jenniferiwj

Assigning essays is not the only way to teach students writing. This isn’t to devalue essays, which are a solid genre by which students can approximate advanced academic writing and work through complex ideas. But if you’re looking at your assessment and the idea of using essays as the core artifact is creating an unreasonable faculty burden then rethink why you’re privileging essays.

Research grids, recorded presentations, user guides/examples of integrated learning, glossaries, disciplinary style guides — all of these are legitimate, conventional genres that can enable and provide evidence of student learning.

Bonuses:

AI will have a harder time with these assignments.

Such assignments also help students learn to deconstruct writing into manageable parts rather than a seemingly unified and therefore daunting task.

Feb 9, 2023 at 10:41pmWeb
Show threadCassandra GoodFeb 9, 2023
@jenniferiwj Can you explain what a research grid is? I haven't heard of that before and I'm always looking for essay alternatives.
Show threadjenniferiwjFeb 9, 2023

@cgoodhistorian sure! I designed a very simple one, but they can be more complex. The left-hand column lists all the sources, alphabetized appropriately and cited appropriately (ideally). The top row lists keyterms or subclaims the writer will explore. Then they put notes for each source (including page citations) each time a given sources speaks to that question/term.

In the end, they have sorted out various interactions between sources (synthesis training wheels). They have also created their bibliography and can spot gaps in their research. Some boxes will be empty because not every source speaks to every claim/question.

If they were to write a lit review after this work, they could draft it by reading down each column and synthesizing the specific parts of the sources that deal with the claim/term at the top of that column. It’s not pretty, but it can help them get the first draft and maintain better control over the ideas.

Honestly, I use these for my own writing even.

Show threadCassandra GoodFeb 10, 2023
@jenniferiwj Ah ok I have seen something like that before. It’s a good idea, thanks for sharing!