What kinds of assignments do WL faculty give?

General Writing Assignments

In the section below, specific writing assignments are given. You can revise these assignments to fit your class needs.

Short Writes

• (On the first day) Have students write a paragraph in which they explain what "x" means, based on their current knowledge (for literature class, write what they think "literature" means; for sociology what "prejudice" means, etc).
• (Debriefing) At the end of a class day or at the end of a segment in the course, have students write down the three most important things they learned. Or have them ask two questions that have not been answered. You can ask individual students to read what they wrote, and/or you can pick the papers up to find out how well your class lecture or discussion succeeded. Some teachers begin the next class day by going over some of the issues or questions raised in the debriefing.
• (Timed, focused writes) Whenever students seem to be lost or their eyes glaze over, have them get out a piece of paper and a pen. Ask them to write on whatever topic is currently under discussion (for instance, if you have been talking about the differences between be-bop and fusion in Jazz Appreciation, have them say which one seems more relevant today, and why). The only rule is that once the pen hits the page, the students must not stop writing. If they get stuck, they should write "I'm stuck" or their name over and over until a new idea hits them. This assignment gets them past their internal editors and allows creative ideas to flow. Even though there will be much that is unusable in the half page of writing that results, each student should have at least one nugget of a good idea. Have the students exchange what they wrote with their neighbor, searching for that nugget, and let class discussion begin.

Journals

• Have your students look in the outside world for examples of concepts you are dealing with in class, either by searching through specific newspapers, attending specific events, or by analyzing interactions in their daily lives. They should write about their experiences in some detail and try to imagine how what they discovered relates to the course content (their discussion could support ideas they learned in class or challenge them).
• Ask your students to respond to a reading assignment -- from the text or from outside sources. Many textbooks these days have inserts with interesting case studies that could allow for thoughtful discussion in a journal entry. Some faculty put together a handbook of readings they want their students to read throughout the course. Others buy a supplementary textbook for that purpose. Be sure to explain whether you want summary, intellectual comment, or an emotional response. Also give your students an example of a good entry, showing the kinds of evidence you are looking for.
• Have your students keep a "process journal" in which they keep track of their learning. This is a form of meta-cognition -- they think about their thinking processes. Such a journal is especially useful in the sciences as students wrestle with complex formulas. For instance, in a math class, the students could explain how they arrived at every step of a solution. This would also be a place for them to note where they go wrong and how they could do things differently the next time around.
• Assign a "double-entry log" in which students draw a line down the middle of the page and write two different kinds of responses on each side: one side might be a summary of what they read; the other could be an emotional or critical response to the material. It is instructive for students to learn the difference between fact and inference, summary and critique.

Assignments by Discipline

• Accounting
• Art
• Biology
• Chemistry
• Communication
• English
• History
• Math
• Modern Languages
• Music
• Psychology
• Social Sciences
• American Government
• Geography
• Philosophy
• Sociology
• Technology
• Plastics Engineering
• Technology and Civilization
• Wood Science
• Women's Studies

Assignments by Type

• Short Writes
• Formal Essays
• Research Papers
• Journals
• Small-Group Work

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