Faculty Resources
Teaching Resources
Effective Assignment Sheets and Handouts
When you distribute handouts, do students stop listening to you and bury their heads in their papers? Or worse, do they ignore your carefully constructed handouts? Here are some tips on making and using effective handouts.
Organizing the Information
Clear assignment sheets can save teachers a lot of discussion with students over miscommunication of expectations. The assignment sheet is a teacher's contract with the students. Organizing assignment information into the following categories can help ensure that everything is covered in the assignment sheet, enabling students to use it as a reference to work from at home or with a tutor.
Title of assignment:
Due Date(s):
Deliverables: (Exactly what are students turning in? In addition to a final product, you may want them to turn in some background work or evidence of their process, for example research, sketches, drafts.)
Rationale: (Why are you having students do the assignment? How does it relate to the course goals?)
Directions: (If you have a particular method or process that you want students to follow that is not part of the specs or grading criteria, or that needs to be explained further, you might include this section on "directions".)
Specs: (size, materials to be used, quantities, skills to be demonstrated)
Criteria/grading rubric: (Criteria by which the work will be judged. Including a complete grading rubric here will ensure consistency and save you retyping the criteria.) |
Making Effective Handouts
1. Use different colors and shapes to get students' attention and to help them stay organized.
Give out weekly assignment sheets printed on different colors each time. Think of how much easier it is to keep everyone on track by saying, "Pull out the green sheet", instead of having them sort through all white paper. Printing handouts on half sheets or quarter sheets may help them stand out in students' minds and notebooks.
2. Lay out your handout in such a way that it visually emphasizes the most important thing.
If students are given a piece of paper that is all text with no graphics, it may be hard for them to get to the key points. Use boldface , italics , underline , various type fonts, bullet points, checklists, or images to keep their eyes moving to the most important information such as deadlines and assignment guidelines.
3. Keep students' attention by intentionally leaving some blanks (_________) in the handout for them to write in when you tell them.
This makes them listen for the key information such as due dates, drop-off locations, or size of project and engage with the written material you have prepared.
4. Consider using a partially complete outline for them to finish filling out using the details of your lecture.
Or, if you are delivering a lot of information that can be categorized, consider giving them a chart with categories, eras, or other classifications on it so they can fill in the important details based on the class.
Using Your Handouts in Class
1. Keep students' attention by waiting until the end of your demonstration to pass out handouts (unless you need them for your presentation).
As soon as you hand papers out to students, they will focus on the handout and tune you out. Alternately, try putting the paper on each desk face down and tell students not to turn them over until told to do so.
2. Call on various students to read directions out loud.
This is helpful if you have explicit directions or other information that you want everyone to get. If you read every word out loud that's on the handout, chances are that you will lose their attention. Have them use two senses (seeing & hearing) to get the information across and help it sink in. This also benefits students with different learning styles and international students get the information in more than one way.
3. Have students check their worksheet answers with a neighbor or a small group before you give the right answers to the class.
This works for both homework and in-class work. This encourages interaction and accountability to get the work done.
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