Recently, I read an article on The New Yorker website entitled “Personal Best.” The author, an expert surgeon, debates whether or not he should have a coach. He asserts that pop singers and pro athletes have coaches, so why shouldn’t surgeons or teachers? His article started a cavalcade of thoughts in my mind – all which pointed to helping our customers teaching the Business Communication courses be rock stars in the classroom! I have the pleasure of working with some of the best thought leaders in the Business Communication course. I reached out to some of our authors, and asked them to share their best pieces of advice and their favorite classroom assignments. Think of them as your personal coaches. Over the next few weeks, I’ll feature an assignment from one of our Business Communication authors. If you try an assignment, and it works well, tell us about it by posting in the Discussion Center. Enjoy!
Author: Barbara Shwom, Northwestern University, co-author of Business Communication: Polishing Your Professional Presence
Barbara’s Tip: “Super stack” your assignments to help students learn more in less time
When athletic trainer Tony Horton designs bodybuilding exercises, he uses what he calls “super stacking:” each exercise engages several muscle groups to get more work done in less time. We can use super stacking, too, when designing skill-building exercises for our business communication students. Identify two or three specific skills you want to build, and then design an activity that engages all of them. To make the learning more conscious, be sure to tell your students what “muscles” they are building with their work. Here is an example of one of my favorite super stacked exercises…
Barbara’s Favorite Assignment: Distilling ideas into strong paragraphs
A three-part assignment:
Part 1: When my students are midway through their research project, I ask them to come to class prepared to share with the class one interesting thing they found in their research. (If it’s a group research project, each student needs to present a different finding.) Their assignment is to present that finding orally, in two minutes, supported by a single, visually interesting slide that helps illustrate what they found. Skills we are building: distilling research, developing slides, and oral presentation
Part 2: During the presentations, I jot down on my laptop one key assertion or point that each student makes, writing it in the form of a complete sentence. At the end of class, I give the students the list of sentences (identified by student) and their homework assignment: begin with the “topic sentence” I gave them and write a single, well-developed paragraph based on their research. Skills we are building: paragraph development with topic sentences and supporting details
Part 3: When students come to class the next day, they work in small groups to read and edit each other’s paragraphs. The goal is to emerge with a paragraph that clearly and concisely develops the topic sentence, with no extraneous ideas. Skills we are building: Editing for clarity and conciseness
At the end of the assignment I congratulate them. They’ve not only written a paragraph that they can immediately use in their research paper. They have also learned a model they can use for developing the remaining paragraphs.