Activities

Discussion Forum

1.  Dr. Lee Skallerup did something that many professors fear: She turned her curriculum over to her students to create the “peer-driven classroom.” In her College Ready Writing blog series, Skallerup candidly explores her fears about this instructional shift, as well as her students’ responses.

Read one of the peer-driven installments and answer the following questions:

https://collegereadywriting.blogspot.com/2011/08/peer-driven-learning-challenges-of.html

1.  What issues with communication climate do you identify as Skallerup describes her class's adjustment to the peer-driven classroom? Cite the chapter to support your response.

2.  Describe three confirming and disconfirming messages that a professor could offer to students when they are radically altering class structure (even when they genuinely believe it is to the students' benefit).

3.  Describe three confirming and disconfirming messages that students could offer when professors make this type of change.

2.  Vicki Davis is an award-winning teacher and co-founder of Flat Classroom® Projects. An author and blogger for the Cool Cat Teacher site, she made Mashable’s Top 10 list of “Teacher Rock Stars on Twitter” in 2014. Read Davis's piece on “10 Inexpensive Ways to be Kind” and “10 Tips for Starting Student Success at Home (7–8).” Then answer the following questions:

https://balancingacttv.wordpress.com/category/vicki-davis/

  1. Which of Davis’s 10 tips for inexpensive kindness are you most likely to implement, and why?
  2. Davis begins this piece with the claim that “being kind is so simple.” When might this not be the case? And what might you do in these instances to encourage yourself to send confirming rather than disconfirming messages?

3.  Davis describes ways to give praise and criticism in her piece on tips for student success at home. How might this relate to the discussion of invitational communication in the chapter?

4.  How can parents or educators follow up on praise or constructive criticism?

Journal Entries

1.  After reading ”From Criticisms to Requests,” make a list of 5 common complaints that you might make in your own life (i.e., clean up this house; do this correctly next time; you'll never amount to anything). Using the suggestions from this workbook, revise these complaint statements into specific action requests and/or clear explanatory clauses. According to this discussion, what are the benefits of communicating in this manner?

http://www.newconversations.net/pdf/seven_challenges_chapter4.pdf

2.  List 5 things for which you are grateful to other people. Develop clear statements for expressing appreciation for each thing on your list. Be sure to describe behavior, feelings and consequences. What are the benefits of expressing appreciation to others? How does expressing appreciation affect communication climates?