Remind students that whole-class and small discussions are designed to develop their oral communication to draw students’ attention to improving their oral communication.
Action: Tell students that you want them to improve their oral communication during in-class discussions. Encourage students to ask each other for clarification or additional information to help provide students […]
Give an example presentation before students present in class to help students understand your expectations.
Action: Give a presentation that can serve as a model for students’ class presentations. After the presentation ask students to describe what they thought went well and what they would […]
Have students help create a rubric for oral presentations to get them thinking about all different aspects of a successful presentation.
Action: Ask students to co-design the rubric that you will use for evaluating student presentations. Ensure students include important dimensions in the rubric by comparing it to existing oral communication […]
Invite non-class members to presentations to create a context in which students must explain their ideas to an intelligent person unfamiliar with the class material.
Action: If feasible, invite people to attend students’ class presentations. You can use an online form such as Google Forms to collect RSVPs. Consider having your guests provide feedback to […]
Give students plenty of opportunities to talk about the course topics to ensure they get practice expressing and clarifying their ideas
Action: Ask students to articulate their ideas orally and ask students to ask each other clarifying questions when they don’t understand what someone has said. Reason: Every class discussion is […]
Provide structure and best practices if students lead discussions to ensure that the discussion meets your goals for non-presenters.
Action: Before students lead a discussion make sure that they understand your goals of having: Civil and respectful discussion Opportunities for all students to contribute Discussion of topics important to […]