Non-Video Model

1. Artifact Assignment

Have students write one of their artifacts as a letter to a politician/policy-maker

(this should reflect an important political concern).

Have students write an artifact following the informative speeches, focusing on

explaining how that issue affects them.

Consider assigning artifacts:

Artifact 1: Write a letter to Congress urging action on an important political issue.

Artifact 2: Write an artifact on the importance of political engagement.

Artifact 3: Visit a politically-oriented RSO, write the artifact, present the

artifact orally in class.

2. Informative Speech

Students will develop speeches on political topics with the goal of demonstrating

how the issue impacts them directly (example: oil—why does gasoline cost

$3/gallon?).

3. Group Speech

Again, students would pick a current, controversial, and political topic.

4. Persuasive Speech

Students would develop a persuasive speech on a political topic and follow-up

that speech with a letter to a policy-making asking for action on the topic. We could also ask students to attend RSO meetings and write about their experiences (could be utilized as an artifact).

5. RSO Assignment

Students could be asked to create an RSO around an issue of importance to them (could be included in the group presentation assignment).

¹ Prepared by Dr. Stephen Hunt, Co-Director of COM 110.  Implementing PEP in COM 110 2

6. Modified Information Literacy (IL) Instruction.

COM 110 co-directors will work with representatives from Milner to refine current IL instruction for the PEP sections.

7. Political Examples

Building on the analyses of political advertisements we already have students do in COM 110 (we have students analyze political rhetoric (especially relevant given upcoming elections).

8. Speakers

We will recruit speakers to visit COM 110 sections (local politicians, members of the forensics team, etc.). In addition, we will encourage students in the PEP sections to attend relevant, politically-oriented speakers.

9. Other Pedagogical Strategies

Media Literacy Assignment (see PEP instructor packet for

assignment details)

Student Congress or mock Senate Hearings (see PEP instructor packet for

assignment details)

Pass the Microphone (have WZND pass the microphone to students on campus

to get their perspectives on current political issues)

Justice Talking podcasts (http://www.justicetalking.org/)

Social Justice Movie Series (excellent artifact opportunity)

NYT Web Site (currently under development)

Video Model

1. Modified Group Speech

In this model, we would merge the group and persuasive speeches to give students plenty of time to complete the video portion of the assignment.

Students would investigate multiple perspective on a current, controversial, and

political topic. They would then develop a presentation (see current group Implementing PEP in COM 110 3

presentation assignment) and produce a short (1 to 5 minute) issue film on the topic. The issue films could ultimately be submitted to the national Film Your Issue contest.

Students might also be asked to develop this around a persuasive campaign.

Have NYT/Carnegie sponsor an end of semester film festival (students would provide an oral overview of their project, and show the issue film). We could ask members of the NYT staff (or others) to serve as “celebrity” judges.

We might also consider having students develop their group projects based on the informative speech topics (provides a clear distinction between informative and persuasive speaking).

Students would be required to develop an initial treatment, script, and production

schedule (they would also have to assign roles such as producer, director, videographer, editor, writer, etc.).

For this model to work, we would need the following resources:

*Digital cameras, editing software, and computers (1 camera/section, 5

sections).

*Use advanced COM students as mentors (or have them complete

internships) to help 110 students produce the issue films.

*Assessment rubric for the issue films