Effective student writing begins with well-designed classroom assignments. In Designing Writing Assignments, veteran educator Traci Gardner offers practical ways for teachers to develop assignments that will allow students to express their creativity and grow as writers and thinkers while still addressing the many demands of resource-stretched classrooms.
In Assignments across the Curriculum, Dan Melzer analyzes the rhetorical features and genres of writing assignments through the writing-to-learn and writing-in-the-disciplines perspectives. Presenting the results of his study of 2,101 writing assignments from undergraduate courses in the natural sciences, social sciences, business, and humanities in 100 postsecondary institutions in the United States, Assignments across the Curriculum is unique in its cross-institutional breadth and its focus on writing assignments. The results provide a panoramic view of college writing in the United States. Melzer's framework begins with the rhetorical situations of the assignments—the purposes and audiences—and broadens to include the assignments' genres and discourse community contexts. Among his conclusions is that courses connected to a writing-across-the-curriculum (WAC) initiative ask students to write more often, in a greater variety of genres, and for a greater variety of purposes and audiences than non-WAC courses do, making a compelling case for the influence of the WAC movement. Melzer's work also reveals patterns in the rhetorical situations, genres, and discourse communities of college writing in the United States. These larger patterns are of interest to WAC practitioners working with faculty across disciplines, to writing center coordinators and tutors working with students who bring assignments from a variety of fields, to composition program administrators, to first-year writing instructors interested in preparing students for college writing, and to high school teachers attempting to bridge the gap between high school and college writing.
Writing assignments are road maps-or they should be. They guide the writer on a journey. They lay out a process, envision a destination. They are designed. As Jim Burke explains it: "What we are really doing when we create a year's worth of writing assignments, of experiences, is designing a story. Each day's class a sentence, each week a paragraph, each unit a chapter in the story of the year students spend in our classes. And as with any good story, there needs to be tension and transformation by the time one arrives at the end, or what I have called 'the user's journey.'" These maps are crucially important for engaging students with academic writing, which is often unfamiliar territory. Drawing on his extensive review of academic writing assignments across the country, Jim identifies six major categories of writing assignments that help students become better writers, readers, and thinkers: - Writing to learn - Short answer - Writing on demand - Process paper (which goes through multiple drafts) - Research paper/report - Alternate forms (multimedia presentations, etc.). For each assignment type, Jim invites us into his own practice. He shows how he composes the assignment, how he creates gateway activities to help prepare students, how he troubleshoots common problems, how he gives response, how he clarifies the criteria on which students will be judged. He also shows how these assignments are related-how the earlier assignments build to later more complex ones So please join a master teacher at work. Take this journey with him.
BEST GIFT IDEA 2018 - SPECIAL PRICE- Normally $16.95 (WHILE STOCKS LAST ) Creative Writing Prompts Are you ready for new challenges guaranteed to help you improve your creativity, writing and conceptual skills in just a few short hours? With 365 creative writing prompts, you can. Remove yourself from your comfort zone, and start to explore the unchartered paths to finding new and improved writing styles to benefit you. 365 creative writing prompts is guaranteed to be the perfect writing companion. New Creative Writing Prompts
"Academic writing can be a daunting prospect for new undergraduates and postgraduates alike, regardless of whether they are home or overseas students. This accessible book provides them/students with all they need to know to produce excellent written work. Neil Murray from University of South Australia." -- BACK COVER.
Creative questions elicit creative responses. That's what English teacher David LeCount demonstrates in this collection of quirky, provocative writing prompts designed to release students from standardized writing assignments. More than 600 prompts serve as multidisciplinary opportunities for students to write creatively. Dream Writing Assignments can be used in two ways: as a practical, flexible, and handy resource for teachers who are looking for creative topics to assign, and as a stimulating student text. The prompts encourage students to research, reflect, and explore; engage in wordplay; and experience writing as a form of discovery and delight. Think of the results if you should invite your students to answer the following questions: How are violence and intelligence related? What is your idea of the perfect experience of beauty or happiness? If greed is an addiction, how can it be cured? More than a list of topics, Dream Writing Assignments includes student writing samples, plus principles and examples of masterpieces of Asian literature woven throughout the prompts. Haiku is a favorite of American teachers, and LeCount uses his expertise in this short verse form to offer some examples for the curious to try their hand or refresh their thinking. Use the prompts so students can discover their own voices. Shake them from their daily, routine minds and awaken them to a world where their imaginations can roam.
"This eBook features 501 sample writing prompts that are designed to help you improve your writing and gain the necessary writing skills needed to ace essay exams. Build your essay-writing confidence fast with 501 Writing Prompts!" --
Inspired by a real-life incident, this riveting novel explores the dangerous impact discrimination and antisemitism have on one community when a school assignment goes terribly wrong. Would you defend the indefensible? That's what seniors Logan March and Cade Crawford are asked to do when a favorite teacher instructs a group of students to argue for the Final Solution--the Nazi plan for the genocide of the Jewish people. Logan and Cade decide they must take a stand, and soon their actions draw the attention of the student body, the administration, and the community at large. But not everyone feels as Logan and Cade do--after all, isn't a school debate just a school debate? It's not long before the situation explodes, and acrimony and anger result. Based on true events, The Assignment asks: What does it take for tolerance, justice, and love to prevail? "An important look at a critical moment in history through a modern lens showcasing the power of student activism." --SLJ
Twenty original, classroom-tested assignments: This innovative collection of college writing assignments explores the practical applications of each lesson. Drawing upon current best practices, each chapter includes a discussion of the rationale behind the assignment, along with supplemental elements such as guidelines for evaluation, prewriting exercises and tips for avoiding common pitfalls. The assignments are designed for a range of courses, from first-year composition to upper-division writing in various disciplines.
