A good writing assignment should be broken down into 5 basic principles. First, your writing assignment should reflect your district/school curriculum. For instance, what specific classroom/lesson objective will this assignment satisfy? Will the assignment introduce new/old course material or reinforce a specific planned objective? Next, it is essential to know your students writing styles, in addition to their strengths and weaknesses. In addition, it is important for your students to understand the purpose and meaning behind the assignment. For example, a good writing assignment should be meaningful to the students, authentic, and reflective of their learning abilities. This means that the writing should serve a purpose that the students recognize as real. In addition, the students should be writing about specific and immediate situations rather than abstract and theoretical ones. Another feature of a good writing assignment is to specify the requirements, what you expect, of the writing assignment. The students should be provided with a complete list of the requirements, including a grading rubric, deadlines and complete writing instructions. Finally, the assignment should be broken down into manageable and predetermined steps to help structure and formulate a well written paper. Another important step in the process is to take the time and discuss the assignment with your students. Good writing assignments are not just handed out and forgotten until it is due (http://wac.colostate.edu/intro/pop10d.cfm).
"Good writing assignments always start with a clear goal that the teacher can express, usually on the assignment sheet so that students understand the goal as well" (http://wac.colostate.edu/intro/pop10d.cfm).
I enjoyed reading your response to the essential question. As a third grade teacher, I find myself struggling with planning to teach writing. The state curriculum is very vague and does not specify a particular order to teach varying aspects of writing. I agree that it is important for students to understand the purpose and meaning of the assignment.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great article for future teachers, like myself. The five basic principles are important to remember, because not only should the assignment be meaningful, but it should also follow the curriculum. Knowing students writing styles would be important so you can choose an activity that will highlight their strengths. Great picture too!
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