assignment module 9 review quiz

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9 Module 9: Assessment and Classroom Management

Guiding Questions for Module 9

• What key terms are associated with assessment and classroom management?
• How do teachers assess student learning, mastery, and achievement?
• How do teachers provide a safe, healthy, and productive learning environment?
• What important principles will guide your assessment and classroom management decisions?

Introduction to Assessment

We begin with a brief history of assessment. . .

Teachers seek basic answers about seemingly simple questions: To what extent have students mastered the lesson, unit, or course objectives? Yet, formulating a plan to answer those questions involves a series of complex decisions.

In this section we introduce you to the purposes, types, terms, and principles of assessment.  In the following section, you will learn about some basic assessment strategies.

Purposes of Assessment

In education, we assess for a variety of purposes. Here are some of the more important purposes of assessment:

• Instructional Purposes
• To diagnose student learning  prior to instruction
• Provide feedback to students
• Make decisions about the curriculum
• M ake decisions about instruction
• Set high expectations
• Public Accountability State testing
• Student Accountability Grading
• Student Placement

Types of Assessments

Teachers choose from a variety of types of assessment.

• Paper and Pencil Assessment (e.g., essay, multiple choice, short answer, fill in the blank, true/false, matching, rearranging, and ranking)
• Performance Assessment (e.g., rubrics, checklists, rating sheets, notes, diaries, story completion and logs)
• Portfolio Assessment

Classroom Level Assessment

Most teachers construct their own assessments–a challenging task.

Read: Fox, Dennis. 2000. “Classroom Assessment Data: Asking the Right Questions.” Leadership 30 (2): 22–23.

Principles of Assessment for Teachers

Finally, every teacher operates from some set of  principles that guide their assessment decisions. Years ago, I committed to paper the principles that guide my assessment decisions.

Dr. Vontz’s Principles of Assessment

• Clearly explain to students how they will be assessed and the criteria that will be used.
• Vary assessment strategies.
• Assess students often.
• Think of assessment as another learning opportunity for students.
• Assessment should clearly align with objectives.
• Assessment decisions should be made with individual students and classes in mind.
• Set high standards for students.
• Assess authentic tasks.
• Help students to become proficient at self-assessment.
• Do not test trivia!

Read: Gathercoal, Paul. 1995. “Principles of Assessment.” Clearing House 69 (September): 59–61.

Terms of Assessment

Teachers, like other professionals, use a particular language to describe various aspects of their work. Some of the most common terms associated with assessment are defined below.

• Assessment . The process of finding out what students know and are able to do—the emphasis is on what is happening now (e.g., to what extent can students write the ABC’s correctly?).
• Evaluation . The process of comparing what is with what ought to be , which normally involves a value judgment (e.g., can students write the ABC’s with no mistakes?).
• Test . A systematic procedure for sampling some aspect of human behavior.
• Measurement . The process of obtaining a numerical description of the extent to which an individual possesses some characteristic.
• Norm-referenced Tests . The results of norm-referenced tests are used to compare one group of students with another group (e.g., Missouri students at grade eight compared to students across the United States at grade eight or I.Q. tests).
• Criterion-referenced Tests . The results of criterion-referenced tests are used to evaluate the extent to which each student’s achievement has met some standard or criteria (e.g., 85% correct).
• Formal Assessment . The formal techniques (e.g., paper and pencil tests, performance assessment, portfolios) teachers use to judge the extent to which students are achieving learning outcomes or objectives.
• Informal Assessment . The informal techniques (e.g., observations, group discussion, questioning, individual conferences) teachers use on a daily basis to judge the extent to which students are achieving learning outcomes or objectives.
• Formative Assessment . This type of assessment is conducted to diagnose learning difficulties and to plan instruction (e.g., a pre-test at the beginning of the year to assess student knowledge of early United States history).
• Summative Assessment . This type of assessment is concerned with evaluating the extent to which students have achieved.
• Authentic Assessment . Assessing students’ ability to perform real world or authentic tasks.
• Scoring Rubric . A rating scale that describes student achievement in relation to some task.  Rubrics are used assess students and to clarify instruction.

Assessment Example

Read: Ende, Fred. 2014. “Every Assessment Tells a Story.” Science Scope 37 (5): 32–37.

Overview of Assessment Strategies

Let’s time travel again: What types of assessments do you recall in elementary, middle, and high school? College? What kinds did you like? What kinds did you find frustrating? What were some of the issues with assessments? Did you always try your best on every assessment? Some more than others? Why?

Back to the present…in your field experiences, notice the types of assessments your cooperating teachers use? To what levels of success?

Let’s examine some of the types of assessment that are available for you to use in your classroom:

No Assessment

Sometimes an activity or lesson does not merit assessment. Perhaps this is because it is connected to another activity that will be assessed, or perhaps it involves something that simply cannot be assessed.

Informal Teacher Observation

At the very least, teachers are always watching and attempting to gauge the extent to which students understand, are engaged, and so on. While these observations will not be reflected in the grade book, they will help shape the instruction and assessments to follow.

Credit/No Credit

Some assignments are not worthy of a critical assessment for quality, but some kind of value must be attached in order to get students to complete the work. Many teachers, therefore, assign credit/no credit status, and award a minimal number of points (e.g., five or ten) for the adequate completion of the assignment. It is usually necessary to provide some sort of standard for students to understand what is required to achieve “credit” (e.g., “show me you took the assignment seriously”).

Self Assessment

The practice of having students assess their own work. Often this is done before the work is submitted for more formal assessment by the teacher.

Holistic Scoring

Holistic scoring has received quite a bit of bad press of late, but it has long been the preferred method of scoring student writing. The instructor simply reads the work to be assessed, makes marginal comments as appropriate, writes a paragraph or so in support of the final grade, and then assigns a grade. Usually, this is a letter grade, as it is easier to rationalize how a paper can be a “B” as opposed to trying to explain what makes a paper an 86. This method is probably most appropriately used to score essay or short-answer portions of examinations.

Objective Tests

Traditional tests or quizzes using questions with answers that are right and answers that are wrong.

Analytic Scoring

Best applied to extended written work, speeches, projects, portfolios, and the like, this method involves creating a rubric based on the important qualities of the assignment. Each trait listed should include descriptors of various levels of performance so that products of different quality can be distinguished from one another. The six-trait, analytic scale is one example of this type of assessment.

Primary-Trait Scoring

Again best applied to extended works, this methods assesses student work on the basis of a single trait. For example, a poem might be scored on the basis of “voice,” or an employment application might be scored strictly on “mechanics.” This type of scoring helps to focus student attention on one quality, and it is effective for measuring the success of instruction in a particular area. Primary-trait scoring is not particularly useful in providing an overall assessment of student work.

A collection of student work, typically scored using a rubric. These collections can be cumulative (e.g., a writing folder containing all student work) or developmental (e.g., selected artifacts collected over time to show growth) or showcase (e.g., the students’ very best work). Typically a portfolio offers a balance of required and optional artifacts. The portfolio itself might be scored using an analytic scoring guide (rubric).

Standardized Tests

Formal tests developed by the government, commercial test makers, or local schools. These exams are used to compare students, teachers, schools, and states against one another; to assess the effectiveness of educational programs; and to plan curriculum and instruction to meet the needs of students. It is worth remembering that these tests provide another measure of the success of classroom activities.

Key Points on Assessment

• Know what you want to test/assess. Just because you’ve reached the end of a unit or a book or an activity doesn’t mean a certain assessment is required. Think about what you want your students to know or be able to do, and then make your assessment (and, of course, your teaching) directly link to that goal.
• Use assessment to see what your students understand. Assessment is a great tool to determine what your students are learning and what you may need to reteach.
• Use assessment to assess your teaching strengths and areas needing improvement. These assessments provide a view of how you’re doing as ateacher.
• Mix it up; don’t use the same type of assessment every time. (Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences should encourage you to give a variety of assessment types so your students have ample opportunities to showcase what they know in a way that takes advantage of their own abilities and strengths.) Allow your students options regarding the type of assessment they can use.
• Document that your content area standards are being covered.
• Don’t assess out of anger. Assessments are valuable, but don’t use them as a classroom management tool or for punishment. As teachers, we need to see assessments as valuable learning tools…so we need to implement them in such a manner, as well.
• Once your students have been assessed, then it’s time for you to grade those assessments and provide meaningful feedback so your students can progress.

Pitfalls of grading

• Not being consistent in what is considered “right” vs. “wrong,” or “good vs. bad.” Students need to know the benchmarks of quality work; show them examples, if possible, and thoroughly discuss your expectations.
• Putting grades in the grade book just to fill space. Quality  of assessments needs to be balanced with quantity of assess ments. Students need multiple opportunities to show what they know, but those opportunities also need to be meaningful.
• Not grading in a timely fashion. It’s easy to be overwhelmed by the responsibility of grading students’ work…and by the volume of grading required. However, students need to receive your feedback fairly soon after having completed the assessment so they will receive the most benefit from your feedback. And that leads us to…
• Not providing enough feedback. Smiley faces are nice, but your students need more details. Provide specific ideas on how they can improve and what they should work on for “next time.”
• Providing too much feedback. Let’s face it, a student who receives a paper that has been bloodied by a red pen isn’t going to be eager to share the next one with you. If a student struggles with an assessment, which should mean he or she is also struggling with your daily class work, provide a few areas that he or she can address, as well as ideas on how to improve in those areas. Don’t overwhelm your students by trying to “fix” everything at one time. Learning, like life, is a continual process.

Note on Designing Rubrics

Performance rubrics are commonly used across disciplines and subjects toclarify expectations and aid assessment. Like most things in teaching, there is an art to constructing a powerful rubric.  Watch the brief introduction below.

Read: “TAME THE BEAST: TIPS FOR DESIGNING AND USING RUBRICS.” States News Service , January 18, 2012 .

Note on Designing Multiple Choice Questions  

Please consider the following excerpts from various essays regarding instrument item construction. We hope you find the short review helpful.

Question Format

A review of the literature suggests that the strongest format is one where the multiple-choice items are prepared as direct questions. This is in contrast to incomplete statements, or clusters of answers such as a and b, b and c, etc.

Lucy Jacobs (IU) offers suggestions for writing multiple-choice items that measure the higher thinking skills. Not all of these will be applicable for concepts such as the social contract, constitutionalism, or rights, but they may stimulate your thinking:

• Present practical or real-world situations to the students. These problems may use short paragraphs describing a problem in a practical situation. Items can be written which call for the application of principles to the solution of these practical problems,or the evaluation of several alternative procedures.
• Present the student with a diagram of equipment and ask for application, analysis, or evaluations, e.g., “What happens at point A if…?” or “How is A related to B?”
• Present actual quotations taken from newspapers or other published sources or contrived quotations that could have come from such sources. Ask for the interpretation or evaluation of these quotations.
• Use pictorial materials that require students to apply principles andconcepts.
• Use charts, tables, or figures that require interpretation.

Multiple-Choice Item-Writing Checklist

Do make sure that:.

• The item assesses important knowledge or skills.
• The question (or stem) presents a clearly formulated problem or question.
• There is only one right answer.
• The “distracters” should be plausible and free of clues that might help students easily eliminate one or more of the incorrect choices.
• The wording of the item clearly conveys the intent of the item and does not present obstacles to the students’ ability to demonstrate what they know.
• Use simple, basic vocabulary.
• Make sure sentence structure in the item is simple—avoid passive voice.
• The item should include only the information needed to answer the question or complete the task.
• Avoid idiomatic language and terms.
• The answer choices should be as brief and simple as possible.
• Always state items and questions in positive terms. Avoid using “negatives” in both the item stem and answer choices.
• All answer choices must be approximately the same in length.
• All answer choices should be similar in complexity and detail. (Avoid making the correct answer overly attractive.)
• Make sure all answer choices are grammatically parallel.
• Verify all answer choices are grammatically consistent with the stem of the item.
• Never use “all of the above” and “none of the above” as answer choices.

BIAS/SENSITIVITY ISSUES

• The item should provide all students with a fair opportunity to demonstrate what they know, regardless of their race, ethnicity, gender, religion, disability, socioeconomic status, or the region in which they live.
• The subject, issue, or theme addressed by the item should not demean or offend.

How To Improve a Multiple Choice Item

• criticizes the mayor in a public meeting.
• slanders another person publicly.
• wishes to speak against the government.
• demonstrates against tax increases.
• criticizing the mayor in a public meeting.
• slandering another person publicly.
• wishing to speak against the government.
• demonstrating against tax increases.
• Pennsylvania
• accelerating slowly
• jammed on the brakes
• hold the wheel firmly
• slowly decelerating
• jamming on the brakes
• holding the wheel firmly
• slowing down gradually
• to maintain peace among the peoples of the world
• to establish international law
• to provide military control
• to form new governments
• to develop a new system of international law
• to provide military control of nations that have recently attained their independence
• to establish and maintain democratic forms of government in newly formed nations

Writing Stems

We will first describe some basic rules for the construction of multiple-choice stems, because they are typically, though not necessarily, written before the options.

1.      Before writing the stem, identify the one point to be tested by that item. In general, the stem should not pose more than one problem, although the solution to that problem may require more than one step.

2.      Construct the stem to be either an incomplete statement or a direct question, avoiding stereotyped phraseology, as rote responses are usually based on verbal stereotypes. For example, the following stems (with answers in parentheses) illustrate undesirable phraseology:

What is the biological theory of recapitulation? (Ontogeny repeats phylogeny) Who was the chief spokesman for the “American System”? (Henry Clay)

Correctly answering these questions likely depends less on understanding than on recognizing familiar phraseology.

3.      Avoid including nonfunctional words that do not contribute to the basis for choosing among the options. Often an introductory statement is included to enhance the appropriateness or significance of an item but does not affect the meaning of the problem in the item. Generally, such superfluous phrases should be excluded. For example, consider:

The American flag has three colors. One of them is (1) red (2) green (3) black

One of the colors of the American flag is (1) red (2) green (3) black

In particular, irrelevant material should not be used to make the answer less obvious. This tends to place too much importance on reading comprehension as a determiner of the correct option.

4.      Include as much information in the stem and as little in the options as possible. For example, if the point of an item were to associate a term with its definition, the preferred format would be to present the definition in the stem and several terms as options, rather than to present the term in the stem and several definitions as options.

5.      Restrict the use of negatives in the stem. Negatives in the stem usually require that the answer be a false statement. Because students are likely in the habit of searching for true statements, this may introduce an unwanted bias.

6.      Avoid irrelevant clues to the correct option. Grammatical construction, for example, may lead students to reject options, which are grammatically incorrect as the stem is stated. Perhaps more common and subtle, though, is the problem of common elements in the stem and in the answer.  Consider the following item:

What led to the formation of the States’ Rights Party? The level of federal taxation The demand of states for the right to make their own laws The industrialization of the South The corruption of federal legislators on the issue of state taxation One does not need to know U.S. history in order to be attracted to the answer, b. Other rules we might list are generally commonsense, including recommendations for independent and important items and prohibitions against complex, imprecise wording.

Writing Options

Following the construction of the item stem, the likely more difficult task of generating options presents itself. The rules we list below are not likely to simplify this task as much as they are intended to guide our creative efforts.

• Be satisfied with three or four well-constructed options. Generally, the minimal improvement to the item due to that hard- to-come-by fifth option is not worth the effort to construct it. Indeed, all else the same, a test of 10 items each with four options is likely a better test than a test with nine items of five options each.
• Construct distracters that are comparable in length, complexity, and grammatical form to the answer, avoiding the use of such words as “always,” “never,” and “all.” Adherence to this rule avoids some of the more common sources of biased cueing. For example, we sometimes find ourselves increasing  the length and specificity of the answer (relative to distracters) in order to insure its truthfulness. This, however, becomes an easy-to-spot clue for the test-wise student. Related to this issue is the question of whether or not test writers should take advantage of these types of cues to construct more tempting distracters. Surely not! The number of students choosing a distracter should depend only on deficits in the content area which the item targets and should not depend on cue biases or reading comprehension differences in “favor” of the distracter.
• Options which read “none of the above,” “both a. and e. above,” “all of the above,” or “etc.” should be avoided when the students have been instructed to choose “the best answer,” which implies that the options vary in degree of correctness. On the other hand, “none of the above” is acceptable if the question is factual and is probably desirable if computation yields the answer. “All of the above” is never desirable, as one recognized distracter eliminates it and two recognized answers identify it.
• After the options are written, vary the location of the answer on as random a basis as possible. A convenient method is to flip two (or three) coins at a time where each possible Head-Tail combination is associated with a particular location for the answer. Furthermore, if the test writer is conscientious enough to randomize the answer locations, students should be informed that the locations are randomized. (Test-wise students know that for some instructors the first option is rarely the answer.)

Excerpted (with permission) from an essay by Jerard Kehoe Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

Classroom Management

One third of all teachers leave the profession in the first three years, and nearly half of teachers leave after five years. These statistics are alarming. Of course, a variety of factors contribute to a person’s decision to leave teaching. One of the most common reasons former teachers provide, however, is problems with classroom management and student discipline. Every day, teachers make scores (a fancy word for 20) of decisions that will impact student learning, behavior, and the environment they are creating with their students. This chapter aims to provide you with some initial insights that will grow with additional experience and practice.

Introduction to Classroom Management

Like other aspects of a teacher’s job, classroom management is complex. There is no script to follow, and many of the most important classroom management decisions arise in the context of actually teaching—there isn’t time to carefully and critically reflect. You cannot ask the students for a timeout so you can consult a textbook, a colleague, or a principal about what to do or say. Being a successful classroom manager requires practical wisdom—doing the right things, for good reasons, in the best ways. This section is an introduction to ideas that you will spend a career refining.

The Goal of Classroom Management

The goal of classroom management is to create, with your students, a safe, healthy, and positive learning environment. Every classroom has a climate, a culture, a “feeling tone.” How would you like your students to describe your classroom? Most teachers would hope their students would say things like: focused, engaged, challenging, fun.

For Starters

Much of what constitutes effective classroom management happens before the school year or semester ever begins. Effective classroom managers are proactive; they tend to think of solutions to problems before they happen. Here are a few general classroom management considerations teachers should resolve before they ever meet their students.

What rules will govern your classroom? Who will create them? How will they be communicated to students? What happens if a rule is broken? As you might imagine, answers to these questions vary widely among teachers. Based on our experience, we offer a few tips about creating rules:

•   Keep them simple and general.

•   Avoid attempting to create a rule for every way a student might misbehave.

•   Provide clear examples ad non-examples Example: Respect me, respect yourself, and respect each other.

What will be your policy for late work, going to the bathroom, food or drink in class, tardies, plagiarism, cell phones, academic honesty, or forgetting materials? Effective teachers have carefully considered and answered these questions before class ever begins.

Example: 10% is deducted from late assignments for every day an assignment is late, up to a maximum of five school days, at which time the assignment becomes a zero.

Rewards and Punishments

Incentives and consequences are often a part of a teacher’s classroom management program. Although students should be motivated in other ways, what might be some appropriate rewards or punishments in your class?

Example: At the end of the semester, I will add 2% extra credit to your overall grade. I will deduct .5% for every time you 1) use the bathroom,  2) come to class unprepared, 3) come late to class, 4) leave trash in your desk.

The classroom is a dynamic place. What procedures will you use to accomplish routine tasks? Read Harry Wong, Rosemary Wong, Karen Rogers, and Amanda Brooks’s Managing Your Classroom for Success. Consider what procedures you will use for:

• Entering the classroom

• Tardiness

• Dismissal

• Quiet work time

• Attention-getting signal

• Calling on students

• Asking for help

• Make-up work

• Turning in papers

• Returning papers

• Leaving your seat

• Leaving the room

• Time when work is complete

• School announcements

• Visitors in the classroom

• Watching videos

• Lunch (if applicable)

• Grading, tests, extra credit

Read: Wong, Harry, Rosemary Wong, Karen Rogers, and Amanda Brooks. 2012. “Managing Your Classroom for Success.”  Science & Children  49 (9): 60–64.

Tips for Promoting a Positive Classroom

Read Sprick, Randy, and K. Daniels. 2010. “Managing Student Behavior.”  Principal Leadership  11 (1): 18–21 .

Compare their tips to those created by Tom Vontz years ago. How are these tips alike, and how are they different?

Vontz’s Tips for Classroom Management

• CLARIFY EXPECTATIONS AND VISION AND SUPPORT WITH SPECIFIC EXAMPLES AND NON-EXAMPLES.
• JUSTIFY YOUR CONCEPTION; PROVIDE A RATIONALE.
• KEEP EXPECTATIONS AND VISION SIMPLE.
• YOU CANNOT CONTROL STUDENT BEHAVIOR.
• ACCEPT THAT THERE ARE BETTER AND WORSE WAYS OF RESPONDING TO STUDENT BEHAVIOR.
• CONSISTENTLY MONITOR STUDENT BEHAVIOR AND ADHERE TO YOUR VISION—USE ACUMEN.
• GET TO KNOW EACH STUDENT WELL—ESTABLISH TRUST.
• STUDENTS SHOULD SHARE SOME DEGREE OF POWER AND RESPONSIBILITY FOR THEIR LEARNING AND BEHAVIOR.
• STUDENT TALKING/CHATTER.
• HAVE A GENERAL PLAN.
• THINK OF PARENTS AS IMPORTANT PARTNERS IN THE EDUCATION OF THEIR CHILD; THINK ABOUT WHEN THEY MIGHT APPRECIATE A PHONE CALL.
• DON’T TAKE YOURSELF OR YOUR CLASSROOM TOO SERIOUSLY.
• REMEMBER THE THREE C’S OF CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT: CLARITY, CONSISTENCY, AND CALMNESS.

The Don’ts of Classroom Management and Discipline

Read: Spitalli, Samuel J. 2005. “The Don’ts of Student Discipline.” Education Digest 70 (5): 28–31.

Classroom Management Strategies

First and foremost, classroom management is not synonymous with discipline, though people often lump them together in the same educational discussions. Indeed, they are related, but we need to understand that the link is cause and effect. Good classroom management means less discipline is required. And less discipline means fewer headaches for you, the classroom teacher, and fewer issues for your administrators to deal with, as well.

As you visit classrooms, or remember your own classroom experiences as a student, what types of behavior issues have you observed? Could some classroom management strategies have eliminated…or, at least, reduced…some of the issues?

Read: 5 Quick Classroom-Management Tips for Novice Teachers

As you gain experience in the classroom, you’ll also become much better at foreseeing what types of behavior issues could appear, based on the type of activity they’re participating in, possibilities of where discussions might lead, and even environmental issues such as a snowstorm headed to your area or the excitement of spring break approaching. All of these require a savviness in the classroom so you can be prepared for all the possibilities.

And with your growing experiences in classroom management, you will have a sense of missteps you might be able to avoid. As one administrator told me early on in my first year of teaching, “You’ll know where that train is headed before it even leaves the station.”

So, in addition to general advice, what tricks work for teachers? Watch the popular video on Classroom Management “Hacks” below.

Specific problems often require specific solutions.

Read and watch:  Classroom Management Strategies & Techniques.

And, finally, always consider the following:

•  Set the tone of your classroom early on.

•  Keep rules simple.

•  Good classroom management means much less need for discipline and much more time for learning.

•  Never respond when you’re angry.

•  Never touch a student, especially if you’re angry.

•  Always remember that the student in front of you is someone’s child and is deserving of respect.

Unfortunately, we, and that includes students and teachers, never respond as well as we would like in all classroom situations. To use one of my daughter’s theater references, each day you “End Scene.” Every day is a new day, where you need to give your students and yourself a clean slate, even after a difficult situation. People—young and old alike—make mistakes; allow yourself and your students to move on with an opportunity for a new, successful day.

Elementary Case Studies

Cindy is a very mature 12-year-old sixth-grade student. She is intelligent, and good grades come easily to her. She is the youngest child in the family and is still referred to as the baby. If Cindy does not get her way at school, she sulks and has been known to blurt out obscenities. Her parents are very religious and would not condone such behavior. They feel that some mistake must have been made, since Cindy told them she hasn’t done anything wrong.

What do you do?

Shawna is in third grade. She is 9 years old, very pretty, extremely conscientious, and works hard on any assignments. Shawna is an overachiever. On recent group achievement tests, Shawna’s scores were average. Her parents were outraged and insisted she be tested again. Subsequent tests revealed the same results. The parents began putting pressure on Shawna to work harder.

Secondary Case Studies

A young teacher is worried about the exuberant affection a junior boy shows toward her. He occasionally puts his arm around her or slaps her on the back when he sees her. The student comes from a large family where much affection is shown, so the teacher feels hesitant about telling the boy how she feels.

A group of students frequently talk quietly during instruction. You have asked them to be quiet and warned them not to talk when you are talking, yet they continue. You decide your best option is to split them up. When you ask the first student to change seats, Steve refuses and asks why you are picking on him.

EDCI 702: Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment Copyright © 2020 by Thomas Vontz and Lori Goodson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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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 they 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 their 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, they still have 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 they already know 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 they expect.

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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