TA e-meeting: November 11 , 2011

Hi Ladies.  Hope everyone had a fantastic week!

I.                    New lectures

II.                  Jordana Lenon’s talk

III.                Meeting with Don

IV.                Next week’s lectures

I.                     My students are really taking to the revised lectures.  I did an informal survey in my class, and almost every student liked the idea of shifting our current lecture format to one that that incorporates daily applied exercises and group activities.   What have been some of the reactions from students in your respective sections?

II.                  What did your students think about Jordana’s talk?  My students were pretty engaged and they asked several questions at the end.  They also seemed to make the connection that Jordan was the embodiment of what we are trying to teach them in the persuasive unit…Jordana said after my class that she was going to modify her talk for each section.  How did things go when she gave her talk to your students?

III.                I took from the email thread the meeting with Don was productive! I like his suggestions. I’m game for using Google Doc to brainstorm new ideas for the class.  It’s probably a more effective tool than the blog…Also, Haley mentioned that Don suggested some texts/activities for the class.  I’d like to hear more about those!

IV.                So, this week’s lecture:

i.                     From the email thread, I gathered that we all want to do the same thing on Monday, which is to have the students peer-review their outlines, and then have the students complete a brief activity.  Molly suggested a persuasive argument exercise (page 7 of the document http://homepages.wmich.edu/~cedwards/Teachingmodules/modules/Teaching%20Persuasive%20Speaking.pdf).  Do we want to go with this?

ii.                   We have Wednesday and Friday to show/discuss example of good/bad speeches.  I envisioned using Wednesday to discuss the “famous” speeches; on Friday,  we I thought we could cover a few of the “not-so-famous speeches” and then briefly discuss presentation tools.  We have a PP presentation in the TAC about PP presentations; however, Haley said that Don gave her a great book about visual presentation that she wanted to adapt in a brief tutorial for the students.  Haley, is that still the plan?

OK, I’m off to enjoy my Saturday…by doing homework.  Have a good one

Camille

TA e-meeting: November 7 , 2011

Hi Ladies,

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

I.                    Open floor

II.                  Meeting with Don

III.                Monday (Nov 7)

IV.                Wednesday (Nov 9)

V.                  Friday (Nov 11)

VI.                The blog

I.                    Questions and/or comments?

II.                  Haley, thanks for organizing this meeting with Don on Nov 10.  As I said last week, I have class at 2:30 that day, so I will be unable to attend.  I’m looking forward to hearing about what ideas arise from your discussion!

III.                On Monday, we will discuss how to effectively structure a persuasive composition.  This presentation is text-heavy; however, I like it because it provides several concrete examples of well-crafted (also, not-well crafted) theses/introductions, organized body paragraphs (using the stacked or one-by-one method, and reflective conclusions.  I was thinking about turning the slides about thesis statements into an activity—maybe giving the students a worksheet with the various non-effective thesis statement examples and asking the students to tell me the flaws in the statements?  Thoughts?

IV.                On Wednesday, we will have our second guest speaker—Jordana Lenon, who is communications director for the UW Primate Center.  Jordana was one of our speakers last semester and she did a fantastic job—her talk was timely and fit nicely into our persuasion unit….Usually, when we have a guest speaker, I try to stick around all day and play host.  However, on Wednesdays I have a seminar from 12-2:30; it’s a once-a-week class so I can’t skip.  Can each of us try to be accommodating of Jordana before and during our sections?  Also, I typically offer to buy the guest speaker lunch.  Heather or Molly, could one of you please offer to buy Jordan something from the café next door.  I’ll pay you back!

V.                  I feel like this entire lecture is repetitive, because we’ve already addressed emotion appeals and audience types in previous lectures.  I was thinking that we should use this day to review persuasive concepts or discuss anything that we may not have had time for in the previous week’s lectures.  Or, we could come up with some practice activities for the students. Thoughts?

VI.                FYI:  From now on, I will email everyone a notice whenever I post meeting notes to the blog.  I know it’s sometimes difficult to remember to check the blog (especially on weekends), so hopefully this will help.

See you tomorrow!

Camille

TA e-meeting: October 30, 2011

Hi Ladies,

Hope each of you enjoyed the Halloween weekend!

I.  Open floor
II. Persuasion Lessons
i. Oct 31
ii. November 2
iii. November 3
III. Grading
i. Papers
ii. Speeches

I. Questions, thoughts or concerns?

II.  Big thanks to Molly for taking on the responsibility of revamping our persuasion lectures.  She did a great job!
i.  Remember, the activity for this day's (Oct 31) lecture requires the students to reflect on an advertisement that persuaded them to feel/do something.  Please send an email to your sections this afternoon and tell them to bring advertisements to class!...Also, at the end of class please 1) distribute the topic approval form for the persuasive papers/speeches (which will be due on Wednesday) and 2) remind students to read "Love is a Fallacy," which will be used in the Nov 2 activity.
ii.  To be honest, I hated our logical fallacy power point, so I'm glad it's been nixed in favor of the activity and video examples.  I'm looking forward to hearing how this lecture goes for each of us!
iii.  There is a lot of content in this lecture.  In the past, I have struggled to finish the material in time.  Be sure to pace yourself so you can get to the "putting it all together" examples at the end.  These examples are really useful to the students, especially those that struggle with organization.

III. How have each of your progressed with...
i. ...grading the papers?  I'm finished (only because I locked my self in the office last weekend).  I awarded quite a few As.  I think it's because several of my students submitted 2-3 rough drafts, so they received lots of feedback from me before they wrote their final draft.  Everyone else?
ii. ...with grading speeches?  Have you emailed speeches to your students?  Please remind your students they they can earn 5 points of extra credit for writing a self-review of their speeches.  The syllabus says that these self-reviews are due Oct 31, but I think we should extend the deadline.  Thoughts?

I never know how to end these things...so have a nice day!

Camille

Counterarguments--Nov. 4 lesson

I uploaded one more day's lesson to the folder on Learn@UW. The powerpoint is basically the same, and the activity is a pretty straightforward "lightning round" of arguing:

Split the class into groups, and have each group pull an argument out of a bag. Give the group 5 minutes to come up with valid counterarguments. Have each group share the argument/counterargument with the class. Repeat as time allows.

I left the list of counterarguments blank because I'm not being very creative right now, but my thoughts were to briefly give background information on a topic and then come up with ten or so arguments for them to counter in groups.

Enjoy the easy day today, and have a great weekend!

Meeting with Don

Hi ladies,

I talked with Don and he is happy to meet with us. However, he is very busy this week. He could meet with us generally on Monday mornings or he could do some kind of e-meeting. What do we think?

-Haley

Demo speeches

Demo speeches begin on Monday! This is my favorite part of the semester. It's (almost) two weeks of not teaching, and the students (usually) demonstrate some really cool processes.

A few things:

• We will tape the each of our students' speeches using the Flip cam in Rm 111.  I'll set up the Flip cam and the tripod every morning and make sure that it has a fresh set of batteries.  That being said...
• The Flip cam does not have the best battery life.  Once upon a time, we had a rechargeable battery pack for the Flip, but it went ka-put; since Flip cams were discontinued earlier this year, we can't purchase another one.  So, we will be energizing the Flip with regular batteries.  I'll try to keep a stockpile in Rm 111.  I would advise checking the battery level of the Flip before each student begins his/her speech (I once had the camera die in the middle of a presentation...not good); also bring a back-up pair of batteries with you to class.
• At the end of each class day, I will upload all of the videos in the camera to the computer in Rm 111 closest to the door (next to where Heather sits).  The Flip software is very easy to use; please come by at your convenience and label your videos (section number and student name is usually enough).
• Make sure that you email your students their videos (Molly and Haley, I can show you how to do this.)  Students have the opportunity to write a one-page self-review of their speeches for five points of extra credit.
• As for grading the speeches:  Rubrics are in the TAC. You will notice that there are two rubrics to a page. In the past, when I've graded a student's speech, I used the one rubric to jot down notes and the other rubric to make my official marks that I gave back to the student.
• Peer reviews...are kinds of a pain.  The forms are in the TAC.  In the past, we've administered a new PR form to students every day of speeches and asked them to review one of the days presenting students...It's a lot of paper, especially for something we're not even grading.  What do y'all think?

Enjoy your football Saturday.  I'll be in m room hiding from tailgaters  :-)

TA e-meeting: October 9, 2011

Hi Ladies,


OK, I'm kind of late with this. Sorry!

I. Open floor
II. Peer reviews
III. Sign-up sheets
IV. Demo speech practice day
V. Draft conference room assignments


I. As always...

II. Tomorrow we have in-class peer-reviews. Please distribute copies of the review form (in the TAC) to your students. When students are done, have them staple the review form to the paper they reviewed and give it back to the author. Students should be able to review 1-2 papers depending on how fast they work.

III. Tomorrow, if you haven't already done so, please pass around a sign-up sheet for draft conferences (which will be held on Friday, Oct 14). I won't tell you how long to make your conferences but, in the past, we have scheduled them in 15-10 minute blocks. Also, please pass around another sign-up sheet for the upcoming demonstration speeches. If possible, try to cap speeches at four per day.

IV. Wednesday is demo speech practice day. Last semester, we put the students in groups of two or three and let them practice going through the steps of their respective processes. Make sure the students stay on task! Don't let them use the time to sit and talk about nothing.

V. Friday is draft conference day....long, long draft conference day. Here are our room assignments so far:
Camille--Rm 135
Meg--Rm 137
Heather--Rm 111
What we have left is Molly and Haley's office and the grad student lounge. Molly and Haley, can you decide among yourselves, who will go where? Also, I know neither have you have conducted draft conference before, so please drop by the Rm 111 this week if you have questions!


OK. That's it! Ah....I can't believe the weekend is over! :-(