In this essay, I argue that the queer phrase "it's giving" can teach the concept and practice of rhetorical criticism while also performing a queer rhetorical pedagogy. The proposed activity proceeds in three steps: teaching queer histories, defining rhetorical criticism in queer terms, and practicing criticism queerly. This approach…

Students in the English Language Arts classroom have access to more author commentary than ever. While following authors on social media may deepen students' engagement with their assigned reading, it also threatens to subdue students' own interpretations of the authors' texts. This essay explains how educators can introduce basic aspects of…

Courses: Rhetorical Criticism, Cultural Rhetorics, Public Memory Studies. Objective: This activity introduces undergraduates to ideological criticism as a method of rhetorical criticism by illustrating the co-constitutive nature of ideology and rhetoric to universities occupying colonized lands, waters, and airways.

A main goal of academic courses is to help students acquire knowledge and skills that they can transfer to multiple contexts. In this article, we (i) examine students' responses to test question templates (TQTs), a framework intended to facilitate transfer, and (ii) determine whether similar transfer-promoting strategies are commonly embedded in…

Courses: Rhetorical Criticism, Communication Theory, Communication Research Methods, Introduction to Communication Studies. Objectives: This is an introductory exercise that acquaints students with rhetorical criticism as a means of communication inquiry. By the end of the exercise, students will be able to: understand symbols as connected and…

Courses: Rhetorical Criticism, Rhetorical Theory, Rhetoric and Public Memory, Rhetoric of Space/Place. Objectives: This unit introduces critical regionalism as a methodology for rhetorical analysis. By encouraging students to see regions as rhetorical constructions, critical regionalism teaches students to recognize and analyze the inevitable…

Anthropogenic climate change is an urgent and pervasive challenge, yet it remains a polarizing subject. In the United States, studies have shown that rural communities tend to view climate change with less urgency than urban communities, which could delay action in response to the crisis. In rural areas that are highly dependent on agricultural…

Courses: Rhetorical criticism, public address, persuasion, public memory theory, argumentation. Objectives: Through analysis of public controversies about Confederate monuments on college campuses, students will: (1) explore the concept of "public memory," how groups of people form shared interpretations of the past; (2) examine how…

Courses: Public Speaking, Rhetorical Criticism, Persuasion, Political Communication, and Media Communication. Objectives: By the end of this activity, students should be able to: explain the key components of Lloyd Bitzer's rhetorical situation; assess and navigate various conditions affecting various speaking situations; conduct audience analysis…

While some tertiary mathematics educators approximated the familiar invigilated, closed-book assessment regime in the online environment forced upon us all by a pandemic, others either by choice or necessity needed to devise a new way to assess their students' learning. This Classroom Note both synthesizes advice from the literature about what…

Research-based assessments (RBAs) measure how well a course achieves discipline-specific outcomes. Educators can use outcomes from RBAs to guide instructional choices and to request resources to implement and sustain instructional transformations. One challenge for using RBAs, however, is a lack of comparative data, particularly given the skew in…

Directly engaging students with rhetorical reading and writing can increase self-awareness about writing, improve reading abilities and confidence, and raise awareness of research writing as conversation. In this article, the authors describe several assignments and activities that engage students with the rhetorical situation toward the aim of…

Courses: Introduction to Communication Studies, Rhetorical/Media Criticism, Political Communication, Language and Social Interaction. Objectives: The aims of this single-class activity are (1) to emphasize the complexities of communication competence; (2) to differentiate between appropriate and inappropriate communication behaviors; and (3) to…

Today's students are inundated with popular culture and pop culture texts in their daily lives. One such form of pop culture is that of music. This medium is one that teachers must use as a way to connect to students and build a bridge to the curriculum. This article will discuss uses of music in the classroom from capturing students' attention…

As a communication educator, the author's goal is to help students examine and understand how communication addresses--or, in this case, fails to address--public problems such as gun violence. Communication concepts can provide insight about America's bewildering debates about gun violence, and in turn, these debates can help illustrate and refine…