The standard assignment that I both loved and hated doing as a student and that I frequently assigned to my grad students in my earliest classes but attempted to move away from as I began embracing blogging as a form of engaged writing and rejecting academic papers as a form of disengaged pedantry
The Final, 15-20 page, paper
The series of assignments that I carefully crafted to choreograph the class blog that at first glance were overwhelming to students, but that at least half the time resulted in an online space where students would post, comment, and learn from (and with) each other
Direct Engagement blog posts and comments
The assignments that were inspired by experiments that I first tried out on my TROUBLE blog
- Queer This!
- This is a feminist issue because…
- What’s sex got to do with…
- Annotated Bibliography (or sorts)
- Blog mash-up and remix
The assignments that, for some were a rewarding opportunity to work collectively and collaboratively, for others an annoying waste of time only assigned because the teacher was too lazy to think of anything else to do and for me a way to help students to learn how to work together and to process and produce ideas
- Group projects and presentations
- Small group work
The assignments that were not designed to assess how “smart” students were or how much of my “smartness” they had absorbed and could regurgitate but to encourage them to experiment, express themselves critically and creatively and produce something meaningful that they could share with others or that could be a resource in the future
All of my assignments, except (possibly) the mid-term take home exam that I assigned in my earliest classes
The assignments that, as a teacher, I was really excited about and eager for my students to test out but that, if I had been a student, might have been scary to try and/or difficult to complete
- Comments on Open Thread Blog Posts
- Live-tweeting a class session
- Engaging Assignments for Introduction to GLBT Studies
Return to Teaching Experience: An Inventory