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.

Creating Effective Assignments

 

I suspect the books you use in math are similar to the ones I have in that the teachers edition has recommended problems for basic, normal, or advanced.  The assignments are a bunch of different problems students are expected to complete and turn in.  The problems are always in order and coincide with all the examples.

Unfortunately, that is not the best way to assign problems especially if you want students to learn.  Today, I'm touching on a few changes to make the assignment better.

1.  Figure out what the objectives are that you want students to meet and decide how they will show they've met that objective.  To do that, begin with rewriting the learning objective as "I want my students to be able to: ____________".  In addition, use active verbs when writing the objective such as compare similarities or discuss differences, or explain the steps necessary to solve this type of problem.

2.  Try to make the assignment more interactive and interesting than just straight problems.  See if there is a way of designing the assignment to make it creative and challenging while motivating students at the same time.  Think about how you can change the assignment up so it is no longer the "do every third problem".  Perhaps you can change it to "Write a letter to a friend explaining how to do the problem because they were sick that day" or "Create a video showing how to check your work for this type of problem."

3. If the assignment does include problems from the book, make sure the problems are not in the same order as in the book.  Instead of assigning "Every third problem", maybe do 2, 10, 22, 4, 12, 24 so the problems are mixed up.  This helps students learn the math better.

4.Once you've created the assignment, go back and make sure the assignment still meets the learning objectives.  If the learning objective requires students to compare and contrast two things and you only have the comparison in the assignment, you'll need to go back to include the contrast part. 

5.  Think about how to order assignments so skills are built in the proper order. You want students to build the necessary skills incrementally and make sure students see the connection between what they already know and what they are learning. If you plan to end the semester with some sort of project, make sure the smaller assignments build all the skills they need to complete the project.  

6.  Determine the frequency of assignments and how often they need to be turned in. Will students complete an assignment for each section or for two or three sections with a few problems from each section.  Normally, I'd recommend  having a calendar of assignments and due dates completed prior to the beginning of the semester but with the coronavirus, that might not be as easy to do.

7.  Think about the ability of students to get the assignments done.  Will they have enough time or so they struggle and need additional time?  This is important when creating assignments because more is not always best.  Do students really need to complete 20 problems for every section or will 10 be enough especially if you ask them to discuss how to do it or talk about issues they had working the assignment.

This is just an overall look at creating good assignments but on Wednesday, I'll be looking at questions one needs to answer in more detail when creating an effective assignment.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.