Painless Ways to Fulfill an "Oral Competency" Requirement
“Change Your Mind” Debates Designate different parts of the room as “for the affirmative” or “for the negative,” with the middle as “uncertain/undecided/neutral. Before the debate begins, have students sit in the area representing their current position. During the debate, students change their seating location as their opinions sway. After the debate, lead a debriefing discussion focusing on the opinion changers (“What changed your mind?”) and the undecided students, who are often likely to provide the most objective analysis of both the debate and the issue at hand. Ways to Mix Things Up Don't allow students to move alone; thus, they must convince someone else to move with them or they cannot move. Use rough drafts of students' research papers, having the students read their papers aloud, pausing at the end of each paragraph to allow opinion changers to move (and to allow the reader to see which paragraphs cause the most movement within the class).
“Expert” Teams Designate pairs or triads to be the course experts on recurring course topics. Regularly query the “experts” in class, asking for the relevance of their area to the day's discussion. When possible, redirect student questions on those topics to the “experts.” Broad topics: Unity, development, coherence, style OR specific rhetorical devices Mid-level topics: Thesis statements, transitional devices, paragraph unity, topic sentences, specific types of support, etc. Narrow topics: Commas, parallelism, pronouns, etc.
Press Conference Pairs or groups of students assume the roles of representatives of a particular position or school of thought, leaders in some realm, noted scholars, etc. The rest of the class plays investigative reporters—each student with an assigned audience/readership (e.g. local residents, residents of another area or country, a special interest group, a specific company or organization, etc.). When the presenting students complete their presentation and ask for questions, the reporting students must ask probing, challenging questions of each focal person. Optional Follow-up Activity The reporting students will write a mock article incorporating the press conference.
Adapted from Linda B. Nilson's Teaching at Its Best, 1998. Copyright © by Tami Sloane Thrasher Piedmont Community College Presented at the North Carolina Conference of English Instructors Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina October 29, 2001 Used by permission