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Home > Resources > Inclusive Classroom > Methods Introduction > Assignments

Assignments

Getting students to do their assignments has becoming increasingly challenging in recent years. The comments from a panel of international students provide insights that can benefit all students in the class. The web resources attempt to address this issue by providing a variety of suggestions for making assignments clear, relevant, and necessary for student learning.

Comments from Panels of International Students (Winter, 2003)

• Balance group work, papers, and tests. Balance what I am good at with what I need to work on.
• We like it when we have the ability to output in different ways.
• Instructors need to put everything in writing.
• Giving international students more time for everything helps. It takes me about three times as long to do the reading.
• Standards and expectations are unclear for international students until they get their first paper or test back. Instructors need to make standards clear and then work closely with the student to reach those standards.
• Some international students are brought up with “this is what you have to learn”. There are no arguments. Some would not know how to argue--either verbally or in writing.
• There is a difference between pointing out that the paper was good and being surprised that the paper was good.

Web Resources

• IC Library: Classroom teaching strategies and techniques - What to Do When Students Don't Read
  Specific ideas for what to do when students do not do the reading.
  
  
• Planning, Designing, and Evaluating Student Assignments
  Written and published online by the staff of the Center for Teaching and Learning at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, this resource contains suggestions and specific examples of assignments.
  
  
• The Dog Ate My Homework: How to Deal With Unprepared Students
  Jann Lacoss, a Graduate Student Associate in TRC and the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Virginia, has chronicled a number of strategies that can be used to encourage students to come to class prepared.
  
  
• Getting Students to Read the Book
  Professor Bob Megginson from the University of Michigan offers specific suggestions about how to get students to do the reading assignment for that day.
  
  
• Getting Students to Prepare for Class
  Concise summary of a number of things you can do to encourage students to prepare for class. From the Office for Professional Development at IUPUI. (Downloads as a Word Document file.)