This activity aims to assist students with persuasive tactics for argumentative speeches. The activity involves students creating an argumentative speech to defend a hot-take assertion chosen from a list provided by the instructor. In small groups, students will craft an argument supporting their hot-take assertion and present it to the class.…

This teaching activity builds students' interpersonal competencies in identifying Mark Knapp's Stages of Relationships (Adler, Rosenfeld, Towne, & Scott, 2012, Interplay: The process of interpersonal communication, p. 504, Holt, Rinehart, and Winston). The activity establishes a theoretical understanding of each stage and asks students to use…

This essay overviews a semester-long course activity and framework for the basic public-speaking course. Using Paul and Elder's critical-thinking framework, the author discusses ways to address some of the common problems within the public-speaking course while enhancing critical thinking. Through this model, students develop skills in five…

Courses: Basic communication course. Objectives: Using the Ally, Advocate, Activist framework in a basic communication course will help students apply course concepts to their lives and communities. This framework helps students practice civic engagement while mastering the skills that are typically tested for assessment purposes in the basic…

Courses: Small group communication and advanced group dynamics. Objectives: After completing this single-class activity, students should be able to: (1) evaluate successful communication characteristics that enhance the group's ability to achieve specific goals; (2) identify small group communication barriers; and (3) develop strategies to…

Courses: Communication Technology, Communication Theory, History of Communication, Media and Society. Objectives: Students will develop an understanding of the two principal theories of technology and culture: technological determinism and the social construction of technology.

Courses: Interpersonal Communication, Relational Communication Objective: This article teaches students to explain and evaluate Knapp's Relational Staircase Model through the creation of personalized greeting cards for each relational stage. The in-class activity encourages students to be creative and succinct in capturing the essence of an…

One of the challenges for undergraduate students is to comprehend abstract and theoretical concepts in communication classes. Given today's college students' expectations for in-class interaction (Rocca, 2010), it is important that instructors integrate hands-on activities in their lesson plans while teaching theoretical concepts.…

As noted by Proctor (1999), "a quick perusal of communication textbooks, instructors manuals, and conference papers suggests that film use is common in contemporary communication courses." One reason the use of film is popular is that it can engage students in higher learning processes such as applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating…

To say that there is a lack of student enthusiasm on the first day of Research Methods is an understatement. Research Methods begins each semester with two teaching goals: (1) lowering classroom anxiety; and (2) bolstering student enthusiasm for the course material by helping them identify its relation to their lives. The most powerful…

Although directly related to students' everyday lives, the abstract and even intimidating nature of relational theories often bars students from recognizing the immediate relevance to their relationships. The theories of symbolic interactionism, social exchange, relational dialectics, social penetration, and uncertainty reduction offer students…

The purpose of this report is to describe a rationale and strategies for use of the Promising Syllabus (in Bain, 2004, What the best college teachers do). This syllabus reflects the learner-centered paradigm where students take charge of their own learning. The syllabus creates a series of promises between teacher and student, focusing on a…

Courses: Communication and civic participation course; rhetorical theory, political communication, leadership. Objective: Students will explore citizenship through role models and story-telling. (Contains 1 table.)

In the upper-level communication seminar that the author teaches--"Practices of Citizenship"--students learn and reflect on multiple theories and practices of citizenship as they develop their own voices in civil, academic, and intellectual conversations. As Aristotle argues, citizenship is a practice, a habit that must be learned. Aristotle's…

"An Inconvenient Truth" is an Academy Award-winning documentary about global warming presented by Al Gore. This documentary is appropriate for a lesson on fear appeals and the extended parallel process model (EPPM). The EPPM is concerned with the effects of perceived threat and efficacy on behavior change. Perceived threat is composed of an…