• A seven-step process for designing effective assignments.
• “Anchor” assignments that promote collaboration and consistency across grades.
• Enriching assignments with instructional “touchstones.”
• Classroom and school environments that support assignment making.
• Using assignments as a source of data about achievement.

Loaded with research-based strategies for ensuring that assignments help improve student achievement, this book is essential reading for teachers across the subject areas.

(ASCD Premium, Select, and Institutional Plus Member book, September 2012) 7" x 9", 185 pages.

Also available as an E-Book!

Related products:

• Sample Chapters
• Study Guide
• About the Author

Reviews of the Assignments Matter: Making the Connections That Help Students Meet Standards

"In this important book, Eleanor Dougherty reminds us that wise, evocative assignments can make our classrooms both challenging and relevant. During the transition to an era of the Common Core State Standards, this is a book that all thoughtful teachers need to read and reread! It brings literacy to life across the curriculum."
 
—Terry Roberts, director of the National Paideia Center, Chapel Hill, N.C.
 
 

"Assignments Matter is a fabulous read. It offers teachers a high-power recipe for success and can be used by school administrators as a key lever for improving schools. I highly recommend it!"
 
—Marilyn Crawford, owner of TimeWise Schools, Paducah, Ky.
 
 

"Eleanor Dougherty provides a practical process for designing quality classroom assignments. Assignments Matter is filled with classroom examples and templates—a gold mine for teachers and school leaders looking for resources to improve student outcomes and align efforts with the common core.”
 
—Barbara Ann Smith, staff development and training specialist, LDC Site Lead,
Lancaster-Lebanon Intermediate Unit 13, Lancaster, Pa.
 
 

"A powerful how-to manual that challenges the way we think about creating effective and rigorous student assignments. It provides suggestions on how to combine reading and writing in the content areas of social studies and science based on the Common Core State Standards."
 
—Robert Slamp, teacher at Carter and MacRae Elementary School, Lancaster, Pa.
 
 

"Teachers and administrators will be able to use this book to create the well-crafted assignments that not only produce evidence of learning, but also promote critical thinking for students. This text is especially timely given the rigorous demands of the Common Core State Standards and will guide practitioners as we ratchet up the tasks for students."
 
—Jennifer Frentress, Principal, Washington, D.C.
 
 

"With Eleanor’s book, a teacher can create units of instruction with meaningful assignments that incorporate the new CCSS, provide a means for evaluating student growth as the assignments can definitely serve as models of formative assessment, and highlight teacher effectiveness when aligned to state evaluation rubrics."
 
—Jeri Crispe, Integration District Director, Colorado Legacy Foundation, Denver, Colo.

“Dougherty adds to the canon of research-based practices that encourage teachers to be more intentional about the work they assign. This work is a must-read for practicing teachers, instructional coaches, curriculum directors and anyone else that has made a stake in the work students actually complete in the classroom.”

—Jania Hoover, D.Ed., Atlanta, Georgia