converse mathematically.

Does the assignment help students bridge their understanding from unknown to known and does it make the math feel relevant to students even if the material feels foreign.  Does the assignment provide choices for students so as to support their autonomy.  In math the choices could be in which problems they can do or the method of doing the problems such as flipgrid, or a video.  

Finally, is there scaffolding included in the assignment and what type is it.  Is there scaffolding written in for a part of the assignment or for the whole assignment?  If only a part of the assignment, what is the scaffolding and why is it used only for that part.  Is the scaffolding done via a graphic organizer? Is the material broken down into small chunks?  Does the student have a list of steps to follow?  

So when you are thinking about creating assignments, especially now after students having been out of school since the beginning of the fourth quarter, it is important to include scaffolding and to look at all of these items to create assignments so they are the best for students.