-
Using children’s literature and public libraries to prepare STEM students to communicate technical knowledge Communication Teacher Pub Date : 2024-03-08 T. Kody Frey
This unit activity describes a series of lessons designed to enhance STEM students’ technical communication abilities. The lessons culminate in two separate yet interconnected projects: (1) the dev...
-
Using interactive management research in the organizational communication classroom Communication Teacher Pub Date : 2024-03-06 Robert J. Razzante
This classroom assessment article shares the findings of a practicum-based undergraduate organizational communication course using interactive management research (IMR). IMR is a participatory acti...
-
Fly your identity flag: Using an identity flag activity to relate and teach back self-definition, social identity, and meaning derived from group affiliation Communication Teacher Pub Date : 2024-03-04 Christine M. Platt
In this activity, students will create a flag that symbolizes their perceived identity. Each student will create and use a legend to define their perceived meaning behind the selected elements and ...
-
Influencing health through communication theory: Development of a persuasive campaign for a nonprofit community health center Communication Teacher Pub Date : 2024-03-04 L. Brooke Friley
This original teaching idea for a semester-long course encompasses a team-based project in which students worked together to create persuasive campaign materials for a local community health organi...
-
Reinventing the realistic job preview: A needed pivot toward equity-based language Communication Teacher Pub Date : 2024-03-01 Megan Lambertz-Berndt
The activity permits students to reflect on the ways their own identities are privileged or further marginalized during the recruitment process. Students determine ways to re-create job description...
-
From mimesis to poiesis: Performing metacommunication in the classroom Communication Teacher Pub Date : 2024-01-30 Justin Thomas Trudeau
This activity introduces undergraduate students to the idea of metacommunication by means of a performance praxis assignment. Students will engage in a performance that enhances their communication...
-
Making the grade: Student perceptions of labor-based contract grading Communication Teacher Pub Date : 2024-01-25 Cortney Smith
This study explores student perceptions of, and experiences with, labor-based contracting grading—an approach to student assessment that values labor rather than quality. In theory, labor-based con...
-
Learning about learning: A theory-based approach to instruction Communication Teacher Pub Date : 2024-01-18 Ann E. Williams, Natalie E. Williams
This paper provides a theory-based introduction to instructional design that can be used in pedagogy seminars, training sessions, professional development events, colloquiums, and/or programmatic g...
-
Birds are not real: Exploring the Toulmin model of argumentation Communication Teacher Pub Date : 2024-01-09 Shannon Pappas
This activity aims to assist students with persuasive tactics for argumentative speeches. The activity involves students creating an argumentative speech to defend a hot-take assertion chosen from ...
-
Cultivating social justice and anti-racism across the curriculum: A school of communication case study Communication Teacher Pub Date : 2024-01-09 Nicholas B. Lacy, Heather E. Canary, Lourdes S. Martinez
The curriculum review and transformation project reported in this paper represents an intentional and collaborative effort of faculty and administrators in one academic department to implement mean...
-
Bridging the affective gap in online classes: Teaching public memory through embodied learning Communication Teacher Pub Date : 2023-12-11 Elinor Light
This article offers an example of how to use embodied learning effectively in online education. The discussed assignment is designed for classes in rhetoric, visual communication, or public memory,...
-
Supporting students’ “search for meaning” in empirical journal articles Communication Teacher Pub Date : 2023-12-11 Cassidy Taladay-Carter
Undergraduate students entering the classroom are often expected to have the skills needed to find, utilize, and synthesize academic scholarship. Yet, few feel prepared to do so. The research metho...
-
Exploring the mechanisms of AI message generation: A chatbot development activity for students Communication Teacher Pub Date : 2023-12-11 Sue Lim, Ralf Schmälzle
Health Communication, Public Communication Campaigns, Public Relations, Introduction to Communication.By the end of this workshop, students will be able to: (1) understand how artificial intelligen...
-
Educating emerging citizens: Media literacy as a tool for combating the spread of image-based misinformation Communication Teacher Pub Date : 2023-12-11 Angela M. McGowan-Kirsch, Grace V. Quinlivan
The proliferation of deepfakes and visual misinformation coupled with the fast-paced nature of social media has prompted an increased need for media literacy skills among emerging citizens. The uni...
-
Teaching racial rhetorical criticism: Racial reckoning on campus Communication Teacher Pub Date : 2023-12-11 Noor Ghazal Aswad, Damariyé L. Smith
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 r...
-
Teaching critical media effects through classic horror films Communication Teacher Pub Date : 2023-12-11 Grace McCleskey, Jasmine T. Austin
This unit activity applies critical theories from the fields of communication, sociology, and gender studies and therefore can be used in any course that discusses gender studies, qualitative resea...
-
Fostering critical consciousness: Critical service learning and intersectional reflexivity in the first-year classroom Communication Teacher Pub Date : 2023-12-11 Zane Austin Willard
Building on two common practices in higher education, the first-year seminar and service learning, this project uses a critical service-learning model guided by intersectional reflexivity to foster...
-
ePUZSOLVED: Learning communication models through interactive online puzzles Communication Teacher Pub Date : 2023-12-10 Hyacinth Balediata Bangero
ePuzsolved is designed to help students understand the general communication models and experience the advantages and disadvantages of each. It will highlight how various modes of communication, wh...
-
Food deserts: How “bringing home the bacon” varies across neighborhoods Communication Teacher Pub Date : 2023-12-06 Gavin Thomson, Jasmine T. Austin
Communication is used to engage and involve students in addressing food deserts and developing sustainable solutions. This application-based activity allows students to explain the reality of food ...
-
The soul of wit: Exploring the power of words with the one-sentence story Communication Teacher Pub Date : 2023-12-06 Scott Sellnow-Richmond, Debbie Sellnow-Richmond
Students need to know how to communicate succinctly. Often, students struggle to determine how much content is necessary to communicate a message. Designed for courses on public speaking, interpers...
-
Welcome to the Zombie Apocalypse: How popular culture can facilitate team building and understanding leadership Communication Teacher Pub Date : 2023-11-28 Alice Srugies, Vedran Maslic, Benjamin Grumley
This paper introduces a scenario-based learning activity to bring challenges in strategic communication and leadership to students’ lived experience. It details the goals, setup, steps, and apprais...
-
Using hybrid workshops to integrate online and in-person learning in a public-speaking course Communication Teacher Pub Date : 2023-11-06 Rachel Martin Harlow
Institutions are increasingly supplementing their traditional class formats with hybrid approaches that mix in-person, remote synchronous, and remote asynchronous delivery methods. Even when the st...
-
Speech-variation activities: Embracing momentary discomfort to gain confidence, attenuate anxiety, and paradoxically increase comfort during public speaking Communication Teacher Pub Date : 2023-09-14 Joshua M. Parcha
Public speaking creates discomfort for many students. Instead of seeking to avoid this inevitable discomfort, six speech-variation activities explained in this paper are intentionally designed for,...
-
Teaching organizational culture using an augmented reality game Communication Teacher Pub Date : 2023-09-13 Dron M. Mandhana, Daliah Ouedraogo, Alessandra S. Vicente
Theories of Organizational Communication; Communication Theory.The proposed activity utilizes a digitally interactive global positioning system–based augmented reality game to help students (a) gai...
-
“Backstage” service learning: Using interdisciplinary collaboration to provide service-learning experiences to large and/or underfunded communication courses Communication Teacher Pub Date : 2023-09-12 Rentia du Plessis, Diana Breshears
Communication and dietetics departments co-created an assignment to design health campaign materials for a rural South African community that promotes healthy eating habits for pregnant mothers and...
-
Multimodal remediation of research articles through infographics and graphical abstracts Communication Teacher Pub Date : 2023-08-30 Evelina Jaleniauskiene, Kallia Katsampoxaki-Hodgetts
Students’ engagement in multimodal remediation of learning material in the form of slideshow presentations dominates universities. Yet, diversification of learning artifacts through the creation of...
-
The politics of social media: Utilizing political candidates’ Instagram posts to teach political argumentation and visual argument analysis Communication Teacher Pub Date : 2023-08-29 Amber Lynn Scott
Analysis of political and visual arguments is a key exercise traditionally included in undergraduate argumentation courses. This activity teaches students how to identify and analyze political cand...
-
Flee boring explanations of explanations: Using escape rooms to teach communication theory Communication Teacher Pub Date : 2023-08-13 Jennifer B. Gray
Communication theory can be challenging to teach in an engaging manner. The following original teaching activity suggests a way to incorporate the phenomenon of escape rooms into your theory classr...
-
Using storytelling to explore values and cognitive schemas in small group consensus decision making Communication Teacher Pub Date : 2023-07-25 Grace Leinbach Coggio
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. The activity incorporates storytelling with the Integrated
-
#BlackCommunicationMatters: Creating equitable spaces for Black communication and language through a womanist rhetorical lens Communication Teacher Pub Date : 2023-07-21 Amber D. Alston, Jasmine T. Austin
The objective of this single-class activity is to get students to make connections between Eurocentric standards of communication and African American Vernacular English (AAVE) through a womanist r...
-
Teaching family narratives by applying Kolb’s experimental learning cycle to create a unit of activities Communication Teacher Pub Date : 2023-07-21 Mary L. Lanigan
In this activity, the marriage between two fields of theory—namely, communication and education—produces a more organized and integrated lesson on family narratives by using Kolb’s experiential lea...
-
Infusing media analytics content into a communications curriculum: Partnering with athletics using experiential learning Communication Teacher Pub Date : 2023-07-02 Kelly Poniatowski, Kirsten Johnson
Abilities to interpret, analyze, and report data are in-demand job skills that many colleges and universities struggle to incorporate into the curriculum. The client-based project outlined in this ...
-
Creating and applying relational maintenance in various relational contexts Communication Teacher Pub Date : 2023-05-17 Robert D. Hall
Relational maintenance is a universal aspect of human relationships. As such, our family and interpersonal communication texts often include relational maintenance as a key point of discussion. Com...
-
Introducing a complex communication paradigm through a system self-analysis Communication Teacher Pub Date : 2023-05-16 Mary L. Lanigan
This activity helps students conceptualize and apply systems theory principles to a family communication context by having them create personal whole systems using paper, string, index cards, and t...
-
Beyond Talking from 9 to 5: Connecting values and voices in professional communication with a commonplace book Communication Teacher Pub Date : 2023-05-11 Marcy Leasum Orwig, Twyla Alix
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, wi...
-
The Death Deck: Discussing death in the classroom Communication Teacher Pub Date : 2023-03-29 Jessica Cherry
Having conversations about death and dying can be very difficult to initiate and engage in with others. The following activity, based on the card game The Death Deck, was designed to encourage stud...
-
“I wouldn’t fall for that!” Exploring social influence and group decision making Communication Teacher Pub Date : 2023-03-03 Samentha Sepúlveda
This single-class activity augments the popular desert island activity to include a secret insider who aims to influence their group covertly. The motivation for this augmented activity is twofold:...
-
Arts-based feedback: Using memes for midterm evaluations Communication Teacher Pub Date : 2023-03-03 Amanda Grace Taylor, Patrick Stump
In most higher education institutions, course evaluations are conducted at the end of the term. While many instructors implement a feedback system such as a questionnaire or poll at the midterm point, we propose that having students use an arts-based representation (i.e. memes) for a feedback channel can help students and the course instructor to create community. This activity can be completed in
-
“Oh, that pesky DNA”: Using murder-mystery narratives to identify, evaluate, and organize arguments Communication Teacher Pub Date : 2023-02-06 Lara C. Stache
Utilizing popular murder-mystery texts that transcend boundaries of race, class, age, and sex, students apply Toulmin’s 1958 concept of claim, data, warrant (Toulmin, S. E. 2003. The uses of argument. Cambridge University Press). Ultimately, students engage in an activity that demonstrates how argumentation plays a role outside of the college classroom writing assignment. Courses: Introduction to Communication
-
Corporate migration: Exploring the use of language to construct power when organizing Communication Teacher Pub Date : 2023-01-31 Ifeoluwatobi Abiodun Odunsi
The corporate migration activity is designed to help students connect practical concepts of how language creates power within organizational structures. By engaging in this activity, students will demonstrate and observe how unclear language, (in)effective communication, and disorganization (re)create and sustain power within an organization. This activity further discusses modifications that can be
-
A performative and dialogic approach to teach group roles, group conflict, and conflict management styles Communication Teacher Pub Date : 2023-01-29 Patrick McElearney
Undergraduate courses on small-group communication often cover group roles, group conflict, and conflict management styles. Although these concepts are valuable to learn, merely memorizing them does not address the practical skills students need to employ conflict management strategies when situated in group conflict. This activity provides a dialogic and performative approach to teach small-group
-
Integration of game-based learning to teach levels of measurement in research methods and statistics Communication Teacher Pub Date : 2023-01-18 Colin H. Storm, Anna Penner
Students typically find research methods and statistics classes intimidating. In particular, learning different types of data measurement and operationalization can take significant time and practice to understand. Utilizing a pedagogical approach that turns a party game into a fun exercise, students collaboratively learn to operationalize variables and determine levels of measurement. Outcomes and
-
Incorporating mini lessons on the hidden curriculum in communication classrooms Communication Teacher Pub Date : 2023-01-01 Sophie S. Downing, China C. Billotte Verhoff
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 semester-long activity, we encourage communication instructors
-
Normalizing disability using children’s literature Communication Teacher Pub Date : 2023-01-01 Rebecca Bryant Penrose
Courses: Interpersonal Communication, Communication & Identity, Social Cognition/Influence, Diversity Studies, Rhetorical Theory and Criticism. Objectives: This activity examines children’s books as a tool in the formation of social expectations, attitudes, and acceptance. It offers an opportunity to discuss effective ways to promote inclusion and discourage ableism accurately and respectfully. Students
-
Examining students’ social media use and ethical awareness: Class activities and “Coastal Succulents” Communication Teacher Pub Date : 2022-12-26 Robert L. Ballard, Tammy Swenson-Lepper
Young adults and teenagers spend a significant amount of time each day using social media, but very few of them have thought about the ethical implications of what they post or view on these platforms. This activity provides students with the opportunity to (1) log and evaluate the amount of time and types of posts they are creating on social media, and (2) view a made-up social media story from Snapchat
-
Building undergraduate students’ cultural identity through digital storytelling Communication Teacher Pub Date : 2022-10-07 Mega Fariziah Nur Humairoh
For many years, intercultural communicative competence (ICC) has been discussed to elucidate the development of students’ awareness, skill, and experience in regard to intercultural communication. Yet, practical suggestions for enhancing teachers’ or teacher educators’ practice in intercultural communication classrooms are scarce. To fill this void, this article presents the use of culture-based digital
-
Bagging a theory: A random sorting activity for teaching theorizing Communication Teacher Pub Date : 2022-10-06 Isabelle Bauman
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 examining things like, how the theory used affected
-
Editor’s introduction Communication Teacher Pub Date : 2022-09-30 Brandi Lawless
Published in Communication Teacher (Vol. 37, No. 1, 2023)
-
Teaching replication through replication to solve the replication “crisis” Communication Teacher Pub Date : 2022-09-30 Evan K. Perrault
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” (EPH) donation solicitation experiment. A meta-analysis of the three semesters
-
Socrates on Slack: Text-based, persistent-chat platforms as an alternative to “Zoom classes” in synchronous online learning Communication Teacher Pub Date : 2022-09-14 Weixu Lu
“Zoom class” has become a prevailing norm for online synchronous learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, Zoom classes are often associated with fatigue and lack of student engagement. Theories of computer-mediated communication suggest that text-based, low-bandwidth, online communication may yield more positive communication outcomes than face-to-face and high-bandwidth channels. This paper
-
Reverse cybervetting: Evaluating company practices to illustrate organizational identification Communication Teacher Pub Date : 2022-09-13 Katharine E. Miller
Courses: Introduction to Corporate Communication, Introduction to Organizational Communication, Topics in Organizational Communication. Objectives: This activity aims to give students an opportunity and space to critique and examine organizational activities and business practices, and how this may impact students’ future employment or consumer choices. In other words, this activity illustrates the
-
Finding me in social me-dia: Teaching students to use social networking platforms legally and mindfully Communication Teacher Pub Date : 2022-09-11 Brandon Golob
ABSTRACT Social media is a defining part of contemporary communication. College-aged students, as frequent users of these platforms, are often aware of their functionality but less knowledgeable about their additional impact beyond social networking. In sum, these platforms intersect with a vast legal landscape that can be difficult for even the most avid users to navigate. Thus, this course and its
-
Mind–body connections during intercultural conversations Communication Teacher Pub Date : 2022-08-30 Lauren Mark, Elena Steiner
ABSTRACT This experiential activity invites students to investigate the mental, affective, and behavioral effects of personal investment and authenticity during intercultural conversation. We invite students to create intercultural interactions through engaging in un/familiar conversational subject matter to simulate the sensations of navigating cultural unfamiliarity. In our test runs of this activity
-
Editor’s introduction: Communication Teacher’s impact as a journal of applied and translational scholarship Communication Teacher Pub Date : 2022-08-16 David H. Kahl Jr.
Published in Communication Teacher (Vol. 36, No. 4, 2022)
-
Invited Reviewers Communication Teacher Pub Date : 2022-08-16
Published in Communication Teacher (Vol. 36, No. 4, 2022)
-
Rephotography: Reviving spatial speeches and memory Communication Teacher Pub Date : 2022-08-08 Amy Arellano
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 encourage students to view spatial informative speeches as more than “giving
-
Using music to identify and evaluate Knapp’s Relationship Staircase Model Communication Teacher Pub Date : 2022-06-29 Elizabeth M. Minei, Elise Juvan
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 their knowledge to identify and pair the stages with popular
-
Let’s talk about it: Identifying microaggressions and applying supportive communication climates through interpersonal role-plays Communication Teacher Pub Date : 2022-06-22 Tim McKenna-Buchanan
Courses Foundations of Human Communication, Interpersonal Communication, Intercultural Communication. Objectives Through this assignment, students will: (1) identify examples of microaggressions, and (2) apply supportive communication climates of description, problem orientation, and empathy through communicative behaviors.
-
Understanding the construction of historical memory: Identifying mistakes in war movies Communication Teacher Pub Date : 2022-06-12 Chen Kertcher, Ornat Turin
Courses Media Literacy, Collective Memory, Political History. Objectives The aim of this unit is for students to understand the role of feature films in the construction of historical memory. The proposed teaching unit deals with the analysis of biases and the construction of narrative in war films. The class was divided into groups, and competition was declared; students were challenged to find as
-
Intergenerational Connections: An online community engagement project Communication Teacher Pub Date : 2022-05-29 Sandra L. Faulkner, Wendy K. Watson, Jaclyn Shetterly
Young adults hold many stereotypes about aging and older adults that formal education cannot always address. Interaction and community engagement projects with older adults can challenge and dispel stereotypes young adults hold about older adults. This semester-long project is designed for undergraduate students in interpersonal and relational communication classes to engage in intergenerational dialogue