Written Communication

Occasionally interpreter assistance is needed at the Library Desk but help isn’t always available. Identifying this opportunity, I designed a solution using Google Translate. I created a set of instructions with step-by-step directions for colleagues. Equipment purchased to support this solution were wireless mice & keyboards. This was necessary in order to facilitate sharing in the typing and browsing process. The outcome of the adoption of this approach to service has been successful.

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Need: Students who make use of class/campus resources perform better academically. However, many rarely use their syllabi. As a result, students frequently ask instructors for things like due dates, class policies, or the # of assignments/points in a class. I've attached two docs: Syllabus Questions & a syllabus.

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Need: Increasing the likelihood that students who watch/listen to classmates give speeches will use those watching/listening experiences to become better public speakers themselves.

Last semester, I wanted listeners to enhance their public-speaking skills by having them learn from their peers' speeches. To be clear, this is not about learning from the content of their peers' speeches, rather learning about the nature of good public speaking.  This is different than something else I do, which is have 3 listeners provide feedback that is given to the speaker.

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Need: Students are required to use at least 5 credible sources, but have struggled to identify and use them.

Enhancement (see esp. #2): 

(1) Instruction: Credible sources meet all 3 criteria: (a) written by a named [with rare exceptions] authority on the subject under discussion; (b) timely [which usually, but not always, means recent]; (c) has minimal bias [completely objective sources don't exist].

(2) Template: Students type into/complete the attached Word document, "Research Packet." (10 points of speech)

Within ENG101, last fall in the 2016 semester (traditional 16 week Face-to-Face class met on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11:30 a.m. to 12:45 p.m.), the instructor incorporated the Weekly Wellness SMART Goal Tracking System into her curriculum.  After Lyle’s delivery of the initial orientation to ENG101 students, the instructor invited her entire class to participate in the Weekly Wellness.  Nevertheless, interestingly enough, as time progressed, the class naturally broke into the two groups: participants vs.

The Communication Abilities Rubric assesses areas of physical and vocal delivery.  Instructors and students have not fully understood the categories in the rubric. As an innovative approach, my Com230H section did a media project breaking down each element of the rubric into video. I allowed for flexibility with strict guidelines to ensure all disciplines and communication research was covered. Next, 18 students assessed themselves 3x for 3 group presentations.

The Outreach Team facilitated a Service Learning project which included students participating in EMCC's ACE Program. The project utilized materials from I Am Human: Campaign to End Derogatory Language. 100 students watched the I Am Human Video, completed assessments, exhibited critical thinking through group dicussions, and coalesed the event by using kind words to create tokens of gratitude. Please see attachments for assemsent results and detailed report of the Service Learning event.

In my F 2016 BIO181 classes, I noticed several students checking email, texting, sleeping. Those students  usually sat alone in the back of the room. I use “think-pair-share” activities to promote collaborative learning and communication, but this is challenging when disengaged students are spread out all over the classroom. To boost engagement, I established a seating policy mid-semester.  All front seats must be filled first, and no one sits alone at a table. I asked students to get up and move, and late comers could not avoid being directed to open seats.

To combat students being overly concerned with page length and the number of quotes/paraphrases when writing research papers, I decided to take the paper out of the equation. For this research project, students use the research process to determine how realistic the science/technology is in a selected Marvel film. By removing the paper, the students are able to focus on and practice the various steps in the research process, such as crafting a research proposal, annotated bibliography and outline.

I have used the textbook for reviewing physics content.  In the fall spring of 2015, I allowed students an option of doing small at home labs/demos, video themselves doing the activity and explaining the physics behind it.  I found that the students who did these activities liked them and demonstated a deeper understanding of the material. In the fall of 2016, I decided to expand this idea and make the assignment a larger requirement of the overal grade. I also provided more opportunities to do these type of small projects.

For the on-line (SPA 117) course, students are required to submit a video recording of a role-playing situation for each of the course modules.  In the video recording students use the target language in order to complete meaningful tasks they will counter in the real world as health care professionals.  These task based role playing activities will assess verbal and nonverbal communication skills, mostly the students’ grammar, pronunciation, vocabulary, and speaking capacities learned in each module.

As effective teachers, we must recognize that students are gifted with a variety of intelligences.  In fact, Dr. Howard Gardner has identified eight distinct intelligences.  Unfortunately, all too often we structure our formal assessments to allow for students to utilize very few of these intelligences in assessing student learning.  The following experiment will allow for the comparison of multiple forms of intelligence in formative assessment. 

A straight lecture on cell structures is torture for students. To remedy this, I designed a system of flashcards where each organelle is represented by 3 types of cards: a picture card, a structure card, and a characteristic card. Cards have alignment hints for the other two cards. Each group of 4 students is given one set of 36 cards. They work together to align the 3 cards for each organelle.  While groups are engaged in collaborative work to tease out details about each organelle, I can work more closely with each student as they learn to critically evaluate card content.

The problem:  Some students have been misinterpreting my instructions for class assignments with multiple steps.  With two multiple stepped assignments, on average 6 out of 31 students missed a concept. 

The process:  Peer groups consisted of 4 students.  After groups were given instructions for the assignment, peers repeated the instructions to their group. Afterwards, each group (8 tables) had to summarize and rewrite the instructions on a mini white board. 

*Not being one to explicitly tell students to place their electronic devices away, I wanted to see if I could not only do that (that is, have them put them away) but also assess their basal understanding of communication concepts within COM 225, public speaking.