Finally, it is important to think about how students’ past experiences might influence the communication activities you do in your class. Students may have learned “appropriate” behavior in another class, another discipline, or another group that would alienate individuals in your class. For example, what is assertive in one setting may be interpreted as grandstanding in another; qualifying one’s remarks may be expected in one setting but may be interpreted as waffling in another. Gender, ethnic, racial, and cultural elements also enter into the mix. English proficiency, differences in cultural values, responses to status, the perception of status differences—all influence interaction in a group (Lee, 2009; O’Donnell, 2006; Webb, 2009). Since the dynamics of any group have a bearing upon the skills exhibited by the participants, performance of skills depends upon the pattern of interaction developing in the group as well as upon individual ability (chapters 7 and 8 provide a more extensive discussion of issues related to participation, whether in large class discussions or in teams; Chapter 10 provides information about diversity in communication activities). Part of communicative competence is developing the ability to adapt, be flexible, and be aware of multiple contextual issues, but students do not always come with those abilities, and so we believe it is important to address them up front. Therefore, even in these early stages of developing assignments, it is important to consider these issues in more detail.
There are several steps to consider when designing informal communication activities. It is important to note that not all informal activities should look the same. Some you will do quickly, in class, with very little follow-up (other than the activity itself). Others might require students to engage in some preparation outside of class. Yet others could necessitate more detailed instructions and practice in the kinds of critical thinking skills that will facilitate learning. The way in which you design the activity will determine the kinds of information you will need to provide for students. Table 4.1 provides some planning questions to help you identify what is important in as you think about informal activities.
Table 4.1. Planning Questions: Informal Communication Activities
| What learning goals are most important to your course content? |
| What forms of inquiry are important for your students to be able to master? |
| What structures of communication activities would fit best given your course constraints? |
| What kinds of follow-up strategies could hold students accountable for these informal activities? |
| What challenges do you expect your students to have with informal communication activities? |
| How can you proactively address these challenges in designing the activity? |
The seven steps in designing informal communication activities include
•Delineating learning outcomes and forms of inquiry
•Identifying the structure of the task you want students to complete
•Articulating the particular areas of content you want students to focus on
•Designing prompts/tasks that have multiple possible responses and audiences
•Designating guidelines for interaction and potential relational issues
•Setting clear expectations for outcomes of the exercise and, if appropriate, instructions for reporting the results of the process/product
•Holding students accountable for their communication choices and behaviors in these activities.
The first step in designing informal communication activities involves thinking about what you want students to learn and what forms of inquiry you want them to engage in or practice during the activity. This decision involves a process similar to articulating course-based outcomes and objectives but is focused at the level of this exercise or assignment. Put this activity in the context of your entire course: What particular student-learning outcomes do you want to achieve for different parts of your course? How does this activity or exercise help you achieve those outcomes at this point in your course? As mentioned in Chapter 1, many of you have probably been exposed to the taxonomy of questioning developed by Benjamin Bloom (often used when articulating students learning outcomes, as well). While Bloom’s taxonomy is widely cited and is often used as a guide for developing levels of outcomes for assessment purposes, it might be helpful to use Bloom’s three domains—cognitive, affective and behavioral—to guide designing communication outcomes.
Given that your goals for these communication activities will be more focused on how well students learn course content, it is likely you will be writing outcomes that focus more on cognitive and affective outcomes. You will focus on the form of the communication itself primarily as a means to achieve these ends. One way to think about the learning outcomes for activities is to consider the forms of inquiry that you want your students to engage in for this activity. Do you want them to evaluate? Interrogate? Compare? Contrast? Regardless of the final format of the exercise of assignment(s) you create, the kinds of inquiry you are expecting of your students needs to be made explicit, both to yourself and to your students. For example, if you want your students to “compare and contrast,” what does that mean?
As you think about generating outcomes for informal communication activities, it is also important to consider the kinds of questions you think are important for students to ask as they participate in those activities. Students often believe that what is most important is imparting their knowledge. They need to be encouraged to ask questions—and you will need to prepare them to be able to accomplish what you are asking them to do, in part by identifying the multiple ways to approach problems, texts, and issues. There are many different kinds of questions, and it is often enlightening to students to realize these different forms. Students often get stuck at the level of asking factual/knowledge questions, never considering that there are different forms of questions that can illuminate a text or an issue. It is helpful to discuss with students the different ways of asking questions and the types of insights that might be associated with different question forms. There are many different taxonomies of question types, ranging from highly abstract categorizations to fairly mundane descriptions. We have listed typical categories here in Table 4.2, although the categories are not all mutually exclusive. Of particular note are convergent and divergent questions. There are those who assert that convergent thinking and divergent thinking utilize different brain functions (divergent thinking utilizes the right brain, developing imaginative and creative abilities; convergent thinking utilizes the left brain, thus developing the deductive, rational, and analytic abilities (Guilford, 1967; Robinson, 2011; Runco, 1991).
Table 4.2. Types of Content-Focused Questions
| Form of Question | Examples |
| Factual/Knowledge: To get information, open discussion, or test for knowledge | Questions that ask “who, what, why, where, and how” |
| Explanatory: To elicit reasoning, create an opening for further information, or to clarify a purpose or goal | “What other factors contributed to this problem?”“Why did the author use this analogy? |
| Leading: To introduce a new idea or focus attention on an idea introduced by someone else | “Now consider XYZ. How would these additional factors have changed your solution?” |
| Analytic: To focus on relationships among concepts or to break issues into smaller parts for further examination | “How does A relate to B?”“If X is true, what do we do with the fact that . . .?” |
| Hypothetical or Application: To focus on a potentially unpopular position, or to try out how a concept or solution would work to solve a problem or address an issue | “What would happen if…?”“Let’s say we decided to….?”“Now let’s change the scenario and see what happens if….” |
| Justification and Evaluation: To challenge old ideas, develop new ideas, or focus on reasoning and evidence | “I’d like to hear your reasons.”“What observations did you make that led you to your conclusions?”“Does this solution meet our criteria?” |
Table 4.3. Questions to Expand Ways of Thinking
| Form of Question | Examples |
| Disjunctive: To clarify alternatives
|