BMCC professor Hollis Glaser blew open her course by radically changing the way students were graded and wrote about it in her blog Teach More, Grade Less. In The Sixth Assignment, she talks about her experience having students choose their own assignments. In The Only in New York Assignment, she talks about bringing public speaking to the public realm by inviting students to read at Learn as Protest, a weekly event at Trump Tower. Hollis reflects on the semester as a whole in What Makes a Meaningful Assignment?
2 thoughts on “Alternative assignments”
I am teaching an undergraduate course on young adult literature and I am considering asking my students to do a book review of a young adult book that they can either complete as a YouTube video or a blog post. I am hoping this activity will help them get a sense of (and perhaps become part of) the vibrant, dynamic YA community that exists outside the classroom. I also plan to involve my students in designing a document where we outline the objectives and parameters of the assignment. I would like them to get a sense of what it means to share their ideas with a larger audience; respond to and perhaps workshop their classmates’ work; and become familiar with the genre of the book review so we can interrogate its gatekeeping function.
oops! I meant to post this under “how might you use open pedagogy…” Sorry for the error.