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Prompt 1 - Some universities require students to take classes in many subjects, others require specializing in one subject. Which is better? Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer. Tutorial Screencast - Model Essay Prompt 2 - Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Teachers should be paid according to how much their students learn. Give specific reasons and examples to support your opinion. Model Essay |
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...more writing prompts for Better Classrooms!
About Me - Would you describe yourself as a 'good student' or a 'bad student'? Use specific details and examples to support your answer.
Descriptive - Describe a school from your early childhood. Describe both its external and internal characteristics. What makes this school memorable. Narrative - Tell of a situation or event where you experienced a great difficulty in learning a particular subject. How did you recognize the difficulty? What did you do to overcome this difficulty. Problem / Solution - You are a youth mentor. One of the kids you mentor complains about their school and express a desire to drop out and just get a job. How would you advise them. |
Abstract - Victor Hugo, a french writer said, "He who opens a school closes a prison". What did he mean and to what extent is this opinion correct?
Hypothesis - What would the short and long term consequences for your country be if university level education was made twice as expensive as it is now? Support an Opinion - Should education be compulsory? If so until what age and what should be done if students aren't in school? If not, why shouldn't children be required to be in school? |
Note for Teachers - The purpose of our 30 minute timed writing prompts is to engage learners in a carefully crafted exercise that will improve fluency of both thought and pen. Quality writing effectively expresses how a person feels, or thinks, in response to any given topic. This doesn't just happen, but requires consistent and meaningful practice (time on task)... the aim and focus of our Daily Writing Prompt website. A guide to constructing a 5 paragraph essay, along with a model passage for students to study and dissect can also be found on this page.
Model Essay - Education has a profound impact on society. Particularly the outcomes of students in higher education including university affect the advancement of culture, the economy and even politics. Naturally, society is concerned with these outcomes and that concern is reflected in people's interest in how and what university students are studying. Some would say that university students should be efficient and only study courses related to their eventual professional goals. Others would say that universities should encourage broad and varied course enrollment. Although they need to develop a high level of competency in their major courses, university students should develop breadth of understanding through taking classes in many subjects in order to give them the skill of integrative thought, an appreciation for diversity, and an understanding of the complex world we live in.
Students need to learn that all knowledge is interconnected. No idea or study exists in isolation but rather domains of knowledge overlap and affect one another. Students who learn to see the connections between what perhaps look to be very different fields of thought and understanding will be better able to innovate. Steve Jobs is a good example of the power students gain from an integrative mindset. Obviously, Steve Jobs was talented and trained in computer technology. However he credits much of his inspiration and innovation in technology to his diverse college experience which included classes in calligraphy. He credits these otherwise seemingly 'disconnected' studies with many of the advancements that he later promoted in Apple. Unlike Jobs, if students have only ever studied in courses related to their field of specialization they will be much less likely to truly expand this field through new and creative thought.
The greater variety of coursework that a student is exposed to the more likely they are to develop an appreciation for diversity. Both globally and locally the world is becoming increasingly diverse as culture that was previously localized and isolated both expands and intertwines. Students who take a variety of classes not only expose themselves to this diversity in the content that they study but also in the interactions with their classmates and instructors. For example in my field of study, I interact with people who I have much in common with. We have all decided to study English because of similar interests and experiences and even with surface differences in demographics we are largely similar. Contrastingly one summer I took a golf course. This class was full of students from different academic backgrounds. As a result there was much greater variety in our personalities. As I interacted with my peers in that class, I learned to appreciate my thinking being challenged and learning to see the world a little differently.
A complex approach to university studies complements the complex world we live in. When a student has experiences in many different fields of study they are better able to navigate the layered and nuanced world around them. Students who not only appreciate this complexity but have learned to navigate it well will not be afraid of challenges that the modern world presents. Even those students who gain careers in highly specialized fields of study need to be ready for interactions heavily influenced by other areas of knowledge. Take a neurologist for example. Obviously a neurologist spends years gaining very specific knowledge and skill. However in the world that she applies her knowledge a neurologist will need to understand business, politics, religion, and technology. A good doctor will need to know more than just medicine, and her patients will benefit from her knowing more than just her speciality. In becoming the best professionals they can, university students must gain experience in the diverse world that they will work in.
Gaining a complex understanding of the world, an appreciation for diversity and a sense of how subjects and ideas intersect and connect are all possible outcomes when students take a broad and varied mix of courses in universities. The longterm and short term effects of this diversity of thought and study will be of great consequences. Individuals will gain greater enjoyment in their personal life as they are less afraid of the world and more confident in their ability to succeed despite various challenges. Neighborhoods and communities will be more accepting of diversity and better ready to respond to complex challenges Society will broadly benefit. Citizens who are more educated in a wider variety of subjects will be more effective innovators and they will also exercise a greater degree of empathy in their interactions with each other. The investment in high education that we all make will have a greater and more diverse yield of benefits.
Students need to learn that all knowledge is interconnected. No idea or study exists in isolation but rather domains of knowledge overlap and affect one another. Students who learn to see the connections between what perhaps look to be very different fields of thought and understanding will be better able to innovate. Steve Jobs is a good example of the power students gain from an integrative mindset. Obviously, Steve Jobs was talented and trained in computer technology. However he credits much of his inspiration and innovation in technology to his diverse college experience which included classes in calligraphy. He credits these otherwise seemingly 'disconnected' studies with many of the advancements that he later promoted in Apple. Unlike Jobs, if students have only ever studied in courses related to their field of specialization they will be much less likely to truly expand this field through new and creative thought.
The greater variety of coursework that a student is exposed to the more likely they are to develop an appreciation for diversity. Both globally and locally the world is becoming increasingly diverse as culture that was previously localized and isolated both expands and intertwines. Students who take a variety of classes not only expose themselves to this diversity in the content that they study but also in the interactions with their classmates and instructors. For example in my field of study, I interact with people who I have much in common with. We have all decided to study English because of similar interests and experiences and even with surface differences in demographics we are largely similar. Contrastingly one summer I took a golf course. This class was full of students from different academic backgrounds. As a result there was much greater variety in our personalities. As I interacted with my peers in that class, I learned to appreciate my thinking being challenged and learning to see the world a little differently.
A complex approach to university studies complements the complex world we live in. When a student has experiences in many different fields of study they are better able to navigate the layered and nuanced world around them. Students who not only appreciate this complexity but have learned to navigate it well will not be afraid of challenges that the modern world presents. Even those students who gain careers in highly specialized fields of study need to be ready for interactions heavily influenced by other areas of knowledge. Take a neurologist for example. Obviously a neurologist spends years gaining very specific knowledge and skill. However in the world that she applies her knowledge a neurologist will need to understand business, politics, religion, and technology. A good doctor will need to know more than just medicine, and her patients will benefit from her knowing more than just her speciality. In becoming the best professionals they can, university students must gain experience in the diverse world that they will work in.
Gaining a complex understanding of the world, an appreciation for diversity and a sense of how subjects and ideas intersect and connect are all possible outcomes when students take a broad and varied mix of courses in universities. The longterm and short term effects of this diversity of thought and study will be of great consequences. Individuals will gain greater enjoyment in their personal life as they are less afraid of the world and more confident in their ability to succeed despite various challenges. Neighborhoods and communities will be more accepting of diversity and better ready to respond to complex challenges Society will broadly benefit. Citizens who are more educated in a wider variety of subjects will be more effective innovators and they will also exercise a greater degree of empathy in their interactions with each other. The investment in high education that we all make will have a greater and more diverse yield of benefits.
Model Essay - Education affects society; as a result Increasing the effectiveness of the educational system is a widely discussed issue. Some feel that we should introduce some of the economic principles that are used in other fields into education. Specifically there are those that are promoting that just as a salesman is often compensated based on the number of 'successes' he or she has so should a teacher be compensated based on the number of 'successes' they have. Others raise concerns that this radical change in teacher compensation would have adverse impact. While we should look at factors that affect the extent to which teachers are succeeding and make appropriate changes, teachers' pay shouldn't be tied to how much students learn because of the subjectivity of measuring teacher performance, disrupting teachers interactions with each other, and detracting the work of teachers in difficult teaching contexts.
Measuring what caused learning to occur is highly subjective. When students succeed what percentage is their own and what percentage is the result of the learning context including the affect of the teacher? The difficulty in answering this question is one of the primary reasons why teacher incentive programs are dangerous and undesirable. Even if society were to construct a very good test at measuring how much students know, it doesn't tell them how they learned what they know. When a student demonstrates high levels of proficiency in math, it may be easy to assume that their math teacher has done their job well but it similarly could be the result of interactions at home or the result of innate cognitive abilities. Assigning credit or blame to the teacher alone for the outcomes in their classroom oversimplifies the complexity of learning.
If teaching were to become more capitalistic it could affect the inherently collaborative field of education. Teachers are known for their willingness to share ideas and work together for the joint success of their students. However if a teacher were to start being compensated more based on how their students compete with the students of their peers they may be far less willing to share tips and strategies for how to make learning easier or more effective. There's some evidence of this in some of the national learning competitions. Every year Toyota sponsors a robot building competition for high school teachers. The winning students and mentoring teacher receive financial rewards for their success. As a result as you can imagine a participating teacher while more than willing to help a colleague working with a different set of students with generalized teaching need, is very unlikely to give advice or assistance related to the competition.
Outcomes based compensation may diminish a teacher's willingness to accept risky teaching assignments. Teachers may be less likely to take on teaching assignments in difficult socio-economic contexts where educational outcomes are harder to accomplish. This would result in teachers fighting for positions in areas of educational advantage and fleeing areas of educational disadvantage. In a hypothetical agriculture situation if I receive payment per potato I grow, I'm not going to choose a field that is rocky and uneven; that's just common sense. Rather I'm going to look for a situation that is ideal in as many factors as I can. However people are not potatoes and when society messages that teachers should be so results-focused that we are going to pay them per success without taking into account the difficulty of the teaching context its only natural that this would have negative consequences that could affect the equality of the educational system.
Keeping teachers in difficult teaching contexts, working together, and avoiding subjectivity are all reasons that the compensation structure used in other fields may not be the best structure for education. Instead of narrowly focusing solely on student performance, teachers should be compensated for the quality of their instruction which can be measured in the variety of teaching techniques that they use and the extent to which their students and peers see them as effectively accomplishing outcomes. Also salaries shouldn't be seen as the only way to motivate teachers towards more effective practices. Increasing the supportiveness of the teaching environment both with technology and human resources will help a teacher to tap into their reasons for pursuing teaching in the first place--affecting change and increasing a deeper understanding in the lives of their students.
Measuring what caused learning to occur is highly subjective. When students succeed what percentage is their own and what percentage is the result of the learning context including the affect of the teacher? The difficulty in answering this question is one of the primary reasons why teacher incentive programs are dangerous and undesirable. Even if society were to construct a very good test at measuring how much students know, it doesn't tell them how they learned what they know. When a student demonstrates high levels of proficiency in math, it may be easy to assume that their math teacher has done their job well but it similarly could be the result of interactions at home or the result of innate cognitive abilities. Assigning credit or blame to the teacher alone for the outcomes in their classroom oversimplifies the complexity of learning.
If teaching were to become more capitalistic it could affect the inherently collaborative field of education. Teachers are known for their willingness to share ideas and work together for the joint success of their students. However if a teacher were to start being compensated more based on how their students compete with the students of their peers they may be far less willing to share tips and strategies for how to make learning easier or more effective. There's some evidence of this in some of the national learning competitions. Every year Toyota sponsors a robot building competition for high school teachers. The winning students and mentoring teacher receive financial rewards for their success. As a result as you can imagine a participating teacher while more than willing to help a colleague working with a different set of students with generalized teaching need, is very unlikely to give advice or assistance related to the competition.
Outcomes based compensation may diminish a teacher's willingness to accept risky teaching assignments. Teachers may be less likely to take on teaching assignments in difficult socio-economic contexts where educational outcomes are harder to accomplish. This would result in teachers fighting for positions in areas of educational advantage and fleeing areas of educational disadvantage. In a hypothetical agriculture situation if I receive payment per potato I grow, I'm not going to choose a field that is rocky and uneven; that's just common sense. Rather I'm going to look for a situation that is ideal in as many factors as I can. However people are not potatoes and when society messages that teachers should be so results-focused that we are going to pay them per success without taking into account the difficulty of the teaching context its only natural that this would have negative consequences that could affect the equality of the educational system.
Keeping teachers in difficult teaching contexts, working together, and avoiding subjectivity are all reasons that the compensation structure used in other fields may not be the best structure for education. Instead of narrowly focusing solely on student performance, teachers should be compensated for the quality of their instruction which can be measured in the variety of teaching techniques that they use and the extent to which their students and peers see them as effectively accomplishing outcomes. Also salaries shouldn't be seen as the only way to motivate teachers towards more effective practices. Increasing the supportiveness of the teaching environment both with technology and human resources will help a teacher to tap into their reasons for pursuing teaching in the first place--affecting change and increasing a deeper understanding in the lives of their students.