5. Provide Practice

We have so many different students in our classes, each with a different story. They make our classes vibrant, but also challenging in that it is tricky to identify the foundation and skills each one brings to the table. It is important to give all students the opportunities and resources to develop the necessary skills to meet your standards. In other words, it is important to scaffold the learning process. Just as you have many options when designing your oral communication assignments, you have many options in how you scaffold skills for your students.

In this module, we’ll explore:

Activities to help students build oral competency skills
Ways you can direct students to additional skill-building support on campus

Activities to Help Students Build Oral Competency Skills

What activities might you use to help students build the public speaking confidence they will need to present their final project in front of a client? What in-class exercises will empower students to field questions from an audience after a panel presentation? How can you support students in their preparation of a poster presentation at a conference?

Whatever your specific learning outcome, when it comes to teaching students how to develop public speaking skills, it’s important to give them (and convince them to take advantage of) opportunities to practice and build in checkpoints where they can receive feedback from peers, TA’s, you, or themselves via self-reflection. This is all part of the scaffolding process.

On the line graph below, you will find a variety of activities that give students the opportunity to develop oral competency skills. These activities can be used in the classroom throughout the semester to help students prepare for their larger projects and assessments. The activities are arranged from low risk to high risk, wherein “risk” is from the perspective of a student speaking in front of others in (or beyond) class. Low risk activities are those that are quick and easy, and that do not require students to speak in front of the entire class (sometimes these activities do not require students to speak in front of anyone). High risk activities do the opposite: they usually require individual students to speak to a larger group or the whole class, either because the instructor calls on students to answer questions or because students must present a project in front of the class.

For more information on each of the activities on the line graph above, please click on the accordion tabs below.

Reflections

Live, interactive polling

Think-Pair-Share

Ice Breakers (in small groups)

Quick video introduction in Canvas with instructor feedback

Quick video introduction in Canvas with peer feedback

Elevator or sales pitch

Discussion leader/facilitator

Impromptu speaking

Pecha Kucha presentation

Providing Extra Support

What if you have students who aren’t likely to have had a lot of public speaking opportunities? Or who have a lot of communication apprehension? What if you have students who are struggling to work together for a team presentation? Any student can visit the Sanger Public Speaking Center to prepare or rehearse a presentation for your course. Additionally, the Sanger Public Speaking Center staff will come to your class to provide a workshop to all of your students. If you have students who need extra help structuring a presentation or communicate to you anxiety about public speaking, please direct those students to the Public Speaking Center for FREE consultations with peer speech consultants.

Best Practices: Faculty Voices

What kinds of opportunities do you provide students to practice oral competency skills? Watch the videos below to learn from UT faculty the best practices for scaffolding oral competency skills with smaller activities before the larger assignment.

Dr. Keri Stephens (Associate Professor of Communication Studies)

Dr. Keri Stephens discusses the importance of asking students to reflect on a) their preparation, b) their delivery, and c) their ongoing development of oral competency. This kind of reflection, Dr. Stephens notes, helps students develop a growth mindset about public speaking skills, and encourages them to practice more and more.

Dr. Holli Temple (Clinical Assistant Professor in the Health Outcomes & Pharmacy Practice Division)

Dr. Holli Temple recognizes class time is invaluable for students in terms of giving them an opportunity to practice the skills she expects them to demonstrate in their assignments. Listen to her describe her favorite class activity to help students build oral competency skills, Wow / Pow / Chow.

Dr. Gwen Stovall (Assistant Professor of Practice, College of Natural Sciences)

Dr. Stovall offers her students many opportunities to practice oral communication skills. Learn about two of her favorite skill-building activities—a “mock audience role-play” activity to help students learn how to handle different kinds of questions, and a two-minute elevator pitch.

Interested in a one-one consultation with an expert to review your communication assignment, rubric, or activities? Looking for a workshop on teaching oral competency? How about a Public Speaking 101 workshop for your students? Visit the Sanger Public Speaking Center webpage or send a message to: slc.speaking@austin.utexas.edu. Our team looks forward to empowering you and your students!