For the Professors, Part 1: Tips for Finding Classtime for More Student Speeches
This content will clearly not be relevant for all readers, but
this information was well-received by a faculty group recently, so I thought
I'd share, just in case.
How to make sure there is enough classtime for requiring more
student speeches in your classes. These are tips for reducing
the classtime spent on the how-tos of speaking and how to provide for more
practice opportunities for them. You still need to find some classtime for at
least one big graded speech. There is no way around that, really. Increasing
the amount of online content/work in your class when you can allows for more
time for this.
1.
They speak on course
content; you orally critique accuracy of content immediately but give
actual speech grade later. (They learn it better by processing &
teaching. You immediately see the accuracy of their understanding, unlike
lecture. This is high-impact work).
2.
Assign speech-watching (TED, YouTube,
conference proceedings, etc.) as additional homework on the subject matter for
the day. If you quiz, ask about content and oral communication and the
links between them. Ex: “How does David Carson’s organizational style support
or detract from his argument about design?” or “Are Svante Pääbo’s visual aids
sufficient to explain his methodology for DNA analysis?”
3.
Use speeches in place of
some workshop days (if you use that in your classes already).
4.
Make use of impromptu work. This
is where you really see what they can do with your content. If they show up to
class and are given a group project, 30 minutes of classtime and a 2-3 minute
maximum, this will be very high-impact, especially if you never lecture on the
material and this relies on their completion of reading/homework. I have
actually found this to work better than discussion in many cases.
5.
Replace quizzes with
speeches. This has a downside for the students who speak early in the
semester. Why read after that? So I haven’t used this in a while, but perhaps
you could develop something better?
6.
Rethink your final exam. If you
can deliver this exam electronically in in take-home format, you can use the
final exam period very efficiently for final presentations.
7.
Rethink paper assignments,
when appropriate. Many papers benefit from
being turned into speeches.
I have examples of assignments and activities for all
of these if anyone is interested. Just comment or send me an email.
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