student share assignment

• Asked students to share ideas and experiences with others whose backgrounds and viewpoints differ from their own

Understanding other perspectives is enhanced when done so through direct interaction with those who have a different perspective as long as the environment is safe and the purpose well-crafted.

Rather than using background differences that we most often consider such as race or religion, consider creating discussion groups based on less divisive differences. Depending on your discipline and instructional purpose, these might include: only children versus those with siblings, those who played sports as children versus those that did not; those who like jazz or classical music versus those who primarily listen to current music, etc. Make the differences explicit as you create each group.

Remember that this is just an example of how to get started with this Teaching Method.

Series Editors: Michael Theall, Youngstown State University; Derek Bruff, Vanderbilt University; Amy Gross, IDEA Author: Jeff King, University of Central Oklahoma

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Faculty who encourage the interchange of differing viewpoints among students, and who create a safe environment for doing so, counter what Garcia and Hoelscher (1) call subtle, systemic, and exclusionary messages. Class and homework activities that require sharing ideas and experiences with others of different backgrounds facilitate educational outcomes that students appreciate as useful for success in a multicultural society (2). With student diversity in college classrooms increasing, teachers must make assignments diversity-effective – the chances that students will learn with classmates of varying ethnicities and preferences increase every term. This is a teaching strategy students say they want (3, 4), and the strategy produces multiple benefits, such as clear increases in understanding and academic success as well as decreases in prejudicial attitudes (4).

IDEA Item #16 highly correlates with diversity-sensitive teaching methods including: #13 (introducing stimulating ideas about the subject). #15 (inspiring students to set/achieve challenging goals), #18 (asking students to help each other understand ideas/concepts), and #19 (giving projects, tests, or assignments that require original or creative thinking). This method also highly correlates with learning objectives #28 (developing skill in oral and written expression), #30 (developing a clearer understanding of, and commitment to, personal values), and #31 (learning to analyze and critically evaluate ideas, arguments, and points of view). These correlations suggest a powerful connection between sharing ideas with others of different backgrounds and developing higher-order thinking skills and broader viewpoints. Major reviews of research on the effects of attending college (5) conclude that the greatest changes in students are in areas such as psychosocial change, attitudes and values, and moral development. These are all linked with increased involvement with others from different backgrounds. Widely used measures of engagement such as the National Survey of Student Engagement (6) explore such interactions. One approach to improving your effectiveness on Item #16 is to create collaborative activities using the IDEA methods above, and/or focusing on the listed IDEA objectives.

Be aware that many students practice what Perry calls dualist thinking (7). These students expect any question to have a single correct answer, one known to the instructor. These students perceive their role in learning is to listen for correct answers shared by their instructor and then memorize those answers for later use on assessments. These students can be uneasy when asked to listen to and learn from their peers. Illustrating to these students that some questions have multiple defensible answers, some perhaps better than others, can help move them away from dualist thinking and towards a mindset that more values the perspectives of others.

Success in facilitating this kind of interaction requires that you know your own beliefs, attitudes, and prejudices. The attitudes you exhibit in teacher-student interactions inform all your classroom behavior as well as your pedagogy and content (8, 9). Asking students to share their viewpoints and allowing for a diversity of responses prompted by different backgrounds, cultures, and orientations, is easier if you are prepared to have your own ideas challenged and acknowledge the legitimacy of that process.

Two useful paradigms within which to structure opportunities for students to share with others of differing backgrounds are: 1) the transformative approach, which prompts students to “view contributions, events, issues, and course concepts from the perspective of members of targeted groups”; and 2) the social action approach, which empowers students to “make decisions on important personal, social and civic problems and take action to help solve them” (10). Either approach expands students’ communication, team-building, and relationship skills, and deepens understandings prompted by considering that content from multiple perspectives. A tactic to engage students safely in conversations involving multiple perspectives is to define class as a place where truth is sought. The truth will sometimes be within disciplinary content (in a physics class, I study Newton’s discovery of truth) and sometimes in discoveries made working with classmates of different backgrounds and beliefs (I re-evaluate what I have so far believed about Islam in light of what I now know about my calculus classmate who is Muslim). A good working process for having students share ideas and experiences is to encourage and demonstrate critical thinking as the basis for discussion and as a means to discern truth from non-truth.

Group work allows student interaction with others of different backgrounds in a more personal setting than class discussion. You can assign group membership to serve diversity. The Center for Teaching and Learning at the University of North Carolina (11) offers good tips for this. One tip concerns how to avoid having minority students feel you are singling them out as a result of your good intentions to expose other students to their potentially different perspectives; change group assignments occasionally so that a small group of minority students work together one time and are split among multiple groups at other times. The same UNC publication emphasizes the importance of establishing your classroom as a zone of safety for exploring the differences that come with diversity. You should set ground rules for objective evaluation of others’ opinions and viewpoints, modeling this as you lead the class. For your students to benefit from a class with diverse classmates, all must feel safe to express their ideas and beliefs. Emphasizing a critical thinking approach as the class seeks truth can help lessen anxiety in such discussions.

Addressing diversity in the online classroom can be challenging. Students’ cultural identities are often hidden behind the electronic screen. However, because Facebook usage is nearly ubiquitous among typical college-aged students, they are usually at ease meeting and working in a virtual environment where their interactions often naturally and quickly reveal personal information. West and West (12) indicate that millennial students “tend to be more open to diversity, differences, and sharing” than previous generations and are strikingly self-revealing, which the Wests say is a double-edged sword because this makes “early communications easier” while also opening the door to a “wide variety of distractions and off-task discussions” (pp. 24-25). One way to minimize off-topic exchanges online is to provide students a venue at the start of the course to share about themselves but then make clear that discussion in the virtual classroom will be about class topics. Providing a virtual “student lounge” as a place for social and off-topic exchanges can help students honor the distinction between class and non-class discussion.

Online students’ “perception of culture” among their classmates and instructor affects their estimation of the class, and sometimes students believe online learning activities do not consider students’ cultural backgrounds (13). While this could also be the case in face-to-face classes, careful wording of the prompts to elicit student thoughts and discussion can help ensure class interchanges which force a consideration of diverse viewpoints, whether the assignment is a group project, threaded discussion, a wiki, or other kinds of collaborative work. Owens’ (14) concept of “practiced empathy” breaks through stereotyping by asking participants to try to perceive magazine ads and photos through the sensibilities of diverse groups, and prompts which require such engagement help students to consider other worldviews in new and impactful ways.

Since students who perceive their views to be minority ones may be hesitant to share those views with their peers, consider ways to make it more likely diverse points of view will enter the class discussions. Create more risk-friendly environments by clarifying with students the ground rules for online discussions and general “netiquette.” Although discussion ground rules are helpful in face-to-face settings, they can be even more important in online environments given the ease with which text-only comments can be misconstrued.

Surfacing diverse points of view can be enabled by allowing students to respond to questions and prompts independently, submitting their own responses before seeing their peers’ responses. You might, for example, have student posts to a course blog be held for moderation by you. Once all the posts have been submitted, you approve them in a batch so that they all appear on the blog at once. This allows students to contribute their unique points of view without being unduly influenced by students who respond to your prompt most quickly. See (15) for more on the importance of independent work to leveraging the diversity of thought and experiences in a group.

It is critical that students understand your means of assessing their success with the process of class interactions. Otherwise, students in your class may wonder why part of their grade should be linked to how they interact with their peers. Define group learning objectives and provide good rubrics for measuring success in attaining those objectives. A group charter and guidelines (see POD-IDEA Center Notes Item #18) should define acceptable team member interaction as part of assessing interaction skills. Also, the course grading explanation in your syllabus should define acceptable interchange of ideas in the zone of safety that is your classroom.

One piece of instructional technology – clickers – can be useful when examining potentially contentious issues as seen through different perspectives. Minority opinion students may hesitate to identify themselves publicly with a show of hands, but anonymous feedback gathered with clickers creates a safer environment to do this, whether in face-to-face or virtual classrooms (16).

Accreditors generally have specific expectations about assessing quality in online courses. As distance education units have operationalized such expectations, student-to-student and student-to-teacher interaction are key metrics. If there’s not much, then the course differs little from a correspondence course. Given the importance of peer-to-peer sharing in online learning, good prompts that stimulate discussion among diverse learners and viewpoints should be common practice. Assessing the effectiveness of virtual class interactions should follow similar guidelines as for in-person classes, but at least one e-learning aspect helps the online instructor in this regard: students’ interactions as captured in threaded discussions can be perused later and considered more carefully than when noting students’ real-time contributions in a face-to-face class.

Fostering a Culture of Valuing Different Ways of Thinking

Students enter classrooms expecting to learn new material from the sources instructors select as well as from instructors themselves. An often underappreciated source of new learning, however, remains a student’s classmates. Fellow students’ fresh perspectives can foster new ways of thinking and yield constructive, unconsidered insights. In this video, Brett Flehinger describes why he refers to his class as a “collective brain,” a metaphor for the collaborative, participatory learning process he strives to create in his lecture classroom.

Learn more and see related resources about this Instructional Move from Harvard’s Graduate School of Education.

References and Resources

• Garcia, J. E., & Hoelscher, K. J. (2008). Managing diversity flashpoints in higher education. Westport, CT: American Council on Education/Praeger.
• Meacham, J., McClellan, M., Pearse, T., & Greene, R. (December 2003). Student diversity in classes and educational outcomes: Student perceptions. College Student Journal .
• Goral, T. (October 2001). What students want and what you can do about it: What’s on the minds of college students? A Harvard researcher spent the last 15 years finding out, and his answers may surprise you – Interview. Matrix: The magazine for leaders in education .
• Smith, D.G., & Associates. (1997). Diversity works: The emerging picture of how students benefit . Washington, D.C.: American Association of Colleges and Universities.
• Pascarella, E. T., & Terenzini P. T. (2005). How college affects students: A third decade of research, volume 2. San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass.
• National Survey of Student Engagement (2011). Fostering student engagement campuswide: Annual results 2011. Center for Postsecondary Research, Indiana University: Bloomington, IN. http://nsse.iub.edu/html/annual_results.cfm
• Perry, W. J. (1999). Forms of intellectual and ethical development in the college years . San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
• Schoem, D., Frankel, L., Zuniga, X., & Lewis, E. (Eds.). (1995). Multicultural teaching in the university. Westport, CT: Praeger Paperback.
• Tatto, M.T. (1996). Examining values and beliefs about teaching diverse students: Understanding the challenges for teacher education. Educational evaluation and policy analysis, (18) 2, 155-180.
• Stanley, C. (2001). Teaching in action: Multicultural education as the highest form of understanding. The Teaching Excellence Essay Series for 2000-2001, available from the Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education, http://www.podnetwork.org/publications/essayseries.htm#2001-2002 Essay Series
• Center for Teaching and Learning at the University of North Carolina. (1997). Teaching for inclusion. Chapel Hill, NC: UNC-CH Center for Teaching and Learning. See Chapter Two: Strategies for inclusive teaching: General strategies.
• West, J. A., & West, M. L. (2009). Using wikis for online collaboration: The power of the read-write web. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
• Tapanes, M. A., Smith, G. G., & White, J. A. (2009). Cultural diversity in online learning: A study of the perceived effects of dissonance in levels of individualism/collectivism and tolerance of ambiguity. The Internet and Higher Education, 12 (1), 26-34.
• Owens, D. A. (2012). Creative people must be stopped: Six ways we kill innovation (without even trying). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
• Surowiecki, J. (2004). The wisdom of crowds . New York: Doubleday.
• Bruff, D. (2009). Teaching with classroom response systems: Creating active learning environments. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Related IDEA papers

• IDEA Paper No. 38: Enhancing Learning–and More!–Through Cooperative Learning , Millis
• IDEA Paper No. 47: Promoting Deep Learning , Millis
• IDEA Paper No. 49: Effective Classroom Discussion , Cashin
• IDEA Paper No. 52: Considerations in Online Course Design , Creasman

Related Resources from Magna Publications

• How to Improve Group Work: Perspectives from Students
• Problem-Based Learning: Six Steps to Design, Implement and Assess
• Cooperative Learning Structures and Deep Learning
• Love the One You’re With: Creating a Classroom Community
• A Simple Introduction to Team-Based Learning

Resources for Purchase

• Using Group Work to Promote Deep Learning
• Using Twitter to Enhance Collaborative Learning
• How Can Google Docs Help Foster Productive Collaboration?
• How Can I Use Twitter to Improve Teaching and Learning?
• How Do I Build Community in My Classroom?
• How Do I Assign Students to Groups?
• Are Group Exams a Viable Testing Option?
• Found ways to help students answer their own questions
• Helped students to interpret subject matter from diverse perspectives
• Encouraged students to reflect on and evaluate what they have learned
• Demonstrated the importance and significance of the subject matter
• Formed teams or discussion groups to facilitate learning
• Made it clear how each topic fits into the course
• Provided meaningful feedback on students’ academic performance
• Stimulated students to intellectual effort beyond that required by most courses
• Encouraged students to use multiple resources (e.g., Internet, library holdings, outside experts) to improve understanding
• Explained course material clearly and concisely
• Related course material to real-life situations
• Created opportunities for students to apply course content outside the classroom
• Introduced stimulating ideas about the subject
• Involved students in “hands-on” projects such as research, case studies, or real-life activities
• Inspired students to set and achieve goals which really challenged them
• Asked students to help each other understand ideas or concepts
• Gave projects, tests, or assignments that required original or creative thinking
• Encouraged student-faculty interaction outside of class

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Understanding Assignments

What this handout is about.

The first step in any successful college writing venture is reading the assignment. While this sounds like a simple task, it can be a tough one. This handout will help you unravel your assignment and begin to craft an effective response. Much of the following advice will involve translating typical assignment terms and practices into meaningful clues to the type of writing your instructor expects. See our short video for more tips.

Basic beginnings

Regardless of the assignment, department, or instructor, adopting these two habits will serve you well :

• Read the assignment carefully as soon as you receive it. Do not put this task off—reading the assignment at the beginning will save you time, stress, and problems later. An assignment can look pretty straightforward at first, particularly if the instructor has provided lots of information. That does not mean it will not take time and effort to complete; you may even have to learn a new skill to complete the assignment.
• Ask the instructor about anything you do not understand. Do not hesitate to approach your instructor. Instructors would prefer to set you straight before you hand the paper in. That’s also when you will find their feedback most useful.

Assignment formats

Many assignments follow a basic format. Assignments often begin with an overview of the topic, include a central verb or verbs that describe the task, and offer some additional suggestions, questions, or prompts to get you started.

An Overview of Some Kind

The instructor might set the stage with some general discussion of the subject of the assignment, introduce the topic, or remind you of something pertinent that you have discussed in class. For example:

“Throughout history, gerbils have played a key role in politics,” or “In the last few weeks of class, we have focused on the evening wear of the housefly …”

The Task of the Assignment

Pay attention; this part tells you what to do when you write the paper. Look for the key verb or verbs in the sentence. Words like analyze, summarize, or compare direct you to think about your topic in a certain way. Also pay attention to words such as how, what, when, where, and why; these words guide your attention toward specific information. (See the section in this handout titled “Key Terms” for more information.)

“Analyze the effect that gerbils had on the Russian Revolution”, or “Suggest an interpretation of housefly undergarments that differs from Darwin’s.”

Additional Material to Think about

Here you will find some questions to use as springboards as you begin to think about the topic. Instructors usually include these questions as suggestions rather than requirements. Do not feel compelled to answer every question unless the instructor asks you to do so. Pay attention to the order of the questions. Sometimes they suggest the thinking process your instructor imagines you will need to follow to begin thinking about the topic.

“You may wish to consider the differing views held by Communist gerbils vs. Monarchist gerbils, or Can there be such a thing as ‘the housefly garment industry’ or is it just a home-based craft?”

These are the instructor’s comments about writing expectations:

“Be concise”, “Write effectively”, or “Argue furiously.”

Technical Details

These instructions usually indicate format rules or guidelines.

“Your paper must be typed in Palatino font on gray paper and must not exceed 600 pages. It is due on the anniversary of Mao Tse-tung’s death.”

The assignment’s parts may not appear in exactly this order, and each part may be very long or really short. Nonetheless, being aware of this standard pattern can help you understand what your instructor wants you to do.

Interpreting the assignment

Ask yourself a few basic questions as you read and jot down the answers on the assignment sheet:

Why did your instructor ask you to do this particular task?

Who is your audience.

• What kind of evidence do you need to support your ideas?

What kind of writing style is acceptable?

• What are the absolute rules of the paper?

Try to look at the question from the point of view of the instructor. Recognize that your instructor has a reason for giving you this assignment and for giving it to you at a particular point in the semester. In every assignment, the instructor has a challenge for you. This challenge could be anything from demonstrating an ability to think clearly to demonstrating an ability to use the library. See the assignment not as a vague suggestion of what to do but as an opportunity to show that you can handle the course material as directed. Paper assignments give you more than a topic to discuss—they ask you to do something with the topic. Keep reminding yourself of that. Be careful to avoid the other extreme as well: do not read more into the assignment than what is there.

Of course, your instructor has given you an assignment so that he or she will be able to assess your understanding of the course material and give you an appropriate grade. But there is more to it than that. Your instructor has tried to design a learning experience of some kind. Your instructor wants you to think about something in a particular way for a particular reason. If you read the course description at the beginning of your syllabus, review the assigned readings, and consider the assignment itself, you may begin to see the plan, purpose, or approach to the subject matter that your instructor has created for you. If you still aren’t sure of the assignment’s goals, try asking the instructor. For help with this, see our handout on getting feedback .

Given your instructor’s efforts, it helps to answer the question: What is my purpose in completing this assignment? Is it to gather research from a variety of outside sources and present a coherent picture? Is it to take material I have been learning in class and apply it to a new situation? Is it to prove a point one way or another? Key words from the assignment can help you figure this out. Look for key terms in the form of active verbs that tell you what to do.

Key Terms: Finding Those Active Verbs

Here are some common key words and definitions to help you think about assignment terms:

Information words Ask you to demonstrate what you know about the subject, such as who, what, when, where, how, and why.

• define —give the subject’s meaning (according to someone or something). Sometimes you have to give more than one view on the subject’s meaning
• describe —provide details about the subject by answering question words (such as who, what, when, where, how, and why); you might also give details related to the five senses (what you see, hear, feel, taste, and smell)
• explain —give reasons why or examples of how something happened
• illustrate —give descriptive examples of the subject and show how each is connected with the subject
• summarize —briefly list the important ideas you learned about the subject
• trace —outline how something has changed or developed from an earlier time to its current form
• research —gather material from outside sources about the subject, often with the implication or requirement that you will analyze what you have found

Relation words Ask you to demonstrate how things are connected.

• compare —show how two or more things are similar (and, sometimes, different)
• contrast —show how two or more things are dissimilar
• apply—use details that you’ve been given to demonstrate how an idea, theory, or concept works in a particular situation
• cause —show how one event or series of events made something else happen
• relate —show or describe the connections between things

Interpretation words Ask you to defend ideas of your own about the subject. Do not see these words as requesting opinion alone (unless the assignment specifically says so), but as requiring opinion that is supported by concrete evidence. Remember examples, principles, definitions, or concepts from class or research and use them in your interpretation.

• assess —summarize your opinion of the subject and measure it against something
• prove, justify —give reasons or examples to demonstrate how or why something is the truth
• evaluate, respond —state your opinion of the subject as good, bad, or some combination of the two, with examples and reasons
• support —give reasons or evidence for something you believe (be sure to state clearly what it is that you believe)
• synthesize —put two or more things together that have not been put together in class or in your readings before; do not just summarize one and then the other and say that they are similar or different—you must provide a reason for putting them together that runs all the way through the paper
• analyze —determine how individual parts create or relate to the whole, figure out how something works, what it might mean, or why it is important
• argue —take a side and defend it with evidence against the other side

More Clues to Your Purpose As you read the assignment, think about what the teacher does in class:

• What kinds of textbooks or coursepack did your instructor choose for the course—ones that provide background information, explain theories or perspectives, or argue a point of view?
• In lecture, does your instructor ask your opinion, try to prove her point of view, or use keywords that show up again in the assignment?
• What kinds of assignments are typical in this discipline? Social science classes often expect more research. Humanities classes thrive on interpretation and analysis.
• How do the assignments, readings, and lectures work together in the course? Instructors spend time designing courses, sometimes even arguing with their peers about the most effective course materials. Figuring out the overall design to the course will help you understand what each assignment is meant to achieve.

Now, what about your reader? Most undergraduates think of their audience as the instructor. True, your instructor is a good person to keep in mind as you write. But for the purposes of a good paper, think of your audience as someone like your roommate: smart enough to understand a clear, logical argument, but not someone who already knows exactly what is going on in your particular paper. Remember, even if the instructor knows everything there is to know about your paper topic, he or she still has to read your paper and assess your understanding. In other words, teach the material to your reader.

Aiming a paper at your audience happens in two ways: you make decisions about the tone and the level of information you want to convey.

• Tone means the “voice” of your paper. Should you be chatty, formal, or objective? Usually you will find some happy medium—you do not want to alienate your reader by sounding condescending or superior, but you do not want to, um, like, totally wig on the man, you know? Eschew ostentatious erudition: some students think the way to sound academic is to use big words. Be careful—you can sound ridiculous, especially if you use the wrong big words.
• The level of information you use depends on who you think your audience is. If you imagine your audience as your instructor and she already knows everything you have to say, you may find yourself leaving out key information that can cause your argument to be unconvincing and illogical. But you do not have to explain every single word or issue. If you are telling your roommate what happened on your favorite science fiction TV show last night, you do not say, “First a dark-haired white man of average height, wearing a suit and carrying a flashlight, walked into the room. Then a purple alien with fifteen arms and at least three eyes turned around. Then the man smiled slightly. In the background, you could hear a clock ticking. The room was fairly dark and had at least two windows that I saw.” You also do not say, “This guy found some aliens. The end.” Find some balance of useful details that support your main point.

You’ll find a much more detailed discussion of these concepts in our handout on audience .

The Grim Truth

With a few exceptions (including some lab and ethnography reports), you are probably being asked to make an argument. You must convince your audience. It is easy to forget this aim when you are researching and writing; as you become involved in your subject matter, you may become enmeshed in the details and focus on learning or simply telling the information you have found. You need to do more than just repeat what you have read. Your writing should have a point, and you should be able to say it in a sentence. Sometimes instructors call this sentence a “thesis” or a “claim.”

So, if your instructor tells you to write about some aspect of oral hygiene, you do not want to just list: “First, you brush your teeth with a soft brush and some peanut butter. Then, you floss with unwaxed, bologna-flavored string. Finally, gargle with bourbon.” Instead, you could say, “Of all the oral cleaning methods, sandblasting removes the most plaque. Therefore it should be recommended by the American Dental Association.” Or, “From an aesthetic perspective, moldy teeth can be quite charming. However, their joys are short-lived.”

Convincing the reader of your argument is the goal of academic writing. It doesn’t have to say “argument” anywhere in the assignment for you to need one. Look at the assignment and think about what kind of argument you could make about it instead of just seeing it as a checklist of information you have to present. For help with understanding the role of argument in academic writing, see our handout on argument .

What kind of evidence do you need?

There are many kinds of evidence, and what type of evidence will work for your assignment can depend on several factors–the discipline, the parameters of the assignment, and your instructor’s preference. Should you use statistics? Historical examples? Do you need to conduct your own experiment? Can you rely on personal experience? See our handout on evidence for suggestions on how to use evidence appropriately.

Make sure you are clear about this part of the assignment, because your use of evidence will be crucial in writing a successful paper. You are not just learning how to argue; you are learning how to argue with specific types of materials and ideas. Ask your instructor what counts as acceptable evidence. You can also ask a librarian for help. No matter what kind of evidence you use, be sure to cite it correctly—see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial .

You cannot always tell from the assignment just what sort of writing style your instructor expects. The instructor may be really laid back in class but still expect you to sound formal in writing. Or the instructor may be fairly formal in class and ask you to write a reflection paper where you need to use “I” and speak from your own experience.

Try to avoid false associations of a particular field with a style (“art historians like wacky creativity,” or “political scientists are boring and just give facts”) and look instead to the types of readings you have been given in class. No one expects you to write like Plato—just use the readings as a guide for what is standard or preferable to your instructor. When in doubt, ask your instructor about the level of formality she or he expects.

No matter what field you are writing for or what facts you are including, if you do not write so that your reader can understand your main idea, you have wasted your time. So make clarity your main goal. For specific help with style, see our handout on style .

Technical details about the assignment

The technical information you are given in an assignment always seems like the easy part. This section can actually give you lots of little hints about approaching the task. Find out if elements such as page length and citation format (see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial ) are negotiable. Some professors do not have strong preferences as long as you are consistent and fully answer the assignment. Some professors are very specific and will deduct big points for deviations.

Usually, the page length tells you something important: The instructor thinks the size of the paper is appropriate to the assignment’s parameters. In plain English, your instructor is telling you how many pages it should take for you to answer the question as fully as you are expected to. So if an assignment is two pages long, you cannot pad your paper with examples or reword your main idea several times. Hit your one point early, defend it with the clearest example, and finish quickly. If an assignment is ten pages long, you can be more complex in your main points and examples—and if you can only produce five pages for that assignment, you need to see someone for help—as soon as possible.

Tricks that don’t work

Your instructors are not fooled when you:

• spend more time on the cover page than the essay —graphics, cool binders, and cute titles are no replacement for a well-written paper.
• use huge fonts, wide margins, or extra spacing to pad the page length —these tricks are immediately obvious to the eye. Most instructors use the same word processor you do. They know what’s possible. Such tactics are especially damning when the instructor has a stack of 60 papers to grade and yours is the only one that low-flying airplane pilots could read.
• use a paper from another class that covered “sort of similar” material . Again, the instructor has a particular task for you to fulfill in the assignment that usually relates to course material and lectures. Your other paper may not cover this material, and turning in the same paper for more than one course may constitute an Honor Code violation . Ask the instructor—it can’t hurt.
• get all wacky and “creative” before you answer the question . Showing that you are able to think beyond the boundaries of a simple assignment can be good, but you must do what the assignment calls for first. Again, check with your instructor. A humorous tone can be refreshing for someone grading a stack of papers, but it will not get you a good grade if you have not fulfilled the task.

Critical reading of assignments leads to skills in other types of reading and writing. If you get good at figuring out what the real goals of assignments are, you are going to be better at understanding the goals of all of your classes and fields of study.

You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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(B1,ix) Allow Students to Share Assignments

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(A1,1) Add New using Templates

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Student-Sharing Permissions

Teachers can toggle Sharing Permissions to allow students to share their Assignments with other students. Students will be able to see other students' responses, Notes, and Teacher Feedback once shared. Once allowed, permission to share cannot be revoked.

• Creating a new Assignment
• Managing an Assignment

Note : Sharing Permissions cannot be revoked once set. It is recommended that teachers turn Sharing Permissions on only after all students have attempted all questions in the assignment.

On the Assignment Settings subpage, select the Others tab.

Sharing Permissions is turned off by default. To allow students to share their Assignments, check the box beside Allow students to share Assignments . Click Save and Proceed to confirm.

Student Interaction in Shared Assignment

Assignment sharing is mutual between two students. For example, student A requests to share with student B, and student B accepts. Both students A and B can see each other's assignment. Student A can further share his/her assignment with student C by repeating the process to request and accept.

• View each other's assignment, including Activities with restricted access where the other student might not otherwise be able to view.
• View and comment on each other's Notes and Annotations (highlight).

• Viewing student's highlights and notes.
• View teacher's Annotation made to a student's copy of the Assignment.

View each other's answers and scores to questions, and any Teacher Feedback.

Teachers are able to delete comments.

• Students will not be able to complete the Assignment on behalf of the student who shared the Assignment.
• To understand how students are able to share their Assignment/Assessment, refer to Request to Share Assignment .

5 Ways for Teachers, Students to Share Links in Class

Schools are moving towards 100% paperless work, which has educators and students using a lot of links in the classroom.

What seems like a very simple thing can knock an hour off a schedule. For example, if an educator has to create tens of links for unique assignments to share them with students, they might spend much more time than anticipated.

In this guide, you’ll find: • Why teachers and students use links in the classroom • Five ways in which they can share more links quickly and more efficiently.

Why do Teachers and Students Use Links in the Classroom?

Links are everywhere in both online and offline education. Here are just some of the reasons why educators and students use them: • Share access to assignment instructions and grading materials. Educators create instructions for essays, research papers, and other homework in Google Docs and share them with students • Share news and announcements. Educators use links to lead students to web pages with school news, announcements, and policies • Share content from third-party websites. Content like articles and videos can be used as a part of an assignment to enhance learning • Share assignments. Students often use links to give access to assignments and projects done online (essays, presentations, spreadsheets, etc.)

5 Ways for Teachers and Students to Share Links

Here are the five most popular ways for teachers and students to share links with others easily and quickly.

1. Link Shortener App

Link shorteners apps make links more manageable by making them short and organized. There are many good reasons to use them for educators: • Very long links often look like spam. So many people would be less likely to click them • Shortened links are customizable , i.e., you can include the name of an educational institution • Fit links into social media posts. Shortened links allow more space for text, which is essential for platforms like Twitter • Track performance of links. Commonly used by businesses, trackable links use UTM tags that track how many people clicked them • Short links are easier to remember. A custom link that mentions the name of an educational institution is much more memorable than a spam-looking, long one • Create short links in bulk. Educators can create thousands of unique links with a link shortener to share with as many students as needed.

Since sharing links is something educators do regularly, there are many ways in which they can use a link shortener.

Here are some of the most important use cases: • Shorten links to educational materials , third-party websites, and shared documents • Customize links to differentiate types of assignments , i.e., mydomain/FDEssayapril, where FD stands for student initials, “essay” is for the assignment, and “april” indicates the project date. • Evaluate student engagement with materials. Trackable links with UTM tags will show how many students accessed with the material. This information might be useful for school reporting or individual progress reports • Create hundreds of short links in seconds. A shortener is designed to automate the progress of creating links, so teachers can save a lot of time when generating them in bulk • Keep links in one document for management. An educator can collect links in one master document to keep course materials in one place. Having shortened links would make management much easier. Using a link shortener will help to make more student-friendly, custom links. Most apps have free plans and are super easy to use, which means you can start improving your link management in minutes, at no cost.

Note: Short.io provides 50% discount for educators.

Email is another direct way to share links with educators and students that’s accessible for everyone. There are two ways you can do it: • Paste a link • Add a link to a text like hyperlinks

Adriana Rose, an educational writer at Subjecto , says that inserting hyperlinks is becoming popular among students who need to give access to homework via emails.

“It’s a more viewer-friendly way to share links in emails,” says Rose. “Other industries like marketing have been using it for a while now.”

Here’s an example– This email from CoSchedule has a hyperlink highlighted in blue.

By inserting links this way, educators can make them stand out from the text. It’s a good technique to use in content-packed emails.

To add a hyperlink in Gmail: • Highlight the link text • Click Insert Link in the bottom menu (the third button to the left) • Add a link and confirm.

Here’s how the result looks like in Gmail.

That’s how you can turn any piece of text into a clickable link.

3. Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams is an online collaboration platform where educators communicate, collaborate, and share content with students outside the classroom. It’s become one of the most widely used online learning tools after the start of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

We’ll use Microsoft Teams as an example here, but link sharing is available in many other similar applications.

Sharing files with students and other educators is easy. Just like Google Docs, the app comes with a Share button.

To get a link to share a file in multiple locations in Teams: • Select Choose file below the message box • Click Browse Teams and Channels • Choose a file you’d like to share • Select Share a link.

Here’s the sharing link in Microsoft Teams that generates links.

Source: Microsoft Support

You can, of course, share a link to a chat with an individual student. Find a file in a Microsoft Teams channel, choose More options and click Get Link . The app will automatically generate the link to that file, so you can share it with everyone.

Just like that, you get a link to a document. This feature will make your collaboration with students and creating lessons easier, as you’ll be able to share materials like assignment instructions.

Related: Microsoft allows third-party sites to embed “Share to Teams” buttons. This means you can share web page content directly to your class’s channels by clicking a single button.

Not only that, but Microsoft Teams also enables you to add a link in a specific assignment. If you choose this option, the app will present you with options to assign to a class and provide assignment instructions.

Source: Microsoft Education Blog

Microsoft says that the “Share to Teams” button is already available on many content sites, including popular tools like Kahoot!, Britannica, and Wakelet.

Quick response (QR) codes are a common way to share links in the classroom. They lead students to online content by providing a visual code on printed material. To access the content, students need to use a QR code reader on their smartphones.

Educators use QR codes in the classroom to: • Share access to web pages with assignments • Provide materials for in-class projects • Conduct fun activities like scavenger hunts • Help with self-checking • Provide links to videos.

You can use a QR code generator to share your links in the classroom. Once you’ve created a code, download it to your computer and add it to files to be shared with students. Printing out those materials will still make it possible to use the code.

Also, keep in mind that QR codes are suitable for sharing texts, emails, PDFs, and even playing music files. So you can use them to share content you might need for lessons.

Read more: 8 Ways Businesses Use QR Codes

5. Social Media

Social media remains a huge part of life on any campus. As research showed, 98 percent of schools use it to improve student journey.

Specifically, social media helps them to: • Share school news and promote events • Conduct fundraising campaigns • Manage communications during a crisis • Make announcements of relevant events outside the campus • Respond to service inquiries (accommodation, parking, facilities, etc.) • Monitor student feedback about the institution.

Sharing links on social media is super easy, but some people have a hard time fitting messages within established limits. Twitter, for one, permits only 280 characters in one tweet, so concise and short text is a must.

Depending on the length, a link can take up most of the content. Even a relatively short link can take a lot of valuable space and won’t be shown completely.

Like in this Twitter post by Robert Sanders, a manager of science communications at UC Berkeley, whose link to an article can’t be displayed fully due to length.

Source: Twitter

Social media posts with long links like these are less likely to be clicked. In fact, posts with short links increase the number of clicks by 40 percent.

To share links on social media: • Make sure to use a link shortener so the link is displayed fully and gives you more space for text • Check if everyone has access to the materials you’re sharing. Some links can come from limited access folders and web pages where only authorized users can visit • Check view/edit permissions. See if appropriate sharing features are on if you’re sharing a link to a Google Docs document.

Following these links will ensure that people who need to access content will get it.

Sharing Links in the Classroom: Summary

So here you go, five ways in which teachers and educators can share links in the classroom. Using in-app link sharing tools makes sense when using online learning platforms, while a link shortener makes sense for those creating unique links for assignments in bulk.

Guest Post Author: Marques Coleman

What did you learn?

• sharing links in educational institutions
• URL shorteners for schools, teachers
• 6 Mistakes to Avoid when Shortening URLs
• Short.io for Social Media Marketing (SMM)
• How to Find and Fix 404 Short Links

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Share Assignment Links with Students

In Classsrooms, you can copy an assignment's direct URL and share the link with students. When students click the link, the assignment opens to the first question. Please note that students must be added to your classroom to access the assignment.

Information

In Classsrooms , you can copy an assignment's direct URL and share the link with students. When students click the link, the assignment opens to the first question.

Please note that students must be added to your classroom to access the assignment.

• Click  Classrooms  > the classroom name.
• Click  Assignments and then the active assignment's name.
• Click the ellipsis menu next to the assignment's name > Copy Assignment Link .
• Share the link with students in your preferred medium.

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How to Share Google Slides with Your Students

Google Slides™ activities are one of my top go-to technology tools for the classroom. I love that they save automatically as students work and that they live in the cloud. My students love them for their interactive features as well as being able to easily collaborate with other students.

Google Slides are especially handy to use if you are doing virtual teaching, work in a 1:1 classroom, or are a homeschooler.

So how do you share Google Slides with students? Read on for a quick tutorial!

Sharing Options for Google Slides

However you share the slides, you have to first decide what permissions to allow. There are three sharing options :

• students will view your file
• students will view and edit your file
• students will get their own copies of the file

I choose view-only if it’s something my students don’t need to edit or work in. The second option is great if you want students to work on a collaborative class project. If you want to assess each student’s work, you’ll probably want to pick the last option.

Assign Slides through Google Classroom

Sharing slides right in Google Classroom is my preferred method.

• Open Google Classroom.
• Click the Classwork tab at the top.
• Click Create and then Assignment.*
• Type the title.
• Click Add and then Google Drive. Select the Google Slides file you want to assign. Click Insert.
• Choose how you want to share the file (view, edit, or make a copy).
• Add any additional information (like a due date, number of points, rubric, or selecting particular students).
• Click Assign and then Assign or Schedule.

*When you click Create, you can choose Material instead of Assignment if you want to share slides without assigning them to students.

Email a Link

• Open the file.
• Click Share.
• Type individual names or the name of a group. Click the Editor tab and select the role (viewer, commenter, or editor).
• Click Send.

Alternatively, you can just grab a link to copy and paste:

• In the Get Link tab, choose how you want to share the file (view, edit, or make a copy).
• Click Copy Link.
• Paste the link in an email or other secure environment.

Email Google Slides as an Attachment

Another option is to send the Google Slides as an email attachment.

• Click File and then Email. Click Email as attachment.
• Type the name(s).
• If you have slides you don’t want to share with students (like teacher directions, answer keys, or content you haven’t taught yet), just move or delete those slides before sharing the file.
• I recommend making a copy of your original file and sharing that one with students, especially if you want to make modifications to it.
• If you assign a file through Google Classroom, filling out the Topic will help keep your stream organized.
• Many LMSs (like Canvas and Schoology) allow you to share Google Slides as well. Just change the permissions and share the links and you’re good to go!
• Students can share their Slides back with you for assessment and easy feedback !

I hope this quick tutorial gives you an idea of how to share Google Slides activities with your students! What else do you want to know about using Google Slides in the classroom? Let me know in the comments!

Related posts

Tech Tip: How to Share Part of a PDF

Getting Started with Boom Cards in the Classroom

6 Easy Ways to Give Students Feedback Online

15 comments.

If you make a choice board and link a google slide interactive activity, then for the choice board select make one for all students… will the link also be made for all students so that they have their own?

At the end of the link you post in the choice board, change the end of the url address from /edit to /copy and it will require the student to make a copy that is their own. It will not automatically share it with you though, they will have to do that.

Hello, I would like the kiddos to be able to look at each others slide shows. How can they view completed slide shows? We have 28 third graders and would like to give them the option to view and assess 3-5 individual slide shows. I would like to be able to do this within google classroom.

Hi Christine! They can share their slideshows using the same processes outlined in this post. If you assign groups, they can just enter those students’ names in the sharing window. They should pop up easily since you are all in the same organization. I’d just remind them to not change the settings to edit. Another option is for them to share their work back with you and for you to send out the links, but that’s more work. I hope that helps!

Hi Alyssa, thank you so much for your great tuto. I created a Google slide to make my students learn. So I created Classwork an a new Assignment.* Then a went to my Google Drive to select the Google Slides file I want to assign. Click Insert. I choose ‘make a copy for each student’ because I want to share the file and I want every single student to work on the slide. So I can see if everyone is doing well. I wonder if that is the proper way to do. Kind regards from Luxembourg Jean-Paul

That’s right! And then they can share their Slides back with you. 🙂 I hope they enjoy it!

Is there anyway to share Google Slides that students can do work on in Outschool? I’m trying to figure out how to do that without Google Classroom.. Thanks for your help!

I’m afraid I don’t have any experience using Outschool. If you have students’ email addresses, you can share a link with them. Another option would be to create a force-copy code and then use a URL shortener, and send them that link. Good luck!

Make a copy is not showing up as a choice, only view or edit. What do I do?

Hi Trish! Are you in GC or sharing straight from slides? If you’re sharing right in Slides, they’ve changed it a bit since I wrote this post. You can copy the link and then change the end of the link to /copy (delete /edit and everything after it). I hope that helps!

This happens to me sometimes, but it’s a problem with G Classroom I think. What I do is delete the assignment and create it again. It usually works and shows me the three options the second time around.

Hi there. I assigned Google Slides as outlined above with each student getting their own copy. They are showing up very small and hard to see. Is there a way to make the screen where they can add their own text big enough to actually read without it blurring?

Hi there! I’m not sure what might be going on, as it depends on your device. Google Slides does have a zoom option and I hope that can help!

Thank you. This was helpful. I’m wondering if there is a way to share a slideshow in Google classroom that will open up in the slideshow. So students don’t have to start the slideshow. I want to have students open it already in presentation mode on the first slide.

Great question! I haven’t played with that, but I found some things to try here: https://www.simpleslides.co/blog/how-to-make-google-slides-play-automatically

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Biden cancels $7.4 billion in student debt for 277,000 borrowers

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What to know about Biden’s latest attempt at student loan cancellation

President Joe Biden says student loan relief will empower Americans to pursue their dreams without the burden of debt. Visiting Wisconsin, Biden announced details of a new plan to help more than 30 million people.

President Joe Biden speaks at an event about canceling student debt, at the Madison Area Technical College Truax campus on Monday, April 8, 2024, in Madison, Wis. (AP Photo/Kayla Wolf)

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President Joe Biden departs after delivering remarks on student loan debt at Madison College, Monday, April 8, 2024, in Madison, Wis. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Joe Biden delivers remarks on student loan debt at Madison College, Monday, April 8, 2024, in Madison, Wis. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is taking another shot at student loan cancellation, hoping to deliver on a key campaign promise that he has so far failed to fulfill.

In a visit to Wisconsin on Monday, Biden detailed a proposal that would cancel at least some debt for more than 30 million Americans. It’s been in the works for months after the Supreme Court rejected Biden’s first try at mass cancellation.

Biden called the court’s decision a “mistake” but ordered the Education Department to craft a new plan using a different legal authority. The latest proposal is more targeted than his original plan, focusing on those for whom student debt is a major obstacle.

Here’s what to know about the new plan:

HOW IS THIS DIFFERENT FROM BIDEN’S FIRST PLAN?

Biden’s first attempt at widespread student loan cancellation would have erased $10,000 for borrowers with yearly incomes of up to $125,000, plus an additional $10,000 if they received federal Pell grants for low-income students. It was estimated to cost $400 billion and cancel at least some student debt for more than 40 million people.

The Supreme Court rejected that plan last year, saying Biden overstepped his authority.

The new plan uses a different legal justification — the Higher Education Act, which allows the secretary of education to waive student loan debt in certain cases. The Education Department has been going through a federal rulemaking process to clarify how the secretary can invoke that authority.

The new plan targets five categories of borrowers, focusing on those believed to be in the greatest need of help. It would provide relief to an estimated 30 million borrowers. The administration has not said how much the plan would cost.

WHO’S ELIGIBLE?

Biden’s new proposal would offer cancellation to five categories of borrowers.

The widest-reaching provision aims to reset student loan balances for borrowers who have seen their debt grow because of unpaid interest. It would cancel up to $20,000 in interest for Americans who now owe more than they originally borrowed. That cap wouldn’t apply for individuals who make less than $120,000 a year or couples who earn less than $240,000 and also are enrolled in an income-driven repayment plan.

The Education Department says 25 million people would be eligible for that relief, including 23 million who would get their interest erased entirely.

Borrowers who are eligible for other federal forgiveness programs but haven’t applied would also get their loans canceled under the new proposal. It applies to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program and income-driven repayment plans, among others. It’s meant to help people who missed out on forgiveness because of complex paperwork, bad advice or other obstacles. An estimated 2 million people would be eligible for that help.

All debt would be canceled for borrowers who have been repaying undergraduate loans for 20 years or more, or 25 years for those with graduate school debt. The Biden administration says it would erase loans for more than 2 million people.

Those who attended college programs of “low financial value” would be eligible for forgiveness. The plan would cancel debt for borrowers who went to institutions that lost eligibility for federal education funding because they cheated students. It would also cancel loans for people who went to college programs that left graduates with low incomes compared to their student loans.

A final category would cancel loans for Americans facing hardship that prevents them from repaying their student loans. The rule would allow the Education Department to cancel debt for borrowers who are considered highly likely to default on their loans, and it would create an application system for individuals to detail other forms of hardship.

DO I NEED TO APPLY?

Most of the cancellation would be done automatically with no need to apply. That would be the case for the interest cancellation, borrowers with older loans, those that attended low-value programs, and those eligible for other cancellation programs.

There’s one exception: If borrowers want to make a case that they face some sort of hardship that merits cancellation, they would need to apply individually.

WHEN WILL I GET RELIEF?

The Biden administration says some debt could be canceled as soon as this fall, including interest that has snowballed on top of borrowers’ loans.

That timeline would require some maneuvering. The Education Department said it plans to release a formal proposal in the “coming months.” That would usually be followed by a public comment period of 60 days. Then if the rule is finalized by Nov. 1, it would usually take effect the following July — in this case, July 2025.

But the Higher Education Act authorizes the education secretary to fast-track rules for “early implementation” in some cases. The Biden administration recently used that power to accelerate student loan cancellation offered through a new federal repayment plan. Invoking that authority could allow Biden to start canceling debt later this year.

IS THIS A SURE THING?

Anything but. The Biden administration says it’s confident that the plan is allowed by the Higher Education Act. But loan cancellation of this type is uncharted territory, and conservative opponents are expected to challenge Biden’s plan in court.

Republicans have repeatedly fought Biden’s plan for student loan cancellation, saying it’s an unfair benefit shouldered by taxpayers who repaid their loans or didn’t go to college. Opponents say the Supreme Court was clear that widespread loan cancellation must come from Congress.

If Biden’s plan faces a lawsuit, courts could order the administration to halt cancellation until legal questions are sorted out. That scenario could leave the plan on hold beyond the November presidential election. Even if it survives legal challenges, a Donald Trump victory would spell almost certain doom for Biden’s plan.

CAN CANCELLATION BE REVERSED?

If Biden’s plan is overturned after the administration starts canceling loans, it would present a thorny question: Can forgiven student loans be unforgiven?

Technically, there are ways that canceled student debt can be reinstated. But doing it on such a large scale could be difficult and costly, requiring heavy work from loan servicers contracted to work for the Education Department.

It could also be politically fraught to reinstate debt after it’s been forgiven. Ultimately it could be up to the courts to decide how to handle debt that’s already been canceled.

The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org .

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Biden Wipes Out Another $7.4 Billion in Student Loan Debt

President Biden is hoping to shore up support with young voters who are disproportionately affected by soaring education costs. So far, he has canceled $153 billion in debt.

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By Zach Montague

Reporting from Washington

President Biden canceled $7.4 billion in student loan debt on Friday as he tries to shore up support with young voters who are disproportionately affected by soaring education costs, but who may be drifting away over his policy on Israel and the war in Gaza.

The latest round of relief is part of a strategy by the White House to take smaller, targeted actions for certain subsets of borrowers after the Supreme Court struck down a far more ambitious plan to wipe out $400 billion in debt last year.

Mr. Biden said this week that he would make another attempt at large-scale debt forgiveness for about 30 million people, despite Republican opposition and legal challenges. But in the meantime, he has been chipping away at student debt by fixing and streamlining existing programs that have been plagued by bureaucratic and other problems for years.

Friday’s announcement was the latest such move, affecting around 277,000 people. White House officials said those borrowers would be notified by email that day.

More than 200,000 of those who qualified had borrowed relatively small amounts originally — $12,000 or less — and have been making payments through the administration’s income-driven repayment plan , known as SAVE.

Others who will see relief include teachers, librarians, academics and public safety workers who have been making student loan payments for 10 years under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. Another 65,000 borrowers enrolled in other income-driven repayment plans will see adjustments reducing their debt, Mr. Cardona said.

So far, the Biden administration has forgiven $153 billion in debt for 4.3 million borrowers.

“We’ve approved help for roughly one out of 10 of the 43 million Americans who have federal student loans,” Miguel A. Cardona, the education secretary, told reporters.

Republicans in Congress characterize student debt relief as unfair to borrowers who struggled to pay off their student debt without assistance.

“You’re incentivizing people to not pay back student loans and at the same time penalizing and forcing people who did to subsidize those who didn’t,” Representative John Moolenaar, Republican of Michigan, said during a hearing on Wednesday, in which Mr. Cardona testified about the Education Department’s budget request for next year.

“I don’t see it as unfair. I see it as, we’re fixing something that’s broken,” Mr. Cardona said. “We have better repayment plans now so we don’t have to be in the business of forgiving loans in the future.”

On Monday, Mr. Biden outlined a new attempt to wipe out student loan debt on a larger scale, beyond the scope of the programs he has been relying on so far.

The new plan would reduce the amount that 25 million borrowers still owe on their undergraduate and graduate loans. It would wipe away the entire amount for more than four million Americans. Altogether, White House officials said, 10 million borrowers would see debt relief of $5,000 or more.

That plan must undergo a public comment period that stretches through the summer. It also must survive legal challenges.

The original plan relied on a law called the HEROES Act, which the administration argued allowed the government to waive student debt during a national emergency like the Covid pandemic. The Supreme Court disagreed.

Biden administration officials said because the new approach is based on a different law — the Higher Education Act — it is more likely to survive the expected challenges.

Zach Montague is based in Washington. He covers breaking news and developments around the district. More about Zach Montague

Our Coverage of the 2024 Election

Presidential Race

In his final campaign rally before his criminal trial in Manhattan was set to begin, former President Donald Trump cast himself as a victim of political persecution .

An average of recent surveys, including a new poll  by The New York Times and Siena College, shows that President Biden is inching closer to Trump, Nate Cohn writes .

At a rally in Arizona days after the state’s top court upheld a near-total ban on abortion, Vice President Kamala Harris placed the blame directly on Trump .

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