Assignments Matter: Making the Connections That Help Students Meet Standards

by Eleanor Dougherty

What exactly is an "assignment," and why does it matter? How can educators ensure that their teaching meets the rigorous demands of the Common Core State Standards, so that all students are well prepared for college or careers? Drawing from her extensive experience as a teacher coach, author Eleanor Dougherty answers these questions and many more, with two aims in (1) to guide teachers and administrators in crafting high-quality assignments, and (2) to help educators understand the powerful impact that assignments can have on teaching and learning. The book explains the critical differences among "assignments," "activities," and "assessments" and thoroughly describes the key elements of an prompts, rubrics, products, and instructional plans. Readers will learn how to.
* Follow a seven-step process for crafting effective assignments;

* Link assignments to units and courses;

* Devise "Anchor" assignments for collaboration and consistency across grades;

* Tap into instructional "touchstones" that can enrich any assignment;

* Create classroom and school environments that support assignment-making; and

* Use assignments as a source of data about teaching and learning.
Equipped with the knowledge and expertise gained from Assignments Matter , readers will be able to create meaningful learning experiences for their students and come to appreciate the author's belief that "assignments may well be the missing link in school reform efforts to improve student achievement."

Genres: Education, Teaching, School, Nonfiction

203 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 30, 2012

Reviews

[J & J · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Cath Holden · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's sad when a book with common sense ideas is praised for blazing new ground because education is hyper focused on assessments.

[Kimberly Souder · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of good tips and things to think about.

[Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

The gist of this book is that all assignments are not created equal. Assignments need to be relevant to students and have rigor. They should be used as teaching opportunities and for formative assessment rather than summative assessment. According to the author a worksheet is not an assessment but an essay is as long as the prompt is thought provoking, doesn't really have a right or wrong answer, and the teacher provides students with opportunities to practice the skills necessary to produce the final product that completes the "assignent". She also emphasizes the importance of assignments as cross curricular tools for meeting common core standards for language claiming that it is possible to do this in all core subjects without sacrificing content.

It sounds good but the reality of time theft in the classroom makes me skeptical that I can continue to meet my own content standards and explicitly teach English standards as well. That said, there are some useful templates for designing promts, assignments and unit plans that I can easily incorporate into my curriculum. However, the books is seriously lacking in strategies for actually managing the instructional time in the classroom.

I feel this book assumes that all high school teachers are familiar with the techniques that English teachers use to teach thesis writing, notetaking for information, and the key strategies and vocabulary students need to decode the complex texts they are expected to be reading. I am able to perform these tasks myself, but I'm not confident about teaching students how to perform them because I'm a science teacher not an English teacher. The ideal situation (according to this author) is that coteaching goes on and assignments can be interdisciplinary. The current schedules of most high schools don't realisticly allow for this to happen. I guess more professional development will be in order. In addition, the book needed to provide more specific grade level examples of actual student work. I think there are a total of three student examples in the whole book!

[Adam Gutschenritter · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first thought as I read this book was that Dougherty was a former History teacher. My second was that it was worth a shot and with the ease of the forms it takes away the fear of an elaborate lesson planning system. I will be giving it a try, even if it just becomes one of the multitude of tricks I have up my sleave.

[Tracey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Useful information with helping teachers organize units, determine if assignments are valuable or just time fillers.

[Cheri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book study blog with team...assignmentsmatter.edublogs.org

[Wendie Joy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very clear about textbook about how to craft quality assignments that align to all standards.