The Assignment Students Love the Most

How often do students rave about an assignment? I hear you: not often enough! Well, at least in my recent experience of teaching students with diverse backgrounds (policy, engineering, law, information, geosciences, business), there’s a trend-bucking assignment type: the weekly Reading Reaction Paper (RRP).?

An RRP is a short (1-2 page) document that each student is required to submit PRIOR to the class meeting to discuss the relevant/assigned content. RRPs are graded and count for roughly 10-15% of the overall grade. So, it involves real stakes.

When it comes to week-by-week teaching, often we as teachers struggle to assess the students’ level of preparation coming into the class. This can lead to what I call the “PREPARATION-DELIVERY MISMATCH”. If we assume too much, then we tend to ram through the material and students learn little and go back frustrated – both at us and themselves. If we assume too little, then we tend to go through every single detail – since as responsible teachers we aspire to drive it home. If repeated throughout the semester, then the course could become too detail-oriented – kind of a drag – and may not adequately cover the intended set of topics. Either of these extremes on the preparation-delivery mismatch spectrum is suboptimal for student learning. At least for me, RRPs help toward striking a better balance.

For the last few semesters, I have started using RRPs as a mechanism to incentivize students in my courses to come (substantially more) prepared to the class. Here's how I describe RRPs in the syllabus (date and timing will depend on the specifics of the course schedule):

“Students are expected to complete the required readings each week prior to the class meeting for the unit and to contribute to the class discussions. By every Tuesday 11:59 pm (except for the first and last weeks and the week when a student is presenting in class), students will submit a ~500 words (two pages max) reaction paper based on the readings for the week. The goal is to be analytical and questioning, not descriptive. The reaction papers should therefore NOT SUMMARIZE the readings—instead, they should address which points of the readings stood out and why. This could be because students were introduced to new fundamental insight(s) they weren’t aware of before, because they seem in tension with other points in the readings, or because they are unclear or raised questions. As the course progresses, the reaction papers should try to build cumulatively, referring to or building upon readings and concepts discussed in prior weeks.”

[ASIDE: I adapted the text above from my colleague Dr. Lorinc Redei , from whom I first learned about RRPs. For me, it reinforced my belief of regularly interacting with colleagues, near and far, on pedagogy, not just on research. There are lots of good instructional approaches and we can all be adjusting in small (or big) ways to improve our teaching.]

I use RRPs for both methods courses (e.g. “Introduction to ML”) and elective/substantive courses (e.g., “Innovation and Diffusion of Energy Technologies”). I read the RRPs before going into the class and it affords me a good sense, albeit at a high level, of where the students are in their understanding of the materials and what are the key missing elements in their understanding. This, in turn, allows me to focus class time on the most important, tough, and complex aspects of the material, rather than having to go through everything from scratch. This can be especially important when the course is ambitious and/or involves multiple aspects.

But the most surprising part is how well students engage with RRPs and its cumulative impact on their learning over the semester. Instead of giving an indirect account, here are a few selected anonymous student evaluation comments I have received over the past few semesters since I started using RRPs:

“I felt the best way of learning came out when we had to read the course content a week early and then write a review paper on it. This technique made me really think about real–life examples and question some of the founding principles or theories of authors we read. It was a healthy exercise for the mind to question theories rather than just accepting them at face value and Dr. Rai really appreciates contradicting opinion.”

“I really appreciated the reaction papers because it allowed us to explore the text and jog our memory to recall specific content that perhaps we were struggling with or found interesting.”

“Completing the readings prior to class was an important practice and the class's required reflections incentivized making sure I got that done. Having a basic understanding then listening and asking questions with Dr. Rai during class to build on that basic understanding was the only way to "get" these big concepts.”

“The response papers were very effective in ensuring I did the reading and was prepared to discuss in class.”

“Although it was a lot of work on a weekly basis, I found the weekly reading reflection assignment to be really helpful in orienting myself for class each week. Having that requirement made for lively class discussions.”

“I think the breadth of readings paired with speakers + weekly reaction papers lead to very productive classes, discussions and retention.”

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As the teacher, reading the RRPs provides a stunningly rich picture of how the students understand and interpret the material in the context of their prior experience, current understanding, and worldview. And some of the RRPs are a pure delight to read – combination of genuine curiosity and critical thinking. So, now when I enter the class, not only I have a better sense of where the students are, but I can also draw in fresh/novel aspects of the RRPs to further illuminate the concepts – the best part is that the students contributed directly to such examples, critiques, and insights. The discussions are richer, more fun, and more evenly distributed in terms of participation.

I hope some of you will find my experience with RRPs useful enough to experiment with RRPs (or its variations) in your own courses. Ping me if you would like to discuss further. And, as always, I welcome your comments below! Thank you.