Oliver Mogga
Long Writing Assignment for Students
2005 Workshop on Improving Student Writing
Center for Writing Excellence
Center for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching
INTRODUCTION TO FACULTY FOR THIS WRITING ASSIGNMENT
Strength Through Cultural Diversity (IDS 159)
This interdisciplinary course is a component of The Miami Plan for Liberal Education. It is therefore a course that all undergraduates are required to take before they can graduate from their respective programs.
The two assignments designed during and after a four-day workshop facilitated by the Miami University’s Center for Writing Excellence aim to achieve the broad objectives of the course: To promote understanding of cultural differences; and to apply such understanding to foster respect for differences.
The first assignment is short and designed as an in-class group activity. It employs an approach called Debate on Propositions used with permission from Chris M. Anson and Deanna P. Dannels, authors of Using Informal Writing and Speaking to Enhance Learning: Fifteen Strategies. Instructions for the assignment explain how this approach works.
The second assignment is a long group activity. The outcome of this project is conceptualized as a final product emerging from a gradual rather than a hurried process. For students to show evidence of work process that is gradual rather than a “quick over- night process”, they must follow the steps stipulated in the instructions for the assignment.
The purposes of the two assignments and the relationship between their specific objectives to the overall objectives of the course have been clearly stated because it is important for my students to see this connection. Both assignments have evaluation rubrics so that my students have a clear understanding of my expectations.
LONG WRITING ASSIGNMENT FOR STUDENTS
Purpose of the Assignment
The purpose of this assignment is to achieve the broader objectives of the course (IDS 159). These objectives stated broadly are twofold:
- First, to promote understanding of cultural differences
- Second, to apply understanding of cultural differences to foster respect for differences
Requirements
The assignment requires you to form eight groups, each group consisting of four students. Each group is randomly assigned to one of the eight components of diversity: socio-economic status, race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, disability, and age. Furthermore, the assignment requires you to explain—within the context of the component of diversity assigned to your group—how stereotypes breed bias and discrimination which advantage and/or disadvantage social groups within the component of diversity assigned your group. The reason each group is randomly assigned to one of these components of diversity is so that each group has an equal chance of being assigned to any of the components.
Each group should incorporate the stereotypes, biases, discrimination and other social problems emerging out of them in their final group project. My evaluation rubric calls for integration into your final group work these concepts and problems associated with them. Each single spaced final project paper should not exceed five (5) pages. When determining the number of pages do not count the reference page.
The outcome of this project should be understood as a final product that emerged from a gradual rather than a hurried process. For students to show evidence of work process that is gradual, they must:
- Identify at least five relevant books and/or articles for this project. Contact a librarian if you need help with this task. A list of these sources is due MM/DD/YYYY.
- Provide a brief explanation (a page) of how these sources will help you. This explanatory statement is due MM/DD/YYYY.
- Provide a rational consistent with the objectives of IDS 159 for your project. This can be a in a paragraph or more. This is due MM/DD/YYYY
- Turn in brouillon (brouillon is a French word for a rough draft). Brouillon “suggests a writing process that begins as a journey into disorder, a making of chaos, out of which one eventually forges an essay” (Bean, 2001, p.16). This is due MM/DD/YYYY
- Participate in peer review of group projects on MM/DD/YYYY; each group should make 24 copies of their project so that each class member has a copy during the peer review process.
- Integrate suggestions emerging from peer review.
- Present their revised version in class on MM/DD/YYYY
- Turn in a revised version of their project on MM/DD/YYYY.
Evaluation and Distribution of Points
Your work will be evaluated according to the stipulations provided in the attached evaluation rubric. Each group member will earn points only and only if he or she has contributed sufficiently to the project. Evaluation forms will be provided for group members to evaluate each other. Group members will be evaluated on a scale of 1-10. Points earned from these evaluations will be treated as bonus points for each group member. The entire project is worth thirty (30) points. These points are distributed among the mini projects as follows:
- Identification of five sources and explanatory statement = Five (5) points
- Rational for the project = Five (5) points
- Brouillon = Five (5) points
- Final project = 15 Points
Evaluation Rubric for Final Product
| Primary Trait |
Categories of Performance |
| |
Excellent |
Good |
Poor |
Unacceptable |
| Grammar |
The students have:
- Used correct spellings throughout the paper
- Used grammatically correct and
- complete sentences
|
The students have:
- Misspelled less than ten words
- Used less than five grammatically incorrect and incomplete sentences
|
The students have:
- Misspelled between ten and twenty words
- Used between five and ten grammatically incorrect and incomplete sentences
|
The students have:
- Misspelled more than twenty words
- Used more than ten grammatically incorrect and incomplete sentences.
|
| Organization |
The students have:
- An appropriate title, one that fits with the content of the paper.
- An introduction that clearly states the rationale and thesis statement of the paper.
- A paper structure that is well developed
- An emergent conclusion, one that is a function of the analysis produced
- Demonstrated consistency from the title to the conclusion
- Used APA citation format
- No more than five single spaced pages
- References in APA format
|
The students have:
- An appropriate title, one that fits with the content of the paper
- An introduction that clearly state the rationale and thesis statement of the paper.
- A paper structure that is well developed
- An emergent conclusion, one that is a function of the analysis produced
- Demonstrated consistency from the title to the conclusion
- Provided incomplete citations
- No more than five single spaced pages.
- References in APA format
|
The Students have:
- An inappropriate title, one that does not fit with the content of the paper
- An introduction that does not clearly state the rationale and thesis statement of the paper
- A paper structure that is poorly developed
- A poor emergent conclusion, one that is a function of analysis produced
- Demonstrated inconsistency from the title to the conclusion.
- Provided incomplete citations
- No more than five single spaced pages.
- References partially in APA format
|
The students have:
- No title
- An in appropriate title, one that does not fit with the content of the paper
- An introduction that does not clearly state the rationale and thesis statement of the paper
- A paper structure that is poorly developed
- A conclusion that is disconnected from the analysis produced
- Incomplete citations or no citations at all
- No more than five single spaced pages.
- No References at all
|
| Analysis |
Students have:
- Clearly identified and defined concepts relevant to the assignment
- Demonstrated excellent understanding of concepts used in the paper
- Demonstrated logical integration of concepts
- Adequately answered the “how” question in the assignment in terms of the concept of stereotype, bias, and discrimination, and other social problems associated with these concepts
|
Students have:
- Clearly identified but vaguely defined concepts relevant to the assignment
- Demonstrated fair understanding of concepts used in the paper
- Tried to integrate concepts but with less clarity
- Fairly answered the “how” question in the assignment in terms of the concept of stereotype, bias, discrimination and other social problems associated with these concepts.
|
Student have:
- Vaguely identified and defined concepts relevant to the assignment
- Demonstrated poor understanding of concepts used in the paper
- Tried to integrate concepts but without any clarity at all
- Poorly answered the “how” question in the assignment in terms of the concept of stereotype, bias, and discrimination , and other social problems associated with these concepts
|
The students have:
- Made no attempt to identify and define concepts relevant to the assignment
- Demonstrated lack of understanding of concepts used in the paper
- Tried to integrate concepts but without any clarity at all
- Did not answer the “how” question in the assignment in terms of the concept of stereotype, bias, and discrimination, and other social problems associated with these concepts.
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