http://reagle.org/joseph/blog/career/teaching/choosing-a-topic Joseph Reagle http://reagle.org/joseph/blog/career/teaching/choosing-a-topic Copyright 2003-2010 Joseph Reagle PyBlosxom http://pyblosxom.sourceforge.net/ 1.4.3 01/10/2008 2008-11-20T22:20:09Z http://reagle.org/joseph/blog/2008/11/20/choosing-a-topic 2008-11-20T22:20:09Z 2008-11-20T22:20:09Z <p>I'm at that point in the semester where I'm asking students to think about what they want to do for their more open-ended assignment. Rather than simply answering questions I've asked or applying course material to a particular case, I request that they propose a topic they would like to research. This is a source of difficulty and anxiety for some. Granted, there is an element of risk in the openness but I never had much difficulty with choosing a topic myself as a student, so it's difficult to understand how I can best help as a teacher. For example, for a film class I wrote a <a href="http://reagle.org/joseph/1996/film/blade-runner.html">brief essay on Blade Runner</a> that I really enjoyed working on and am quite fond of. I didn't get the grade I thought I deserved -- and I suspect the instructor didn't "get it", so I appreciate the risk -- but I had no problem conceiving the topic and executing the argument. (Fortunately, the essay would be widely read on the Web, for which I would get a lot of responses and it was even translated into Italian -- not too bad for an undergraduate essay!)</p> <p>So while I always liked these type of assignments, some bright students can have difficulties. To address this I do the following:</p> <ol class="c1"> <li>Ask the students to send me a proposal with a sense of the topic, argument, concepts and readings that will be used. (I started this in my second semester of teaching and it yielded better results.)</li> <li>Provide <a href="http://reagle.org/joseph/2008/conflict/notes/asgn-5-topics.txt">example</a> topics and/or even an example proposal.</li> <li>Encourage students to review their reading responses or bring relevant news items to the attention of the class throughout the semester, so as to build a repository of ideas.</li> <li>Provide a list of <a href="http://reagle.org/joseph/2008/media/notes/themes.mm.html">themes/concepts</a> at the beginning of the course and highlight them throughout.</li> <li>Encourage them to brainstorm a number of (provocative) arguments they could make as they research and outline their topic.</li> </ol> <p>But, still, some students experience difficulty with choosing a topic. Are there any resources you would recommend in guiding students through the writing of open-ended assignments?</p>