You can assign writing and avoid a grading avalanche

We all know what traditional writing assignments look like in college – the report, the term paper, the essay – these can be as short as 1,000 words or run dozens of pages. The expectation is that these assignments are the result of hours of work by the student and typically represent a major percentage of the students’ final grade in the course and as such the stakes are high for the student – which is why these assignments are known as high-stakes writing.

We need high-stakes writing assignments in college. First and foremost, because this is an important academic skill and we know that most professions will also require high-stakes writing (although it will most likely look nothing like the academic form but that is another blog post), but also because we know that thoughtful, complex writing can demonstrate understanding better than most other forms of assessment regardless of the discipline. So what stops us from assigning lots of high-stakes writing?

Read the full “You can assign writing and avoid a grading avalanche” post on my Metawriting blog – See more at: http://metawriting.deannamascle.com/you-can-assign-writing-and-avoid-a-grading-avalanche/#sthash.zn3XyLwf.dpuf