Checklist for Assigning and Responding to Low-Stakes Writing
✓ Are you integrating low-stakes writing meaningfully into your class? Low-stakes writing should not be an end in itself, but should rather serve the learning goals of your class—and you should make this apparent to your students. One of the most effective ways to incorporate low-stakes writing is to use it in service of high-stakes assignments. For example, using discussion posts that ask students to develop their ideas about your course content can serve them as they head into an exam or write an essay.
✓ Do you focus on the ideas present in the writing? Low-stakes writing assignments are meant to provide students with an avenue of discovery, exploration, and risk. When students are preoccupied by mechanics and grammar, the clarity of their thoughts can take a back seat. By responding to their ideas rather than their mechanical proficiency, you are demonstrating your concern for them as both writers with ideas to contribute as well as whole people.
✓ Are you assessing low-stakes writing simply, if at all? Low-stakes writing assignments do not have to be labor-intensive for instructors. You might consider using a ✔-/✔/✔+ rubric, or limit yourself to only a few comments per writing task. You could also have students provide feedback to one another, or only read one-third of student writing each assignment.
✓ Do you build opportunities for peer-to-peer and peer-to-instructor engagement? Low-stakes writing activities can also facilitate interaction in a student’s writing process, either between with other students or with you as their instructor. For example, you might consider asking students to brainstorm ideas for an upcoming research paper and then share that brainstorm with a partner, with specific questions that need to be answered. Or you might ask students to end each online class with one question that they still have about the course content, which you might then answer at the beginning of the following class or via email.
