Course Introduction

This is a course about communication. During this semester the aim is for you to become more aware of the communication around you, and for you to improve your own skills as a communicator. Sometimes it will seem strange and over-analytical as we dive into the pools of communication over and over again. Much of your own experience will provide the context for talking about this subject. We’ll work hard to use your experiences to understand some of the complicated and enriching ideas we’ll explore.

Course Description

You will give speeches, analyze media, collect an oral history, appreciate a theatre production and better understand your own interpersonal communication strengths and weaknesses.

We will look at many levels of communication, ranging from intrapersonal communication to interpersonal communication, public speaking, group communication, intercultural communication and mass media and communication. Many of the principles we’ll learn will be relevant to all of these different contexts and levels. Hopefully by the end of this course you will not only be a more effective communicator, but you will be much more aware of how the communication around you works.

Something I Learned Speech

I want you to tell a story about something that you learned.  You need to be able to clearly articulate the thing that you learned, but it’s up to you how you communicate it to your audience.  

Really, this is a speech that asks you to think hard about your audience, think hard about the thing that you learned and then create a speech that answers the question:  SO WHAT?  

Maybe you’ll start your speech by describing what you learned.  Maybe you’ll end your speech by explaining what you learned.  Maybe you’ll include stories.  Maybe you’ll structure your speech more like an informational speech.  

In any case, I *do* expect that you’ll do research and I *do* expect that the structure of your speech will emerge primarily based on the needs and interests of your audience.  

This speech will be 3 minutes long and will include 12 power point slides which must auto-advance every 15 seconds.  This structure is commonly used by the “ignite” movement.  You should click the link and watch a few of the stories. 

One way of thinking carefully about your audience is to think about the five canons of rhetoric that the Romans used in order to help them prepare well.  In our case: 

• invention = coming up with a creative way to shape your topic, 
• style = will include the flare you use to make your power point interesting as well as the structure and wording that you use in your speech, 
• arrangement = will have to do with the development, main points or "plotline" of your speech as well as the order of your slides and the relationship between your speaking and your slides, 
• memory = the ways you help your audience remember your speech and 
• delivery = has to do with the practice that you put into the speech. 

PRACTICE YOUR SPEECH TO A LIVE AUDIENCE.  There's no substitute for real practice and your mirror tells you terrible lies. 

This will give you a clear idea of HOW people use power point slides not just to illustrate the points that they are making, but to actively interplay with their spoken presentation to move the presentation forward.  Jot down ideas as you watch about HOW they make their slides work. 

You can also find a rubric that will guide my grading in the folder I have shared with you in google docs.

Course Objectives

For students to:

1. Integrate their understanding and practice of the Christian faith with communication.
2. Engage specific critical standards for evaluating messages.
3. Understand the communication discipline generally.
4. Increase understanding of communication processes and contexts.
5. Develop communication skills interpersonally, in public speaking, and in groups.
6. Read and listen to the ideas of others with understanding and discernment.
7. Speak clearly & effectively.

Exams

Exams will focus both on information from the textbook and from lecture, with more focus placed on ideas that are developed in class lecture and discussion. The test will be multiple choice, matching & true/false. The test will only include 30-33 items.

Students will be permitted to use 3x5 notecards during the test period if they turned in the review notecards on the day readings were due. Each day that reading is due -- a 3x5 notecard will be collected at the beginning of class. No notecards will be accepted later in the class period.

Study sheets will be provided one week prior to the exam for students.

Community Involvement

Many teachers assign a grade for student participation in class. While I agree that student participation is very important for a successful classroom experience, I am even more interested in developing a community of learning that includes student (and teacher) participation both within the classroom and outside of the classroom. A community of learning encompasses both formal communication patterns and informal communication patterns. It includes our explicit discussions about mass media in our lives and world, but could include conversations with one another as we consume media. It also includes relationships between students just as much as the relationship between the teacher and each individual student.

This grade will be calculated based on multiple assessments, all of which will be measured considering the ways that you contribute to the community of learning in this class. Therefore, some of the areas that will be evaluated in this category include:

1.) your constructive contributions in class (amount, depth of insight, and other-orientation are all important here),
2.) your verbal and non-verbal interaction with others in the class,
3.) your attendance,
4.) your interactions with your peers both inside and outside of class time,
5.) any way you facilitate the learning of other students (clarifying examples in class, phone calls in the evening, sharing notes together, after class discussions, and study groups, commenting on blogs) or
6.) any other contributions that you can make to improving the learning climate within the class.

You should focus on developing a culture of learning together; while the development of relationships with one another is important – it is essential that you orient these relationships toward developing one another’s ability to think about communication and to communicate well. I assume that in order to succeed in this portion of the class, you will need to have read well and been an active participant in class lecture and discussion.

This grade will be evaluated several ways. I will invite the entire class to advocate on behalf of other members of the class. I will journal after class, noting contributions made by individuals. On some days, I will take notes. Halfway through the semester, I will suggest the grade that I think most appropriate for your community involvement thus far (based on my assessments and the assessments of your peers). If you feel that this grade doesn't accurately reflect the way you contributed to the community of learning, I URGE you to talk to me. We can together reflect on our differing perspectives, and set goals for a better understanding in the second half of the semester. I expect you will have the most opportunities to contribute to Community Involvement within your Media Squad.

Clearly, this system doesn’t allow you to either be invisible or domineering in this class. Hopefully we can co-construct a positive learning environment together. At the end of the class, I will assign the final grade, but will consider the following factors: your personal assessment, your peers advocacy, and observations from my class journal throughout the semester.

Course Expectations and Policies

I want our classroom to be an ideal learning environment and expect several things from you in order to achieve that goal. First of all, learning should be a comfortable process. I am open to holding class in innovative ways that will be beneficial to the learning environment. Be innovative, be creative, be engaged. How can learning best happen for you? Give me feedback and suggestions. I enjoy thinking in new ways.

Second, mutual learning requires mutual respect. Respecting each other means appropriate words, a lack of derision, but it also means pushing each other to think harder. You can and should question the things that are said in class; but questioning is a big responsibility. You should work to make sure that your questions and input always build up the other people in the class. Our dialogue must proceed with a great optimism about what each of us are going to become.

Attendance and participation are vital for success in this class. Your presence in class is only the first step, though. In order to make the most of this class, you also need to come to class having read the assigned reading. You also need to engage in the in-class exercises and discussions in a way that helps everyone understand better. More than three missed classes will result in a letter grade reduction in your final grade. These three missed classes are to be used for excusable absences, not simply vacation days. If you know about any absence in advance you should let me know and (if applicable) your group. If you fail to participate in the class discussions or activities throughout the semester, your final grade will be reduced by one letter grade.

If you must miss class, you need to let me know before you miss the class. Generally there are no make-up speeches or make-up exams. Late assignments will be penalized one letter grade for every day late. If you are turning an assignment in late, you must let me know when the assignment is due, otherwise I will not accept it. Assignments are due in class on their due date, and if they are turned in after class (but before the end of the day) the grade will be reduced by a third of a letter-grade. If you are absent on the day you are scheduled to give a speech, you may not make-up the speech.

Academic dishonesty will not be tolerated. Any form of plagiarism, cheating or unethical “sharing” will be dealt with according to the student handbook, and will be reported to the academic Dean.

You will be required to have email and use the internet on a regular basis for this course. If this presents any difficulty for you, you should speak to me immediately.