ATISSA BANUAZIZI: In 8.13, students
have to present over and over and over
again throughout the course of the semester.
And we think that this iterative process is really important.
We start out giving them some instruction at the beginning
of the semester.
But often, they still don't feel wholly
comfortable with what they're doing
the first time they present.
And so once they've presented, they get videotaped.
And then we meet with them to discuss the video,
to discuss the slides, to see what worked
and what didn't work.
And those one-on-one conferences that we have with them,
they're reinforcing the core concepts in the instruction
but in a way that's really directly linked to the work
that they've already done, the work that they're continuing
to do, and to challenges that they've already experienced
so they can really understand the significance
of these strategies.
And so by the time we have them revise
one of these presentations that they present
in the public oral, which is to their entire class
and, often, to people outside the class--
they might be other faculty; they might be friends
of the class of the students--
they're already fairly experienced communicators.
And they have a pretty good idea of what's effective and what
isn't.
A lot of classes at the Institute
do a terrific job of exposing students
to many, many genres of communication.
What I think is unusual about this class
is sort of how deeply they're asked
to delve into a couple of very specific genres.