Traditionally, informative speeches are relegated to be passive. The classic scope of informative speeches does not consider "live" or "lived" rhetoric. After teaching public speaking for most of my career, there are times when one needs to reinvigorate assignments. This assignment challenges how we utilize memory and place to…

This unit teaches students how to perform racial rhetorical criticism and positions them to engage in discussions of race through experiential learning, namely through exploring the links between rhetoric, public memory, and campus history projects. Courses: Rhetorical Criticism, Rhetorical Theory, Communication Theory. Objective: Students will…

Courses: Communication Theory; Research Methods; Mass Communication Theory. Objectives: This activity introduces students to the socially constructed nature of theorizing through having a few students sort a bag of random items in ways of their choice. The class then discusses the categories of sorted items in terms of their properties as theories…

Unpacking the idea of how students consume and use models of professional voice is important and warrants more attention in the communication classroom. The following class outline, as a result, will provide other communication instructors with an overview of how students can bring in their own examples of language use from business to reflect on…

Courses: Mass Communication, Persuasion, Media Literacy, Political Communication, and Communication Theory. Objectives: This activity introduces students to priming theory through atmospheric peripheral cues. Students learn about media priming and understand how priming effects may occur in real-world situations.

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…

Dominant approaches to assessment have often limited students' ability to share their perspectives on course experiences. Further, assessment approaches are often disconnected from pedagogical practice and reinforce the status quo. In this article, we outline our critical-interpretive approach to a four-year cycle of assessments examining…

Courses: Introduction to Communication (within a unit on culture), Intercultural Communication, Race and Communication, Gender and Communication, Media and Diversity, Dance Appreciation, and Introduction to Dance Studies (within a unit on culture). Objectives: This activity merges dance and communication to invite intercultural learning. Through…

It may be possible to teach students in undergraduate research methods courses about replication, while simultaneously providing the discipline a means to solve what some have called a replication "crisis." Over the span of three consecutive fall semesters, students replicated Cialdini and Schroeder's "even a penny will help"…

This activity engages students in values-based decision making using a story about five characters caught up in a morally fraught dilemma. Students draw conclusions about each character based on perceptions of their actions, rather than explicitly stated attributes, as they interact with one another to reach a consensus ranking from best to worst.…

Courses: Interpersonal Communication, Communication Theory. Objectives: Students improve their understanding of relational framing theory, consider features of interactions that influence message interpretation, and reflect on ways framing impacts their interactions.

Courses: Rhetorical Criticism, Communication Theory, Media Criticism. Objectives: This activity uses a diagram to help students visualize Kenneth Burke's theory of dramatism. Specifically, through an analysis of the film Hell or High Water, students learn to identify each stage of the guilt-purification-redemption cycle and gain insight into its…

The hidden curriculum (HC) consists of implicit knowledge rooted in curricula and found throughout students' experiences navigating higher education (e.g. understanding professional email etiquette, graduate school applications and funding opportunities, or often taken-for-granted programs like Title IX and disability accommodations). In this…

The study of communication through the framework of established theories is central to communication education, and most undergraduate communication programs include a course dedicated to surveying theoretical perspectives. This activity guides students to review and synthesize theoretical knowledge in a March Madness-style end-of-semester…

Students will participate in a "think-pair-share" activity where they will be challenged to demonstrate and recognize nonverbal communication cues that convey emotion. Students will work individually, with a partner, and with the instructor to understand the importance of nonverbal communicative cues and the effect of the nonverbal cues…