Designing and Grading Oral Assignments

What should you consider when designing oral assignments?

It’s not shocking that the key to designing oral assignments is clarity. Like most assignments, students are comfortable with more information. Unlike many assignments, however, there’s more anxiety surrounding public speaking. Consequently, the more information that you can give students, the more assured that they will feel going into the assignment.

Clarity: Make the parameters very clear and get the information to them early in the process. This also makes it clear that you take the presentations seriously.
Stages: Like a paper model, get students to prepare a draft of the presentation outline, come to the Speaking Center, then create a final product. If you can check on their progress, they are more likely to take it seriously and be more confident about the presentation. Presentations are very difficult to pull together at the last minute; anything that you can do to get them started early will be helpful.
Clear expectations: Include a clear description of the assignment and grading expectations. Include a grading rubric when possible. At the very least, give them criteria that you will use when grading the presentations.
Support: Use the Speaking Center, the Speaking Center website and handouts, and workshops/class visits.

Examples of oral assignments

Debates: Hold formal or informal debates in class. Depending on the assignment, these can be graded based on content and delivery. For more information about different debate possibilities, see the Debate Handout.
Position papers: These can be presented throughout the semester as low risk, informal presentation of short papers. The nice thing about these assignments is that students think about the differences between written and oral communication.
Mini debates or counterpoints on position papers: Students present opposing or different viewpoints (especially based on readings).
Presenting readings: Have students present a short summary of readings. This kicks off discussion and gets students to struggle with their own interpretation of the material.
Discussion questions: Have students post discussion questions and then prepare oral answers to those questions.
Leading discussions: Give students the opportunity to take over for the day. They can lead the discussion over some of the readings, question other class members, and offer their own interpretations of the material.
Informal or formal discussions of projects in progress: This helps to stimulate class discussion of research and push the project along.
Mini-lectures: These can cover alternative readings, contemporary connections, or counter-points. Students can sign up for topics early in the semester and the presentations can be spread throughout the semester.
Group presentations: These can cover group projects or special topics.
Current event speech: This is a great way to get students involved in class and interested in current events. Have them research the latest happenings in course-related areas and present that information. You can assign these throughout the semester (so that it doesn’t take up large portions of your semester schedule) and stimulate discussion.

What do you consider when grading the assignments?

Decide on your grading style; do you prefer to work with a structured grading rubric (with points assigned to each part) or to give feedback with a final grade?
Will it be helpful to record the presentation? This gives you the ability to go back and review the presentation and give more feedback. Of course, this is also time consuming.
Take the presentation grade seriously. Students have the full resources for speech writing (even if the Speaking Center doesn’t come to your class), so you can hold them accountable. Don’t make the presentation grade a "give away" grade.
Consider requiring speaking outlines. This makes the presentation more substantive and will improve the preparation.

More specifically, decide what kinds of criteria you want to use.

Some core values of Agnes Scott students

Topic selection: Appropriate for audience and assignment
Attention getter
Introduction
Purpose/Main Point is clear
Preview speech points in Outline
Provided sufficient background
Establish credibility/goodwill with the audience
Transitions included
Body of the speech
Conclusion
Summary
Strong closer
Sources used and appropriately cited
Clearly organized and well explained
Easy to follow
Practiced
Delivery and Vocal Variety
Conversational or Manuscripted
Avoided jargon
Eye contact
Movement—controlled random movement and used gestures well
Vocal fillers ("um," "uh," "like") under control
Visual aid (if used) supported speech
Professional Appearance

***Also see sample grading critiques available in kiosk outside of Speaking Center and on web site speaking_center.agnesscott.edu.

Advice for speaking:

Encourage students to speak extemporaneously rather than reading from a manuscript. This means that they will need to prepare a preparation outline (this is what they can turn in) and then speak from a keyword outline. If you encourage speech manuscripts, give them tips for delivering manuscripts.
If you don’t want PowerPoint, tell them to think about alternative visual aids.
Remind them to "translate for the audience." Give them advice on parts of the paper that they can cut out of the presentation. For more information here, see the Speaking Center's "Presenting a Paper" handout.

Consider using the Speaking Center

We can make class visits—general or specific information about presentations.
Come to the Speaking Center (McCain G37).
Visit the Speaking Center web site (speaking_center.agnesscott.edu) for more resources.
Consider requiring tutoring appointments.
Set up appointments to meet with the Speaking Center staff (dlawrence@agnesscott.edu).

Number 005 in the Speaking Center Handout Series