Graduation speech

Originally designed as the final reflection assignment for PWR 2, this speaking activity provides an effective capstone to students' work by asking them to analyze and then deliver graduation speeches that reflect on their work in the class.

Author: Alyssa O'Brien

Class: PWR 2

Brief description: For this assignment, students reflect on what they learned about rhetorical strategies and share those reflections with the class at an imaginary “graduation ceremony”. This assignment requires student preparation before coming to class.

Schedule: Works best during week 10, after the completion of the written RBA and the final presentation, as the last assignment/activity of the quarter.

Activity length: Approximately 45-75 minutes of delivery time for student presentations

Activity goals: To encourage students to analyze their own rhetorical strategies of translation and delivery, and to invite students to reflect on the research they have conducted during the quarter.

Activity details: This activity has several handouts:

Additional notes: This activity was originally designed as the final reflection assignment for PWR 2, but it can also be modified into a more informal assignment and/or so that no advanced prep is needed.

This activity was originally published as an Activity of the Week in winter 2014.