Assignments Matter: Making the Connections That Help Students Meet Standards

203 Pages·2012·1.4 MB·English

by  Eleanor Dougherty

Assignments
Matter
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Dougherty, Eleanor, 1947- author.
Assignments matter : making the connections that help students meet standards / Eleanor Dougherty.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4166-1440-1 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Effective teaching. 2. Learning. 3. Education—Aims and objectives. I. Title.
LB1025.3.D68 2012
371.102—dc23
2012018764
22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Assignments Matter
Making the Connections That Help
Students Meet Standards
Acknowledgments .................................................................................vii
Introduction ............................................................................................1
Part 1: Why and What
1 Why Assignments Matter ..........................................................7
2 The Basics ...............................................................................19
Part 2: In the Classroom
3 Crafting an Assignment ...........................................................35
4 Instruction ...............................................................................68
5 Sequencing Assignments to Design Units and Courses .............87
Part 3: Beyond the Classroom
6 Anchor Assignments .............................................................111
7 Environments That Make Assignments Matter ......................133
8 Assignments as Data ..............................................................153
Appendixes
Appendix A: Assignment Planning Guide .............................171
Appendix B: Unit Plan ..........................................................172
Appendix C: Glossary ...........................................................173
Appendix D: Sample Assignment Prompts ............................175
Appendix E: Resources .........................................................180
References ...........................................................................................181
Index ..................................................................................................185
About the Author ................................................................................191

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Acknowledgments
Assignments Matter is in many ways a collective work that evolved over the
last two decades, during which I have had the opportunity to work with
reform-minded educators who continually looked for ways to make teach-
ing and learning possible while holding themselves and other educators to
standards of excellence. I would like to take this unique opportunity to thank
the following colleagues and benefactors who have contributed to this work
at some point in my career in education and offer my gratitude: Sophie Sa of
the Panasonic Foundation for supporting my colleagues and me with a grant
in the 1980s to redesign a public high school in which assignments became a
significant driver in our curriculum design; Kati Haycock of the Education
Trust for recognizing that practice is advocacy; Vicki Phillips of the Gates
Foundation for her leadership and support over the years in making assign-
ments matter in school, district, and state communities; Carina Wong at the
Gates Foundation for her support in taking assignment-making to a new level;
my colleagues on the Literacy Design Collaborative team, Marilyn Crawford,
Stacy Galiatsos, Lee Kappes, Cathy Feldman, Anne Lewis, Jill Cannamela,
Mark Baier, Terry Roberts, and Laura Billings, for transforming assignments
into a national strategy; Jennifer Frentress and Guillarme Gendre for urging
me on through the writing of this book; and Carlton Jordan for helping me
evolve the methods in this book over a decade of assignment-making in class-
rooms and workshops across the country. There are many others, particularly
the teachers and educators who make assignments matter every day in their
classroom—thank you.
vii

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Introduction
Assignments Matter evolved over more than a decade of coaching and working
with teachers across the country in an effort to make classroom instruction
more effective and manageable. It draws on this experience and focuses on
teaching literacy practices by employing assignments in the late-elementary
through the secondary years.
Teaching that challenges students to meet expectations is hard work. It
takes thoughtful planning and skill to deliver instruction effectively. One way
teachers can make their work more challenging for students and manageable
for themselves is to insert assignments into their coursework.
As described in this book, an assignment is a recipe for teaching and
learning. Like a good recipe, an assignment is a written statement specify-
ing a charge and a process for accomplishing something. In the classroom,
this “something” is a product that demonstrates learning: an essay, a science
exhibit, a debate, a readers theater, or a proposal to the school board. And,
like a good recipe, assignments produce results.
Assignments Matter has two aims. The first is to guide educators—
teachers and administrators—in the craft of creating quality assignments by
articulating a design process that demystifies and streamlines assignment-
making, which is often a time-consuming, after-hours project for teachers.
The approach outlined in these pages is part procedural and part meta-
cognitive, prompting you to think about how and why you are making deci-
sions while you follow the seven steps of assignment-making. The book’s
second aim is to help educators become more aware of assignments’ impact
1