Thursday, February 19, 2015
Supporting Oral Assignments
Now that you've thought about revising an oral assignment, we'll turn more to the in-class and out-of-class support issue. In the past, what have you done to support students in their oral assignments? Do you use any pre-speaking activities? Have any preliminary discussions about speaking? Provide any guidance on speaking? Reflect on what you have provided in the past and what you are considering doing in the future.
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My classes generally consist of two types of speaking activities, informal discussions and formal final presentations. For formal presentations, students likely have a concern over topics, formats, and lengths. I usually recommend them to go through archived conference presentations and follow a format of introduction, research questions, methods, conclusion, and reference. I encourage fellow students to ask questions when each presenter finishes presentation. It seems that most students do better with presentations than informal discussions. Most of these presentations have been wrapped with powerpoint. Recently I notice there are new online authoring tools. In the future, I hope that I can create more speaking opportunities for students and allow them to make use of a variety of tools and formats.
Like Cindy, my classes include both formal and informal speaking expectations. Regardless of the type of speaking (assigned or class participation), I try to model the behaviors I am looking for. If, for example, I would like to students to lead a discussion on course readings, I will call out that part of the lecture so that the students know I am discussing an article and leading a discussion (as opposed to the usual lecture material). If I want students to understand what makes an insightful comment or substantive feedback, I try to model asking questions and/or giving feedback.
I have never asked students if they have perceived my attempts to model behavior as helpful or useful - perhaps I should!
I am always updating and refining my assignments based on what I read or learn from others. I think students do the same. . . .
I offer out-of-class support to my students when they first begin their oral assignments. I have them come to me with a topic and I help them refine it and identify important points to consider regarding the topic. I also tell them to email me if they have any questions about putting together their presentation. I realize now that I do not provide any support to my students about their actual speaking skills and how to prepare for that. I also realized that I've never asked my students for feedback about the support I do provide to determine if it is helpful in putting together their presentations. In the future I would like to create a brief handout or guide that I can send to all of my students that will instruct them in the basics of public speaking. I may also consider giving more detailed feedback about their speaking and presentation style.
The business of interior design is all about presenting ideas. Each class I have taught, I do have the kids get up to present their plans and designs to the class. I am big proponent of clarity in communication.
When we have more formal presentations, I will sometimes have them practice the presentation. I work hard to have them select the right words - the client will pick up on verbal cues and misunderstand the design intent. Instead of saying "rusted metal" as a material, I encourage more elegant speech, such as "weathered metal". In design, perception seems to be everything!
I only have a graduate course, Pedagogy of Music Theory, where speaking is required. The students are asked to develop a handout that provides bullets that they could use to quickly and effectively teach the topic in the future. The collection of handouts from all the students is supposed to create a binder of teaching resources.
That said, the presentation they give is based on their handout, and is intended to share with the class the findings from the assigned topic, plus alternative teaching strategies, musical examples and exercises they can use in class.
No one has ever asked for help on the presentation, but I have a had a small number ask for comments on the handout before their presentation date.
To be honest, I have not generally provided much support for oral assignments outside of my regular office hours. I have, in the past, required students to see me as a group to work out the particulars of a group oral presentation topic and how they will divide it up. When a student seems to be having trouble with informal oral participation, I do invite them to see me as well. But in general, I have often just given the assignment and left them to get to it. I realize now that that was not a wise move and plan on developing ways of helping students through the process with more direction.
Our readings from two weeks ago made me realize that I do use many of the informal speaking activities discussed in our past reading- and I do think I prepare students for those with clear instructions and encouragement. When it comes to formal assignments, I do require my undergraduates to go to the speaking center, and I have noticed a dramatic improvement in recitation preparations. And we also read articles about presenting poetry and discuss them But where I realize that I really need to provide more support is with graduate presentations. I think I was passed down the attitude that this was something graduate students will miraculously know how to do, especially since English graduate students teach at the college level. I certainly was never given any instruction concerning oral assignments. Redesigning a graduate assignment from something close to "give an oral presentation on topic x" to something more comprehensive has been eye-opening!
My students are required to participate in class discussion by preparing questions for discussion for each reading. These are 'informal' but are supposed to be prepared. All formal presentation requirements in classes have spoken components, but from the readings so far I realized I was not giving much support nor sufficient guidance to the students for this process. Like Morgan, I just imagined graduate students would have conducted oral presentations. The readings have been very helpful. I hope the oral presentations I am planning for this semester will reveal how well I integrate this material and provide a more positive experience for the students. I intent to have them prepare podcasts of their portion of their grant presentations and share these with their group members for comment. Both as a practice, and to help them recognize the areas that they can improve. I need to provide them with more criteria for assessing this.
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