Grading speeches

What has your experience been with grading speeches?  Do you have a particular philosophy or preference when grading?  What do you struggle with the most?

Discussion Questions for Week 3

What pedagogical and practical considerations typically inform your design of a writing assignment? How do the writing assignments in your courses function for your students? Are they meant to demonstrate mastery of form or material?  Or are they a part of how your students learn course content? Or both?  How much do your assignments change from semester to semester and course to course?

Obstacles to incorporating writing and speaking into the curriculum

It seems that we are all on board with the idea that speaking and writing across the curriculum is important.  There are, of course, obstacles that we have to overcome if we are to succeed in integrating speaking/writing into the curriculum, however.  Here are a just a few of the commonly listed complaints about using writing and speaking assignments in the classroom (credited to Chris Anson at North Carolina State University, Director of the Campus Writing and Speaking Program)

• Avoidance: “It’s not my job—I’m not a writing/speaking person”
• Anxiety: “I’m not a great speaker/writer myself”
• Blame: “It’s the fault of the high schools” “Our university doesn’t provide the right resources”
• Additional layer: “Writing/speaking intrudes on my course coverage.” “I already have so much to teach, I can’t add another thing.”
• Pedagogical apathy: “My teaching is pretty good as is.”
• Misconception: “My discipline is about _____, not writing/speaking.”
• Irritation: “Too many students, not enough time.”
• Extrinsic needs: “There’s no reward for this extra work.”

Choose the 3 obstacles that you think are most applicable to your situation and then reflect on ways that the assumption is wrong or suggest possible solutions to the problem.