Examples of Low-Stakes Writing Assignments
Write-pair-share
Give students two minutes to write down their response to a question, or reflect on material. Have students turn to a partner and share their thoughts. After an announced time limit, call on a few students to share their ideas with the class.
The Question Box
Have students write anonymous questions about the content of lectures, which encourages them to think more critically about what they are hearing. Students can be asked to write these questions before, during, and after lectures. They can deposit their questions either in a box in the classroom or in an online forum. During subsequent classes, the lecturer can incorporate these student questions and insights into the presentation material, usually by reproducing the remarks on transparencies and projecting them directly to the class for comment and response.
Microthemes or Minute Papers
Ask the class to write for one minute in response to a question (or prompt) provided. The prompt should be focused and specific, but open-ended enough to encourage thoughtful writing. You can provide students with specifics that they must draw a conclusion from, or ask them to apply a theory to a new set of facts, or ask them to explain a process for solving a problem.
- “Choose one of the following propositions and defend it in two pages: The price earnings ratio of a stock does/does not reflect the rate or return that investors in that stock will achieve.”
- “Some organs of the body are functionally unique single structures (e.g., one heart, one spleen). Others are found as functionally redundant pairs (two kidneys, two lungs). Explain how the human brain might be cited as an illustration of both kinds of anatomical structure.”
Persona Pieces
Have students role play a particular figure, perhaps in the form of a journal entry or a letter.
Journals
Have students write regularly in a journal. Journals provide students with time and a requirement to think about course material and to engage in an ongoing written dialogue with their instructors. As Toby Fulwiler explains, journals can help individualize learning and encourage “writers to become conscious, through language, of what is happening to them, both personally and academically.”
Students can use journals to
- record thoughts, insights, and impressions about course material
- ask questions and speculate; clarify, modify, and extend ideas
- respond to reading, lectures, or instructor’s questions
- begin thinking about ideas that can later be developed into more formal papers
- discover connections between course materials; prepare for exams, class discussion, or course papers
- gain fluency in writing.
Course Dictionaries
Have students keep a glossary of key terms in a course and produce definitions, examples, illustrations, maps, diagrams, etc. During the first part of a course, students identify main terms and major concepts; during the second part, students collaboratively compile the course dictionary. The audience for the dictionary is students who will take the course in future semesters.
