oral communication assignment pdf

CTL Guide to Oral & Signed Communication

Introduction.

BU students should be able to communicate information in a clear and coherent formal oral and/or signed presentation, to engage responsibly with others, and to make use of a range of disciplinary-appropriate informal oratory.

Learning outcomes

Oral and/or signed communication courses and cocurricular activities in this area must have all outcomes.

• Students will be able to craft and deliver responsible, considered and well-structured oral and/or signed arguments using media and modes of expression appropriate to the situation.
• Students will demonstrate an understanding that oral/signed communication is generally interactive, and they should be able to attend and respond thoughtfully to others.
• Students will be able to speak/sign effectively in situations ranging from the formal to the extemporaneous and interact comfortably with diverse audiences.

If you are proposing an OSC course or if you want to learn more about these outcomes, please see this  Interpretive Document . Interpretive Documents, written by the   General Education Committee ,  are designed to answer questions faculty have raised about Hub policies, practices, and  learning outcomes  as a part of the course approval process. To learn more about the proposal process,  start here .

Resources for faculty

• Brown University : Classroom Communication Tips
• Mount Holyoke College : Are Your Students Communicating Effectively?
• University of Pittsburgh : Oral Communication Lab (includes sections on Public Speaking, Argument & Deliberation, and Audience Analysis)
• Rice University : Program in Writing and Communication (see “Professional Communication” and “Academic Presentations” sections)
• Ripon College : Oral Communication – Evaluation and Grading
• Stanford University : Undergrad Program in Writing and Rhetoric – Tools for Students
• University of Wisconsin-Madison : Resources for Instructors (see the “Teaching Oral Communication Skills” tab)
• Playlist: Before Public Speaking (9 videos)
• Playlist: How to Make a Great Presentation (5 videos)
• Megan Washington: Why I Live in Mortal Dread of Public Speaking
• Anderson, Chris. (2016)  Ted Talks: The Official Ted Guide to Public Speaking . Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Anderson’s foundation acquired the TED Conference in 2001, and he transformed it into a global media enterprise focused on “ideas worth spreading.” His book is not only a practical and accessible guide to giving TED talks, but also public speaking in general.

Resources for students

• University of Pittsburgh : Student facing resources on public speaking, working in groups, argument, and audience analysis.
• Hamilton College: The Seven Cardinal Virtues of Oral Presentation
• Toastmasters (videos and resources)

Overcoming anxiety

• Mayo Clinic,” Fear of Public Speaking: How Can I Overcome It? “
• College of Lake County, Illinois,  Speech Anxiety Workbook
• TED Talk: Joe Kowan, How I Beat Stage Fright
• TED Talk: Amy Cuddy, Your Body Language May Shape Who You Are
• TED Talk: Mikael Cho, The Science of Stage Fright (And How to Overcome It)

Assignment ideas

The following are assignments that faculty have developed for this Hub area:

• Guided activities help students to  transition from simple to complex oral communication tasks.

Seeing and hearing others speak (in person, videos, etc.), and engaging students in a discussion on the effective use of organization, gestures, pacing, etc., can oftentimes be more memorable than simply explaining what makes for a strong presentation. In this way, exposing students to models (through TED talks, speeches, or other genres of formal and informal communication) can allow them to recognize and evaluate the components of effective communication; for instance, what makes for an effective persuasive argument?

To help students transition to drafting their own speeches and arguments, you may choose to expose them to different rhetorical models. These include ethos, pathos, and logos.

Having reflected on what makes for effective oral and/or signed communication, students may then practice developing their own skills though informal or low-stakes activities before speaking in a formal, high-stakes  situations. For example, students could practice presenting in pairs or small groups before doing so in front of the whole class.

Incorporating such scaffolded assignments allows students to receive feedback and explicit training at each step of the process.

• Debates  challenge students to speak clearly, succinctly, and persuasively. In addition, students learn how to select evidence that will be most compelling to their audience and to listen carefully to others so that they can offer targeted counterarguments.  Some faculty wait to assign viewpoints until the day of the debate so that students need to prepare to represent both sides.
• S peeches and presentations also  serve as effective cumulative assignments.
• Additional sample assignments and assessments can be found throughout the selected Resources section located above.

Course design questions

As you are integrating Oral &/or Signed Communication into your course, here are a few questions that you might consider:

• What framework/vocabulary/process do you use to teach the key elements of oral and/or signed communication in your course — such as argument structure, genre, and audience?
• What assigned readings or other materials do you use to teach oral and/or signed communication specifically?
• What assignments — both graded and ungraded, high- and low-stakes –are you developing to evaluate students’ communication skills?
• Do students have opportunities throughout the semester to apply and practice these skills and receive feedback?

Other resources

• Chan, Vincent. (2011). “Teaching Oral Communication in Undergraduate Science: Are We Doing Enough and Doing it Right?” Journal of Learning Design 4:3,  71–79. Offers a number of simple, practical suggestions for integrating “learning tasks for training oral communication” into undergraduate science courses.
• Cleveland, Lacy M., Reinsvold, Robert J. (2017). “Development of Oral Communication Skills By Undergraduates That Convey Evolutionary Concepts to the Public.” Journal of Microbiology & Biology E ducation 18:1. Outlines a three-phase activity that aims to develop and assess students’ ability to communicate key concepts in evolutionary science to an audience of non-experts.
• Dannels, Deanna P., Palmerston, Patricia Ruby,  & Gaffney, Amy L. H . (2017).  Oral Communication in the Disciplines: A Resource for Teacher Development and Training . Anderson, South Carolina: Parlor Press.  A practical and comprehensive guide to designing oral assignments in a wide range of courses by leaders in the field of oral communication across the disciplines .
• Gunn, Joshua. (2018).  Speech Craft . Bedford/St. Martin’s.
• Keith, William M. and Lundberg, Christian O. (2017) . Public Speaking: Choices and Responsibility. (2nd ed.) Boston, MA.: Cengage Learning. An in-depth textbook focusing on writing and delivering formal speeches and presentations. Though intended for students, it can also serve as a helpful resource for instructors.
• Lucas, Stephen. The Art of Public Speaking . (2012). Boston: McGraw-Hill (12th ed) . A leading and comprehensive textbook on public speaking, covering a wide range of rhetorical situations.
• O’Hair, D., Rubenstein, H., & Stewart, R. (2015).  A Pocket Guide to Public Speaking . Bedford/St. Martin’s.  
• Palmer, Eric. (2011).  Well Spoken: Teaching Speaking to All Students . Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers.
• Quigley, Brooke L. (1998). “Designing and Grading Oral Communication Assignments.” New Directions for Teaching and Learning  74 (1998): 41–49. Though two decades old, this remains a succinct and practical guide to the basics of oral assignment design and assessment and includes an outline of key principles and a sample grading rubric.
• Sprague, Jo, Stuart, Douglas, & Bodary, David. (2019).  The Speaker’s Handbook . Boston, M.A.: Cengage.

You may also be interested in:

Ctl guide to writing intensive hub courses, ctl guide to the teamwork/collaboration hub area, research & information literacy hub guide, creativity & innovation hub guide, ctl guide to the individual in community hub area, ctl guide to critical thinking, faculty guide to assessment options in remote & hybrid classes part 1: overview of exams & assignments, faculty guide: first day of in-person classes.

• CSUMB Library

Home > Educational Resources > ULO Assignment Guides, Rubrics, and Threshold Concepts > ULO 1 - Oral Communication

ULO 1 - Oral Communication

Csumb assessment philosophy and practice, development, standards, and grading, oral communication threshold concepts.

• Audience awareness during delivery
• Audience engagement
• Uses space and time
• Co-creation of experience
• The experience is emotional as well as cognitive
• Assesses audience
• Time is limited and only moves forward
• Repetition is more necessary and overt than in writing
• Preparation (to intimately know content)
• Use of vocabulary (spoken versus written)
• Situations repeat, resulting in genres
• Credibility/trust is contextual and constructed
• Medium is an element of genre
• True dialogue involves really speaking and listening, which is a meaning-making activity
• Dissonance can be good/productIve

Assignment Guides Assignment Guides

Oral Communication, Critical Thinking, and Information Literacy Assignment Guide , California State University, Monterey Bay

Presentations Presentations

APA: Citing Your Sources in Oral Presentations , Sarah Dahlen and Shar Gregg

Chicago: Citing Your Sources in Oral Presentations , Sarah Dahlen and Shar Gregg

CSE: Citing Your Sources in Oral Presentations , Sarah Dahlen and Shar Gregg

MLA: Citing Your Sources in Oral Presentations , Sarah Dahlen and Shar Gregg

Rubrics Rubrics

Oral Communication, Critical Thinking, and Information Literacy Integrated Rubric , California State University, Monterey Bay

Oral Communication Undergraduate Learning Outcome Rubric , California State University, Monterey Bay

Rubric Guides Rubric Guides

Oral Communication, Critical Thinking, Information Literacy Integrated Rubric Guide , California State University, Monterey Bay

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• Sample Assignments

The following list suggests some possible speaking activities and is not meant to limit anyone’s creativity. Other kinds of speaking tasks are certainly possible.

Presentational Speaking

These assignments give students an opportunity to speak to an audience, and they can be done on an individual basis or students could work together as a presenting group. Some formats include:

• Oral reports of research or student papers debates
• Presentation of course content areas Interviews
• Presentation analyzing a problem Oral exam
• Role-playing as part of a simulation

Presentational speaking assignments encourage students to understand course material well enough to communicate it to others. Typically, these assignments emphasize factors such as:

• research, analysis, evaluation of data
• adaptation of materials to meet the demands of the occasion and audience
• determination of a suitable purpose and focus for a presentation
• development of a suitable and clear organizational pattern
• development of arguments to support the speaker’s purpose
• delivery skills suitable to the presentation’s objectives
• listening to and critical evaluation of oral messages

Learning Groups and Class Discussion

Learning group activities give students specific oral tasks, such as analyzing a problem or examining textual material. The assignment is designed so that collaboration by group members is essential to make progress on the task. A speaking-intensive approach to learning groups and class discussion involves more than merely having discussions and using groups in class. To make the class speaking-intensive, instructors must spend time with students talking about the discussion process and the characteristics of good discussions. Instructors also provide opportunities for the class to assess its discussions and for students to examine their own communication behavior as part of the discussion group.

Learning group and class discussion formats include:

• Laboratory groups Student led discussions (whole class)
• Peer reviews Instructor led discussions (whole class)
• Study groups Transcript analysis of group “talk”

Learning group and class discussion assignments emphasize factors such as:

• development of discussion skills that facilitate group progress
• an understanding of and skill in dealing with group conflict
• increased student responsibility for learning in the class
• an awareness of how questioning technique helps or hinders group talk

Task Group Projects

In these assignments, students work together for longer periods of time and may be expected to produce a final report of some sort. Often, task groups have to meet together outside of regular class times in order to work on their assigned projects.

Formats include:

• Problem solving projects Analysis of case studies
• Laboratory groups Research teams
• “Task force” groups, assigned a long- or short-term product goal

Once again, simply assigning student group projects does not make one’s use of these activities speaking-intensive. Instructors must spend time with students talking about the group process and helping students learn how to understand group communication dynamics. Instructors also include opportunities for groups to assess their progress and for students to examine their own communication behavior as part of the group.

Task group assignments emphasize:

• development of communication skills that facilitate group progress
• awareness of and skill in dealing with group conflict
• an understanding of the advantages and limitations of group work

Interpersonal Communication

These assignments involve projects in which two students communicate together for the purpose of achieving some common goal. Typical formats include: Role-playing cases (e.g., managerial issues, clinical interviews, conflict resolution)

One-on-one teaching/tutoring Interviews Interpersonal communication assignments help students:

• gain and improve interpersonal communication skills
• acquire an awareness of and skill in dealing with interpersonal conflicts
• develop listening skills
• Speaking Intensive Program
• SI Course Expectations
• Archive of the 2015 NACC Conference at UMW
• Body Language
• Formats for Group Presentations
• Handling Speech Anxiety
• Leading Discussion Groups
• Moderating a Group Presentation
• Outline Checklist
• People Ask Me to Repeat Myself
• Planning a Group Presentation
• Preparing Speaking Notes
• Preparing Supporting Materials
• Settings for Group Presentations
• Speech Organization
• Toulmin Argument Model
• Transitions
• Using a Script
• Using PowerPoint
• Available Articles
• Class Discussion
• Communication
• Evaluation Sheets
• Learning Groups
• Public Speaking
• Task Groups
• Speaking Center Video
• Your First In-Class Presentation
• Accommodations and Oral Communication Assignments
• New Course Proposals
• Speaking Intensive Committee
• Speaking Intensive Committee – Minutes and Reports
• Speaking Intensive Course List – courses approved by the SI committee
• Using Video for Student Presentations
• Speaking and Writing Center