Assignment and Homework Wrappers
Overview
Assignment wrappers, like exam wrappers, are tools meant to encourage learners to actively process assignment feedback and reflect on their preparation strategies. They can also encourage learners to look for patterns in the errors they made. The benefit of a wrapper is that it can guide students “to review and analyze their performance (and the instructor’s feedback) with an eye toward adapting their future learning” (Ambrose et al., 2010, p. 251).
Likewise, homework wrappers can be incorporated to promote reflection and monitoring of one's own learning. These wrappers are integrated into the homework assignment itself for students to think about what questions/concepts they understand and which ones they do not.
Implementation
Implementing an assignment or homework wrapper involves relatively few steps, and there are some adaptations instructors can make depending on their educational goals for the activity. Below are basic implementation schemes for an assignment wrapper and a homework wrapper.
- Create your assignment wrapper.
- When assignments are returned, provide each student with the wrapper.
- Ask students to look through their returned work and answer the questions on the wrapper.
- Students return their completed wrapper to the instructor.
- If students are completing similar assignments, then the instructor keeps the wrapper and returns it to the student to review prior to the due date of the next assignment. Students review what they previously noted on their wrapper so they can make adjustments for the next assignment.
- Determine what problems students will work as part of their homework.
- Integrate the wrapper questions into the homework assignment.
- Students will answer the wrapper questions as they complete the homework.
- Students will review their homework responses (either against a key you've provided or during class time) and complete their homework wrappers.
- If you collect homework, students can submit their wrappers along with the homework.
Example Assignment and Homework Wrappers
Assignment and homework wrappers can be used in a variety of disciplines. The examples below are templates you can use to think through how you would like to arrange your own wrappers.