Emergent Outcomes 12 Steps for
Designing an Assignment Photo by Ray Smith

Jesse Stommel @Jessifer You can
also follow Mary the Dog @MLAdog

“An unhealthy attachment to outcomes
discourages experimentation.” ! ! ~ Sean Michael Morris, Pete Rorabaugh, and Jesse Stommel, “Beyond Rigor”! Photo by Jeff Kubina

Don’t wield outcomes like a
weapon. Learning and teaching are about inhabiting the present not the future, letting our possible paths evolve as we do. Photo by flickr user 55Laney69

We haven’t been nearly imaginative
enough with outcomes. I want outcomes like “for us to have an epiphany” or “for students to do something I couldn’t anticipate.” Photo by flickr user Giovanni Arteaga

12 Questions I ask myself
when creating an assignment 1. What are my primary goals for students with this assignment?! 2. How do my goals for this assignment intersect with my broader teaching philosophy?! 3. What tools that I already use (analog or digital) could help me achieve these goals?! 4. In order for this activity / class to work, what gaps do I need to fill with other tools / strategies?! 5. Is my idea simple enough? What can I do to streamline the activity? ! 6. What is my goal beyond this assignment / course? How will the activity (and my pedagogy) evolve?! Bring students into design as early as possible making the work about their goals and not just our own. ! 7. Go back to step 1 and work through steps 1-6 again (and likely several times).! Consider the next steps “below the fold”, because assessment should never drive our pedagogies.! 8. Does this activity need to be assessed? Or does the activity have intrinsic value?! 9. Is there a way to organically build the assessment into the assignment itself?! 10.What additional assessment strategies should I use? External summative assessment should be a last resort.! 11.What is my goal in assessing student work? Is my assessment enhancing student learning?! 12.Go back to step 8. Particularly, reconsider the question: Does this activity need to be assessed?

What are my primary goals
for students with this assignment? (1)

“Too often, faculty design pedagogy
around the worst-case scenario and then apply that pedagogy to every student."! ~ Janine DeBaise, “Best Practices: Thoughts on a Flash Mob Mentality”! Photo by sciencesque

How do my goals for
this assignment intersect with my broader teaching philosophy? (2)

“Curriculum [...] is constructed and
negotiated in real time by the contributions of those engaged in the learning process.”! ~ Dave Cormier, “Community as Curriculum”! Photo by Wetsun

What tools that I already
use (analog or digital) could help me achieve these goals? (3)

It is often best to
use the tools with which we are already familiar, rather than turning to the shiny and newfangled. Photo by flickr user Francesco Lodolo

In order for this activity
/ class to work, what gaps do I need to fill with other tools / strategies? (4)

Bring students into the conversation
as early as possible by having them collaborate on the syllabus, outline the objectives of the course, design activities and assessments, etc. Photo by Jan Plogmann

Is my idea simple enough?
What can I do to streamline the activity? (5)

Don’t feel like you have
to meet all the goals during the first attempt — think of the process, from the start, as iterative with student goals ultimately supplanting our own. Photo by flickr user Matthias Rhomberg

What is my goal beyond
this assignment / course? How will the activity (and my pedagogy) evolve? (6)

Outcomes for an assignment emerge
over time through the work of each group of students. If I articulate outcomes too clearly at the start, students are less able to articulate them. Photo by luca savettiere

Go back to step 1
and work through steps 1-6 again (and likely several times). (7)

Consider the next steps “below
the fold”, because assessment should never drive our pedagogies. Rather, good assessment is driven by good pedagogy. Thus, I continue by asking myself: Photo by flickr user Patrick Smith

Does this activity need to
be assessed? Or does the activity have intrinsic value? (8)

Teachers often grade in many
more situations than grading is actually required. We should avoid with a gusto any impulse that turns students into mere columns in a spreadsheet. Photo by flickr user twinkabauter

Is there a way to
organically build the assessment into the assignment itself? (9)

"When students struggle for excellence
only for the sake of a grade, what we see is not motivation but atrophy of motivation."! ~ Peter Elbow, “Grading Student Writing: Making It Simpler, Fairer, Clearer”! Photo by Kalexanderson

What additional assessment strategies should
I use? External summative assessment should be a last resort. (10)

These might include self-assessment, peer-assessment,
narrative feedback, points, a rubric, a letter grade, or some combination. Photo by flickr user Dmitry Krendelev

What is my goal in
assessing student work? Is my assessment enhancing student learning? (11)

The goal of education should
always be better learning and not better assessments. Photo by flickr user Johnny Worthington

Go back to step 8.
Particularly, reconsider the question: Does this activity need to be assessed? (12)

“A class is … an
independent organism with its own goal and dynamics. It is always something more than what even the most imaginative lesson plan can predict.”! ! ~ Thomas P. Kasulis, “Questioning” Photo by Praline3001

bit.ly/assignmentdesign! ! ! @Jessifer Photo
by flickr user Taro Taylor