1. How Students Interpret Writing Assignments Two Studies

2. The Manoa Writing Program Study What Instructors Expect What Instructors Expect “ For a short paper on a video, I wanted students to make connections among the archeologist’s questions, the methods used to get answers, and principles from their reading.” What Students Understand What Students Understand “This assignment was like writing a high-school movie review. I wanted to give my own personal understanding about the video, so I was going to write a narrative.”

3. Assignments What Instructors Expected What Instructors Expected “In the journals I wanted students to really wield their own opinions and grapple with issues, to really think about course material.” What Students Understand What Students Understand “When I first heard the assignment, I thought was supposed to write anything, like a reaction, just to show if I learned something.”

4. Assignments What Instructors Expect What Instructors Expect “I wanted students to really wrestle with the questions on the assignment sheet, to give in-depth answers. I wanted students to distinguish between the author’s words and their own interpretation.” What Students Understand What Students Understand “I was supposed to write a 6-page analysis on a reading and juice up the answers. I tried to make it sound good by adding lots of details and sounding excited in my writing.”

5. Some of what they found 1. Students translate an instructor’s goals into processes they think they can handle. 1. Students translate an instructor’s goals into processes they think they can handle. 2. Students enter WI classes with strategies they devised to deal with earlier writing assignments, and they may try to use these strategies again rather than risk something new. 2. Students enter WI classes with strategies they devised to deal with earlier writing assignments, and they may try to use these strategies again rather than risk something new.

6. What Students want in writing assignments. Some questions students want to ask their professors: “How the writing assignment help me to learn the course material?” “How the writing assignment help me to learn the course material?” “If you had to do this assignment yourself how would you do it?” “If you had to do this assignment yourself how would you do it?” “How does this writing assignment or topic relate to the work that specialists do in this field?” “How does this writing assignment or topic relate to the work that specialists do in this field?” “If you evaluate my work on this assignment, what exactly will you be looking for?” “If you evaluate my work on this assignment, what exactly will you be looking for?” “How will you be helping me through this writing assignment?” “How will you be helping me through this writing assignment?”

7. Second Study Center for the Study of Writing, Berkeley, Ca. Center for the Study of Writing, Pittsburgh, PA “This Was an Easy Assignment”: Examining How Students Interpret Academic Writing Tasks. Jennie Nelson’s technical report. Jennie Nelson’s technical report.

8. Results indicated that: 1.Students’ responses to assignments depended upon what they were actually rewarded for producing. 2. In some situations, students relied on short cuts to produce papers and failed to engage in the kinds of learning activities that assignments were designed to promote. Findings suggest that students draw from a range of individual and situational resources in their efforts to define and complete assignments and that these factors can interact in complex ways to shape students’ approaches.

9. Examining How Students Interpret academic writing tasks Professor Clark: This assignment should be challenging. I purposely made it difficult. Students have to boil down the information from the lectures and readings and present a concise argument. Essays could not exceed 200 words. I believe conciseness forces students to take a stand, to weigh the value of every word. John: This was an easy assignment. All you had to do was reiterate what you’d read. I picked lots of names and cited important-sounding incidents…essentially I paraphrased the reports I read. I think this assignment was another case of the instructor trying to have us learn through reiteration of reading material. In my opinion, it didn’t work and was a waste of class time.

10. Case Study 2. Engineering writing task Professor’s version of the assignment: He intended this writing task to be challenging exercise in synthesizing and transforming course material into a concise 200 word argument. He intended this writing task to be challenging exercise in synthesizing and transforming course material into a concise 200 word argument. Teaching Assistant’s version of the assignment: He felt that it was important to look for features or “competent writing”. He also looked for particular “content features” which consisted of key points from the course readings.

11. Students’ Versions of the Assignments: John and Judy John described this as an easy assignment. He explained that it required the writer to “present an argument based on evidence that was all there” in the assigned material. Judy had a similar response saying it was not “motivating” and that the 200 words limit was “utterly ridiculous” because it was nearly impossible to present “enough evidence” in just 200 words.

12. Students’ Interpretations, and Coping Strategies Two features that influenced students’ responses: 1. The limited purpose for the assignment (i.e. to show that the students had read and comprehended course material). 2. The seemingly arbitrary length restriction.

13. What this case shows As the nature of their teacher’s grading system became more apparent, they were able to “selectively attend to information that had consequences for task accomplishment.” As the nature of their teacher’s grading system became more apparent, they were able to “selectively attend to information that had consequences for task accomplishment.” The answers a teacher actually accepts and rewards define the real task in the classroom. The answers a teacher actually accepts and rewards define the real task in the classroom. It appears that both students’ previous experiences interacted with the situational variables and had an impact on their approaches to this assignment. It appears that both students’ previous experiences interacted with the situational variables and had an impact on their approaches to this assignment.

14. Case Study 3. Literature writing task Professor’s version of the assignment: “To give students the opportunity to investigate the repertoire of Victorian texts and to use this information to interpret one or more of them.” Students were encourage to come up with their own topic or issue. He wanted students to produce: “Remember that a research paper is an argument.”

15. How Students responded to this freedom Helen: She said she had no idea what the proper approach is or what the teacher is looking for in papers. Helen asked her professor to explain the assignment again and wrote in her log entry: “I think I have a better understanding of the paper’s goal. We have to propose and support an argument that is somewhat new. This argument must deal with the Victorian era.” “I think I have a better understanding of the paper’s goal. We have to propose and support an argument that is somewhat new. This argument must deal with the Victorian era.” “I think the professor wants us to use other’s arguments to develop our own. So in a sense this isn’t a research paper (i.e. telling what’s already been said like in high school) but rather an argument that requires research.”

16. Greg’s response to the assignment Greg: “The research paper will be easy to write, I am familiar with the material because I have read lots of Victorian literature and history in high school.” He was studying Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice in his aesthetics course and decided to propose this novel as a focus of his paper. Professor Green rejected his proposal because Austen wrote her novels several decades before the Victorian era. Unfortunately, Greg never pick us his proposal. His research paper was “written entirely from information gleaned from his aesthetics class rather than actual research on his part.”

17. What the Study Suggest Teachers need to examine the costs and benefits of providing students with such explicit written instructions for producing papers. Teachers need to examine the costs and benefits of providing students with such explicit written instructions for producing papers. Teachers must also weigh the costs involved in requiring students to deal with complex and unfamiliar tasks on their own. Teachers must also weigh the costs involved in requiring students to deal with complex and unfamiliar tasks on their own. Students rely on teacher feedback, particularly grades, to help them develop and refine their notions of what counts. Students rely on teacher feedback, particularly grades, to help them develop and refine their notions of what counts. Students task interpretations are based, at least in part, on situational factors over which the teacher has some control. Students task interpretations are based, at least in part, on situational factors over which the teacher has some control. Certain classroom practices and writing tasks may actually encourage students to take short cuts and rely on truncated writing strategies. Certain classroom practices and writing tasks may actually encourage students to take short cuts and rely on truncated writing strategies.