Suggested Activities for Chapter 4

1. Before you start lecturing on the chapter, you may want to conduct this activity to demonstrate that students do not always listen as well as they might think. Give students a “pseudo-activity,” in which the real goal is not the activity, but to test how well students listen to complex oral directions. Without any written help, give students five to ten complex directions for the activity, such as: (1) I am handing out a stack of assorted colored papers. Be sure to take the correct color and follow these directions. (2) If your last name begins with F–J, take a pink sheet; (3) Q–Z, take a green sheet; (4) A–E, take a blue sheet; (5) K–P, take a purple sheet; (6) But if you have taken a public speaking class before, also take a beige sheet. (7) Fold the sheet horizontally. (8) On one side, list all of the information you remember from our last class period. (9) On a separate sheet, write five questions to discern your classmates’ attitudes about your topic for the next speech. To add to the difficulty, you may want to say the directions quickly and/or tell students that you need to leave the room and that they should work on this assignment without you. If you leave the room, you should try to listen to whether they ask each other for clarification. When you think students are “finished” with the activity, ask them what they learned about listening and retention.
2. Find a lengthy, data-heavy sentence to use for the “telephone game.” (You might use a lead sentence from a newspaper article or an item from a textbook that students are not familiar with.) Read the sentence in a whisper to one student, then have that student repeat what he or she heard and remembered to the next student, and so on. The final person who hears the message should repeat what he or she heard, which will likely be quite distorted from the original. Read the original message to everyone and discuss where along the chain parts of the message broke down. You can also discuss the impact of retention and perception on listening. If you have a large class or want to do this activity more quickly, put students in rows and tell the first person in each row the message.
3. As a class, watch a sample student speech on video so that students can practice commenting on the short and/or long evaluation forms. If you also plan to use oral comments, have students orally critique the speech when it is finished. Ask students what difficulties they had verbalizing or writing their comments. Then ask students how they would use these classmate comments to improve the next speech, if they had been the speaker. This activity serves as a useful summary of the major textbook sections and illustrates the principles in action.
4. As a class, let students write a listening and speech critique code of conduct for speakers and audience members. Go through each guideline to ensure that students understand the expectations. Distribute a copy to each student.
5. At the end of the class period, allocate ten minutes for this activity. Have students put away notes and books and erase the board. Allow three minutes for students to attempt to write down the key ideas from that day’s lecture. Collect them and read off some examples.