Enhancing Grammar Assignment Perceptions by Increasing Assignment Demands

Abstract

In the current experiment, 32 students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) in Grades 7 through 12 worked on 2 grammar assignments for 15 minutes each. Control assignments contained 15 target tasks (i.e., multisentence paragraphs) that students were required to rewrite and for which they had to provide appropriate punctuation. Experimental (i.e., interspersal) assignments contained 15 matched target tasks and 8 additional brief 1-sentence paragraphs interspersed following every 2nd target paragraph.After working on both assignments, students ranked assignments and then were allowed to choose a new assignment for homework.Although experimental assignments required students to complete more work, no significant differences were found for time and effort rankings and significantly more students chose the interspersal assignment for homework.In addition, discrete task completion rates were significantly higher on the interspersal assignment.