This is an ode to worksheets.

This is a song in praise of diagrams, fill-in-the-blanks, and mind-maps.

This is an elegy to the last handouts you printed on 35% post-consumer recycled paper (“this handout is made from trees”) before transitioning to online-only classes.

~

Participants in the Instructional Skills Workshops (ISW) that I have recently begun facilitating, frequently offer this piece of feedback: we use a lot of paper.

I agree, the workshop is paper-intensive. We use large flipcharts to display the agenda for the day and we often ask participants to write on flipcharts during the morning lessons. In the afternoon, participants use flipcharts to track their daily goals and we use paper handouts to get written feedback for their peers and for ourselves.

I am happy to say that I have started using paper in my classes outside the ISW as well.

Why so much paper? Can’t we reduce, re-use, recycle?

I take that feedback seriously—we probably do use too much paper—but I have also thought about the pros and cons of using digital tools in face-to-face classroom environments, and I have come out in favor of paper. Now that we are not likely to see another paper assignment, much less the inside of a classroom, for the rest of the semester, I am ready to offer an apologia pro papyro.

These are my own opinions; I have not validated them in a research environment.

Argument 1: Tasking and Engagement

A blank paper is a challenge, a question, an expectation. Placing a paper in front of students provides them with a concrete task: to fill it. By the end of the lesson, students who leave with a full paper are also leaving with a tangible accomplishment, a material representation of their engagement and (hopefully!) their learning.

Argument 2: Formative Feedback

As students put their ideas to paper, I can see those ideas flow. What I can’t see are ideas that are trapped in their heads. When ideas hit paper, I can offer feedback and guidance on thought processes that I can actually see and engage with. The bigger the paper, the better for this purpose. As I circulate and look over students’ papers, I can point them back to things they have written earlier, making visible connections between ideas that occurred separately in a series. I can tangibly point to things like keywords, and I can encourage them to use unused space on the paper.

Argument 3: Scaffolding up to non-tangible displays of learning

Not every student feels ready to answer a question verbally, to raise their hand, or to launch into a discussion. By engaging students with paper tasks, I aim to give them an opportunity to reflect, write, and sort through their thoughts before asking them to discuss with their peers. A paper can be a springboard to a verbal discussion, but it is also an anchor and a map. When wind begins to fill the room, a paper can remind students where they have been and where they wanted to go.

So far I have been energized by adding paper supports to my lesson plans, and I hope to find more ways to use paper in the future. Last week, we did close-readings of some contemporary reflections on WWI. I used a “Placemat” activity to help students record their thoughts about how these reflections displayed some of that traits that would become hallmarks of “Modernism” in arts and culture. After recording their thoughts individually, students poured their collaborative thoughts into the middle of the page, and then shared their ideas in a larger group of several other pairs who had been working on the same text.

Ultimately, Arguments 2 and 3 are the most significant to me. Most importantly, I want to engage students who don’t feel comfortable speaking in front of others, and I want to be able to offer formative feedback to students while they are in the classroom. Paper supports these goals. If you love paper, or if you have ideas about how digital tools can also fill these roles, let me know!