Within “Assignments,” Eble tackles the ideas and concepts of classroom assignments – and his personal favorite: the term paper. Our author starts his chapter off by stating a blanket fact about the creation and use of good assignments. He comments that “the fault lies with teachers as much as with the students – good assignments elicit good work; bad assignments, bad work.” In general, the term paper is a bad assignment.” What may be considered the staple of many course’s assignments, Eble believes the term paper to be a giant negative in higher learning. While he acknowledges it’s importance in academia, he is against it’s education-wide use.

Eble has five points that weigh against the term paper, and I’ll quote and summarize these traits here. For starters, “teachers don’t give enough specific attention to [the term paper’s] nature and aims . . . Too much weight in the course is given to the term paper.” Basically, for the amount of importance placed on the term paper, it sure isn’t discussed or covered in the length it probably deserves. If that weren’t enough, the possibilities of plagiarism frighten Eble, not to mention AI tools today, as his third point states that “it is too easy for students to get term papers done for them by someone else.” To combat this fear, he suggests that “asking for note cards and drafts as well as for the final product is a useful check.” He then points out that students often face far too many papers in a term to do any of them true justice. And, his last point is one I can strongly agree with, as it has definitely happened to me in several instances: faculty members don’t commonly provide the feedback that serious written work deserves. As a long-time student, I can attest to the upset that a ten word response to a 10-week paper causes.

To combat the use of the term paper, Eble suggests considering essays over the mega-paper. He believes that “even two or three good papers in a year stretch reasonable expectations, though that number would constitute a big reduction for many students.” With this practice, our author writes that “the essay form forces students to stretch their powers of thought, feeling, and expression to arrive at something they can truly call their own. The spirit and intent of the written essay can legitimately extend to any creative response, such as pantomime, painting, dance, or even to the gathering of objects and actual demonstration of finding appropriate to a subject under study.” With less formality in an essay, students can write closer to their own feelings rather than simply writing for the assignment. The shorter length also allows for further revisions, and with fewer papers to worry about, the students will be capable of dedicating more time to less work. The purpose of the assignment may still be met. When confined to the strict limits and regulations of the term paper, “too often, papers end at the end of a page rather than at the end of a subject.”

While considering the assignments to give to students, the professor must ask himself what he wishes for the students to learn from the work. As Eble points out, “theory and conscience contribute to the teacher’s failings here, for both tell us that students should be doing things that cause learning, that they should not just be passively studying or listening to teachers. Assignments are ways of getting students to do things. The catch is that good assignments are so hard to find and ordinary ones so readily available.” Broken down, these assignments should directly relate to the learning intended by the course. Busy work can get minds thinking, but will the students really learn from work that simply exists to keep a student occupied? Within the same topic, Eble believes that we should reach out to other disciplines and mediums for the subject or type of assignment we use. He states that “defining assignments carefully and connecting them with clearly defined aims are of first importance. Borrowing ideas from others, exploring the pedagogical literature for ideas, and adapting such ideas to one’s specific needs should be standard teaching practices.” Breaking from the term paper can greatly brighten the learning experience and can further guide education.

In his closing words, Eble offers a few tidbits of advice. For starters, he suggests for professors that “although ‘look it up’ isn’t bad advice, ‘think about it’ is even better.” As teachers, we can suggest pinpoint questions, indicate where their answers may be found, and direct the students to the leg work that tags along with real investigation. To close his chapter, Eble writes that his final comment on written assignments and term papers is that “teachers who expect good written work are obligated to read it promptly and well . . .There is no way to require assignments without committing oneself to responding to them.” There is no greater annoyance than waiting four weeks to see how you did on a one-week assignment.

Following “Assignments,” the thirteenth chapter in The Craft of Teaching, “Tests” covers just that: tests. This shortened entry has a few key points to be made regarding a professor’s capacity to test, how they should test, and what they should test. To open, Eble acknowledges that “like grading, testing makes teachers uncomfortable because it threatens an amicable relationship . . . Tests are diagnostic, telling the students some very specific things about where they stand with relation to the development of skills or acquisition of information.” So the professor must be sure to test the appropriate topics while trying not to step on their student’s toes. It’s an interesting predicament.

To combat the awkwardness of the test, Eble believes the professor must first ask himself three things: “‘Why am I testing?’ ‘How am I testing?’ and ‘What results am I getting?'” Instead of trying to trick the students with their questions, Eble wishes that “more teachers would construct tests with the hope that everyone will do well, not with the more common desire to separate sheep from goats, to establish the curve, or to get the lazy bastards who never show up for class and don’t respond to the teacher’s brilliance when they do.” While he believes that grades on tests can, up to a point, increase motivation, beyond that, it can actually hinder and block the achievement for certain students and create adverse reactions from the class.

In the ending paragraphs of “Tests,” Eble shares a story about a test he often gave during his courses. I’d like to share the story at the end of this, but I’ll give you a hint before leaving you for the week. The lesson: “The learning was in the test itself, quite apart from the grades.”

“For this quiz on ethics, I made deliberate mistakes in calculating points and grades on some of the papers: ten or so students got grades higher than they should have, while another ten got lower scores. The results the first time [he] gave this quiz were as I expected, and they have been repeated by subsequent classes. Almost all the students who had mistakes that lowered their grades called the mistakes to my attention, but none of those who had mistakes in their favor said anything.”