I think we're getting close to understanding why, and we'll get even closer.
I offer what I think might be the best attempt of my teaching life at writing an explicit, orderly, open, interesting (even funny) engaging essay assignment. Following my usual principles (which still look good) I did these kinds of things:
• preparing for the larger essay with two, preliminary part-of-the-whole smaller essays
• explicitly looking back at readings and class work, using the class terminology, even using examples from class, in students' words.
• structuring the hell out of the process (so they don't need to worry about that) and leaving the content open so they can be creative.
• providing a method--and linking it to work we did.
• sharing the criteria by which it would be scored ('marked,' Emily!).
• providing a model.
• formatting to ease reading, bolding active verbs that say what to do.
• paying attention to document-design and formatting to set an example of high production values and professionalism.
Nothing wrong here, in my view. The grading rubric / response sheet that I and my team of four TA's used follows.
We all know what resulted: MISTER BELL CURVE, with an ugly bottom half. The 'good students' doing well and liking it, but the majority reverting to old behaviors as if they had not read a word (maybe not reading a word), and even ignoring explicit imperatives (like: 'give it an appealing title' — No title). Probably many did not read beyond the word count and due date. Scarier: they did 'read' it and took very different meanings from what was said.
In short: the usual.
I've pasted the four PNG files (Blogger won't accept PDF's) of the pages here, and --- uh --- a two page, single-spaced writing assignment just MIGHT be too long. But I've also mounted the original and easier-to-read file to our Moodle Archive, FYI.
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