Learning outcome:
- LO3: Analyze how the process of backward design can be used in effective assignment design.
The anatomy of a well-written assignment
In the second video in this unit, Professor Rob Lue explored how the backward design framework can be used to create effective and comprehensive assignments. While this video provides general guidance into assignment creation, it is worthwhile analyzing an example of a well-written assignment, ahead of the teaching portfolio component at the end of this unit.
Consider this assignment prompt written for a Harvard course on ancestry. The anatomy of this assignment is dissected below, to afford you a more nuanced understanding of the five components needed to create an effective assignment:
- Preamble
- Justification
- Mission
- Tasks
- Submission format
Each of these components is discussed below alongside excerpts with which they correspond in the original assignment.
Preamble
This is the first part of the assignment prompt. It situates the assignment in the course and answers the question: what have students been working on lately?
Genetics Assignment
In this segment of the course, we are interested in thinking about Ancestry through the lens of genetics. In particular, it is important that you have the opportunity to think about how the rationalization, and, frankly, the reduction, of the broad and complex notion of “ancestry” into the ostensibly straightforward data produced by genetic science is a double-edged sword. For every leap forward which genetics promises, preventative treatments of cancers, for instance, we also confront ethical dilemmas, should we as a society simply resign ourselves to the idea that some kinds of unequal outcomes are just the “natural” result of our unequal genomes? These dilemmas are particularly difficult to navigate insofar as they touch on one of our central questions in this course, the relationship between ancestry and one’s personal identity. What if one’s genome seems to contradict one’s own personal understanding of one’s heritage? Should a genetic test, or a government document which establishes the result of that test as a legally consequential fact about you, overwrite your own way of defining your ancestry?
Justification
This is the second part of an assignment prompt. It explains why an assignment is needed now.
If we are to navigate these questions properly, it is absolutely essential that we understand that genetic science does not, in and of itself, determine what kinds of decision (whether personal or societal) are more “correct”. Science is agnostic. What matters is how we interpret the findings of genomic research, in other words, the kinds of stories which we tell about the scientific findings, the way we translate them into the realm of popular discussion and debate. Good policy does not flow automatically from good science, it comes from a good interpretation of good science.
Mission
This is the third part of an assignment prompt. It explains what the student is supposed to do at a survey level.
In this assignment, you will reckon with the relationship of genetics to ancestry by examining and evaluating examples of one recent effort to interpret genomic research, the book The Genome Factor: What the Social Genomics Revolution Reveals about Ourselves, Our History, and the Future (Princeton, 2017). The assignment is divided into several parts:
Tasks
This is the fourth part of an assignment prompt. It explains to students what they are supposed to do: for example, how to start, where to look, etc. Students should be able to use it to decide for themselves whether they are completing the assignment successfully.
Important: In this regard, the tasks section of an assignment prompt act like a “pre-rubric”.
- Skim the book to find three examples of a metaphor being used to translate the complexity of genomic research. These might include such metaphors as the genome as a “hand of cards you’ve been dealt”.
- Using easily available search tools, Google is probably powerful enough, compile a short dossier of other instances of each of the three metaphors you’ve selected. Does the “your genome is like the hand of cards you’ve been dealt” metaphor show up frequently? Infrequently? Can you find out where these particular metaphors originated?
- For each of your metaphors, examine closely how it is being used in each instance. Is it being used purely to explain a single concept, and then left behind? Or is it being used to define a concept, and then to make a further argument on the basis of the metaphor? Is it ever mixed with other metaphors? What kinds of assumptions are these metaphors introducing into a conversation? Can you tell whether those assumptions are also compatible with the original scientific finding?
- Pick one of the three metaphors and illustrate what you think might be a proper conclusion that can be drawn from it, and an improper conclusion.
Submission format
Although it is lacking in the assignment prompt provided, which was an in-class activity, a typical assignment should tell students, in appropriate detail, how to submit their work. For example, should the assignment be a five-page paper? Should it be uploaded to the course website? Is it due by Tuesday at 5:00pm? And so forth. These are all considerations that should be made explicit to students.
The aim of analyzing this assignment prompt is to highlight the value of using backward design in assignment creation. Through backward design you can design effective, comprehensive assignment prompts with clear instructions for students to follow. This will ensure both students and teachers understand not only the learning objectives of the assignment but also what the requirements are to successfully complete the assignment.