Just for those who check the blog…

Ladies and Gents:

This is the closest you get to a study guide in my class. Hope you use it to your advantage for this week’s test on the presentation chapters (11-16)!

HINT HINT HINT… “POP” Review Test coming up

I won’t say when yet, but your class will be having a “review test” regarding Unit 1 materials (chapters 1-5) in the next week or two. What you should know, if you want to begin preparing:

1. All materials from chapters 1-5 are fair game
2. This bonus point opportunity could improve your Test 1 grade
3. You won’t know until the day I give it when it’s happening

I reserve the right to present this review test on different days, in different formats, and with different questions for each of my sections. It’s a ONE TIME opportunity.

My suggestion to you:

1. Review chapters 1-5 (especially the most-commonly missed questions I covered after your first test)
2. Make a quick reference sheet or note cards for yourself
3. Bring a pencil every day to class
4. Be ready…

Those of you who subscribe to the blog get an advantage of knowing this is going to happen, even if you don’t know precisely when…

Helpful tips… Study guide-ish-thing-somewhat

Here’s my plan for the coming week’s portion of my FACE TO FACE classes. My hybrid section has a whole different package, due to the nature of their course. While the formats may slightly vary, they will have similar principles, in terms of material coverage.

That said, I would STRONGLY recommend that learners read every section of the chapters, because a section not included here may contain information that helps you respond more effectively and accurately on another multiple choice or extended response question.

Discussion, or idea exchange

Like my students, I am constantly learning new things. For me, though, learning is about finding new ways to enhance what I already know to be effective.

With that in mind, I have subscribed to several forums and posts that promote college classroom instructional methods. I don’t just let them flood my inbox, though, and I don’t read every post by every blog each day. I review the things that appear meaningful to me, allowing the idea to grab my attention, then lead me to the learning.

With that in mind, a post came to my inbox today that focused on three ways to enhance classroom discussions. I immediately opened it, and began skimming. I will be using some of these methods this semester, because I want to improve the way our classes function.

For that reason, it becomes all the more imperative that students read and comprehend as much of the class readings as possible before arriving for our face-to-face time. Please, use the readings to enhance what you know about communication, then build upon it for your own skill set.

I will expect you to have thoughts and ideas. I already anticipate that at times, your experiences will lead you to different understandings. We will use our textbook as a guide as to what those who spend their time researching communication understand to be the best practices approach. That is to say, we will see the text as a reference guide to what works most effectively, and what research tells us is most commonly done.

What our discussions become, then, is a chance for you to share your ideas and insights with others. Use them to help us gain in knowledge and experience. That means that you have to be ready with your own ideas. To form your ideas, you must take in information from others. We all work together and will learn more this way!

Be ready to think, to share, to talk, and to reflect on these ideas!

After the first test…

We are now 1/4 of the way into the term, and have had our first unit test of the semester. One of the things that I always try to do with my students is make them more reflective, not only of their communication skills, but also of their study habits. With this in mind, I often ask my students to share with me whether they believe they were effective with the first test.

Keep in mind the key factor: effective. I don’t ask students if they scored 100%, but have them focus on whether they regard their performance as effective. I may alternately ask if they accomplished their goal for the unit. Regardless, the priority is THEIR definition of success.

After this, they are asked to explain why they believe they were successful, or why they may have missed the mark. Part of this is to ensure that students take ownership of their actions, but also because it allows me to determine if I need to recover a concept more fully.

There are enough semesters behind me at this point to help me say that the responses are pretty consistent. The students who believe they succeeded are likely to have

• Read the textbook fully (reviewing each chapter in the unit)
• Taken effective notes (often asking questions about the material AS they study)
• Ask questions in class (to ensure that they “get it”)

Conversely, students who struggle with the material, those who do not see themselves as successful jump to a couple of alternate conclusions:

• Didn’t study enough/right material
• Avoided discussions in class or participating in discussions
• Opted to not read the textbook or utilize the review questions

I want students to be effective in this course, not just by the grade they earn, but by actually feeling confident in the material they have been learning. Sometimes, that does require understanding and using terminology effectively. But it can also be that students need to simply know the process of asking for clarification or more information.

The next test is late this week. I am very hopeful that their effective reading will be reflected in the responses they give to extended response questions.

Why Units, rather than Chapters?

Some of my students struggle to understand why I make them think about multiple chapters at a time, rather than just covering materials in the course solely the way the book presents them. There is a relatively simple explanation for that: communication, like most of life, has a lot of overlap.

For that reason, I structure our course where we will place focus on a single chapter within a particular class period; however, my mentality is that there is a lot of interplay of concepts and ideas. For example, when we talk about perception, we also need to consider listening skills. After all, perception is about taking in information, and listening is one way we do that.

Similarly, we talk about both nonverbal and verbal communication in the same unit. We can talk about verbal messages for weeks on end, and can do the same with nonverbal messages. Indeed, many universities and colleges have entire courses devoted to just nonverbal communication. But the two work together to create meaning. How we say something (including the tone, pitch, volume, and speed–what we collectively call paralanguage) is as important as the words we use. Some researchers have even found evidence that our use of paralanguage and nonverbal movements can be MORE important than the words we say.

Here’s a simple exercise: try to think of the variety of ways someone can say the following sentence.

You failed the test.

Consider, as part of that, how it would sound coming from your best friend, your parents, your instructor, your siblings, your advisor, or other people. Each of the words can have more emphasis. The speed, the tone, the emphasis, etc., all drastically alter the meaning of these otherwise very simple 4 words. As we discussed with unit 1, our relatively simple message can be complicated through our efforts both to encode (present or offer information) and decode (interpret and understand information).

For more information on paralanguage, check out chapter 5 of your textbook!