🔬 Survey. What do your writing assignments look like?
What if we traded papers and created better templates for newer teachers?
Lacking Substance and Style
My teaching career began with all ideas and little practical knowledge. Oh, I could rattle platitudes about being a “guide on the side” rather than a “sage on the stage,” but when it came to specifics, I know little about either. As I’ve written elsewhere, my teaching program lacked both mental models and hands-on examples.
In hindsight, I began teaching like fresh meat thrown to starved Piranhas.
My first writing assignments were terrible! They lacked both substance and style. Even if I had a decent question, my presentation was so terrible that my questions had little readability. As my first year blended into my second, I realized I was locked in a cycle of habitual re-creation. And so I started managing templates instead.
Eventually, names like Michael Clay Thompson and Marilyn Pryle provided both the substance and style I needed. My assignments gained rigor. My presentation gained legibility. Grading with a notebook helped create feedback loops as one assignment provided reflections for the next. And after ten years I started blogging and presenting about it.
➡️ Which brings me to a question: How do you design writing assignments?
Lofty Goals and a Survey Button
This post links to a short survey about creating writing assignees. According to Substack, this blog is read in 37 states and 30 countries these days. Given the widespread geography and teaching levels, I would love to improve together.
Let me narrate my thinking through some questioning:
In substance, how do you approach designing a writing task?
In style, what do your assignments themselves look like? What are the major sections and headings? What do your rubrics look like?
What themes emerge across subjects, grades, and geography? What can we learn from each other when designing writing tasks?
What if we could assemble a range of templates for newer teachers? What if we save newer teachers time in first steps?
What if these templates could breathe fresh life for older teachers?
Since a short survey is a good survey, I’m keeping it bare bones. Nothing worth a dissertation. But when surveying, I want to give credit where credit is due. Here are the areas:
🌎 About you: Where do you teach? What is your school? Your subject? Your grades and/or age levels?
✏️ Substance: What do you consider when designing a writing task?
💾 Style: What do your assignments look like? Please, please, upload examples!
🌟 Wish: What do you wish you could do better in an average writing assignment? What would you like to learn from others?
🤔 Other: What other comments or feedback do you have?
Anyways, those are my big lofty thoughts. Don’t let your dreams be dreams.
Resources (Links)
🎁 New to the blog? Check out my recent starter pack as well as a Google Drive Folder with FREE classroom resources! Also, The Honest School Times has your schooling satire.
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