Attendance, Engagement, and In-Class Expectations
This is the number of days that a student can be absent without penalty in the first half of the semester.
What is three?
Students who utilize this technology for any assignment in this class can expect, at minimum, a zero on the assignment.
What is generative AI?
This speech is the first one, worth 100 points and requiring 4 sources minimum, and it focuses on what you might 'teach' to an audience.
What is the informative speech?
Together, these major assignments make up 600 points, or 60%, of a student's overall grade.
What are speeches?
Dr. Downing will post these after class each day, so there's no need to take photos in class (in addition to this violating the audio/visual recording policy).
What are slides?
This is the number of days that a student can be absent without penalty in the first half of the semester.
What is three?
If a student wants to take advantage of the 48-hour late submission window for select assignments, they should do this.
What is including a comment in the assignment dropbox that says 'I am utilizing my one-time late submission allowance' (or similar)?
This speech is worth 200 points requiring 5 sources minimum, and it centers on discussing a controversial policy proposal.
What is the invitational speech?
Students are allowed to develop their own original speech ideas for all four speeches, though they must submit these for feedback and guidance from Dr. Downing.
What are topic proposals?
These are the two days of the week that Dr. Downing has office hours, though you can always schedule an appointment via email.
What are Tuesdays and Thursdays?
You can't do this in class, at least not without written permission from Dr. Downing and the rest of the class and/or accommodation needs. This is, of course, so that we can protect the ability for free expression of ideas.
What is audio/visual recording?
This is the score students will receive if they aren't present on the day they signed up to deliver their speech (with rare the exception, of course, of major emergencies that are communicated in advance).
What is zero?
This speech, worth 200 points and requiring 6 sources at minimum, offers an opportunity for students to advocate for the implementation of a policy that they believe will help fix a problem of significance.
What is the policy speech?
These assignments are done outside of class through D2L. While they're open-book and open-note, students cannot complete these together or solicit additional assistance.
What are the two exams?
Dr. Downing's grading timeline is different for speeches. Typically, grades are inputted within 2 weeks from the due date, if not sooner, but speech grades' 2-week time line starts at this point.
What is the completion of a speech round?
Classroom engagement is worth this many points, and this grade is assigned twice -- once at the midpoint and again at the end of the semseter.
What is 70 points?
Some things might not be submitted on-time, but if students submit any of these three assignments within 48 hours of the due date, there won't be any deductions.
What are topic proposals, speech outlines, and speech reflections?
This speech, worth 100 points and delivered in manuscript form without citations, is a ceremonial one, centering on highlighting a subject's values.
What is a toast?
Before students submit speech outlines and deliver their speeches, they'll have an opportunity to workshop drafts together. For 15 points each time, they'll also write these to help their peers polish their speeches.
What are peer feedback/review letters?
When emailing Dr. Downing, students should open with a greeting like "Dear Dr. Downing," and include this in the subject line.
What is course name/time?
There are lots of ways to engage in-class, such as these two ways.
What are: asking questions after speeches and/or engaging in discussion, participating in in-class discussions, participating in in-class activities, coming to class regularly on-time, being prepared in class by reading in advance.
These are three things that cannot be included in a 'one-time late submission.'
What are speeches (delivery), peer review letters, and all elements of the toast speech? (and, of course, exams)
Instead of AI, use trained humans to help with your outlines. You can go to this place (online or in-person) to help, and you can even earn extra credit for the first three outlines if you go during the allotted time on the course schedule.
At the end of the first three speech rounds, students will submit these for 15 points each, allowing a chance to self-assess their speech writing and performance.
What are reflections/reflection essays?
These are the number of points a student needs at the end of the term to earn an A, B, and a C.
What are 900, 800, and 700?