The First Assignment as Metapedagogy

Writing one's own first assignment can be a humbling experience. Throughout the process, I've tried to keep in mind what pedagoigical value I hope to achieve in having students read what I've assigned and in having them write within certain given specifications. With these notions in mind, I've hit snags at pretty much every point in the process; and so I've second-guessed not only specific assignments and lesson plans, but also my overall approach/theme/syllabus. It's not so much that I'm concerned in the operational aspects of the syllabus--I think it's just fine--but in going through the process of writing the first assingment, I realize that I want it to do more. Or rather, I want it it to do different things. For example, I went in the opposite direction from most, it seems, and made my assignment way too broad in terms of the subject matter. I had given a choice of something like ten essays for students (or me) to choose from. As I was going through the essays, I saw in each of them something of value (of course) but, taken as a whole, they're not building up to want I to do with my class. So, in short, I've rewritten my first assignment and over the weekend I will be completely revising my syllabus (read: scrapping everything and completely starting over). I'm excited about it, though--this has really helped.