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Writing
assignments can be a valuable tool. Instead of merely testing factual
knowledge, a good writing prompt can inspire students to learn in
a new way, to brainstorm and to synthesize ideas.
Adapted
from "High Stakes and Low Stakes in Assigning and Responding
to Writing" by Peter Elbow. In: Assigning and Responding
to writing Across the Disciplines, M.D. Sorcinelli and P. Elbow,
eds. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. 1997.
HIGH
STAKES WRITING - Something we are all familiar with
Writing can have 2 very different goals. We are most familiar with
the goal of writing to demonstrate what has been learned. For this
goal, the writing should be very good and it constitutes "high
stakes" because it is weighted fairly heavily in the course
evaluation or grade. It is important because it is one of the few
ways that we can come to know what the students have learned.
LOW STAKES WRITING - Used less but very effective in active
learning
There is another kind of writing that is used less commonly and
it is quite different from the high stakes essay, report, or term
paper. Low stakes writing involves writing that is done frequently
in the form of response papers, short bursts of writing in class,
or as a way to have students organize their thoughts. It is writing
for learning and it is "low stakes" writing because it
is not weighted or "graded" the way a major writing assignment
usually is, yet it allows students to use writing as part of the
learning process for any topic. It also helps students figure out
what they know and what they do not yet understand. Low stakes writing
can also be a way to let faculty know how much the students are
"getting" the topic and ideas in class and in homework
assignments. Low stakes writing is effective at promoting active
learning and engaged involvement in class.
Benefits:
- Frequent
low stakes writing is one of the best ways to force students to
keep up with assignments. Students understand and retain course
material much better when they write copiously about it.
- When
done frequently, low stakes writing teaches students how to focus
their thoughts, how to put into words the ideas in their head.
- Low
stakes writing helps students involve themselves more in the ideas
or subject matter of a course. They also can write about what
they are learning "in their own everyday language" with
out the formal discourse expected in high stakes writing.
Low stakes writing, precisely because it is low stakes, tends
to be livelier, clearer and more natural, and often more interesting.
- Low
stakes writing improves the quality of high stakes writing. It
warms them up and keeps them thinking and practicing being fluent
on the topic.
- Low
stakes writing gives the teachers a better view of how well students
are doing, what they understand and what is most confusing, and
what their thinking is about the course material.
- Low
stakes writing lets us see how our students learn to learn. It
can give us a glimpse of them as people with lives beyond the
project, term paper or exam.
- Low
stakes writing is low stakes for us too. It takes less time and
does not even need to be "graded" to be effective.
- Low
stakes writing does not need to take time away from course material.
- Low
stakes writing can be used to jump start discussions at the beginning,
or in the middle when the discussions have stalled.
EXAMPLES
OF LOW STAKES WRITING
Homework
Writing
Assign regular informal writing that you collect at first , and
if possible, that students share with each other, but that are read
quickly by the professor (if at all). This kind of writing helps
them learn the material and improve their fluency and clarity of
writing.
Think
Pieces
These may be weekly assignments about larger issues being addressed
in the class. Students can think of these as "letters to an
interested friend" explaining some issue or aspect that they
have been studying. These are still no-big-deal writing assignments,
but it enforces students to engage in an intellectual task prior
to coming to class. These tend to really help raise the level of
the discussions.
Private
Writing
It is possible to require students to write in a notebook that will
not be seen by the professor. Private writing gives students a safe
place to practice fluency by writing, and how to put words down
on paper easily and naturally. It teaches students how to have a
dialogue with themselves. It enforces the importance of writing
as part of the learning process.
Shared
or Peer Writing
This works well to raise the stakes a bit, but since the writing
is not graded, it keeps it in the low stakes realm. Students take
their own thinking more seriously when they have to read their writing
out loud and listen to that of others. It takes only several minutes
for students to share their writing in pairs, or small groups. Students
can be asked to read their work out loud, or read the work of their
peers out loud. They discuss the topics raised more than the writing
itself, so in this way, it continues the learning about the subject.
Peer
Feedback
Students can learn to give helpful feedback to each other's writing
either in pairs or in small groups, orally or in writing. Students
are most valuable to each other not as diagnosticians but as audience,
as readers who can reply with their reactions about the topic. The
feedback can be kept to the topic (say of biology or physics) and
thus this is not time spent from learning the subject matter to
focus on writing. The writing is used to focus on the subject matter,
and to let students dialogue with each other about the topic, starting
with the writing.
In
Class (Timed) Writing
- 8
minutes at the start of class to help students bring to mind their
homework reading or lab work or previous lectures (to help them
shut out the outside world and be present in the class)
- 8
minutes in mid class when things go dead-or to get students to
think about an important questions that has come up.
- 5
minutes at the end of class or lecture to get them to highlight
the day's activities
- 5
minutes at the end of class to write to the professor regarding
what they learned, what was the main ideas, what was going on
for them during the class. This helps students integrate the material
but also to realize what parts they didn't get or understand
- 1
minute at the end of the class: what was the least clear point?
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