Bok Seminar - How to Teach Writing Assignments—And Design Your Own

Led by Jonah Johnson.

In the best learning experiences, feedback between students and instructors happens early and often. Many writing assignments, by contrast, only involve feedback “after the fact,” with the understanding that the feedback can only be implemented on the next assignment. In this seminar we’ll offer a better model for writing assignments, where feedback is ongoing and the writing is scaffolded, well-sequenced, and iterative. Using real-life models and evidence-based approaches to learning to write / writing to learn, we’ll unpack what “doing a writing assignment” means at every stage of the writing process: from creating a classroom that’s ready for feedback, to working with evidence and analysis, to conferencing, peer review, and revision. By the end of our seminar, you will design and workshop your own assignment or assignment sequence, with a focus on the role of effective prompts and well-aligned rubrics in increasing transparency and metacognition, while decreasing inequity and bias. Throughout the design process, we’ll weigh some of the primary roles and challenges of using generative AI for teaching with writing, and we’ll identify writing resources at Harvard (and beyond) for supporting both students and instructors. This seminar is designed for new and experienced TFs across disciplines who want to explore assignment design, strategies for in-class teaching with writing, and best practices for effective feedback.

This is the first session of a 6-session seminar. Registration required - opens January 13.