Grading guidelines: Debate/“feature” presentation participation
Group debate: Turn-taking behaviors are universal to communicative systems
There is one in-class debate planned in this course, and you will receive up to 1 point for your contribution.
In this debate, we will split up into groups and have a debate with one group arguing for the prompt and one group arguing against it. Groups will have a chance to work together to build their arguments and their response to the other group’s arguments.
Full credit for participation in this debate (1 point) is gained by your contribution to at least one of the following activities:
- taking notes during brainstorming
- taking notes while listening to the other group’s arguments
- fact-checking your group’s arguments
- fact-checking the other group’s arguments
- presenting one of your group’s arguments
NOTE: More than one person in each group can do each of these tasks, and it is up to the group to make sure that everyone is given the opportunity to make a significant contribution.
A panel of ~5 listeners will log in to listen to your arguments. They will vote on the prompt both before and after the debate. The team that sways the most votes in their favor wins a mystery prize.
“Feature” presentations (in pairs): Why is feature X needed to explain conversational turn taking? What consequences does this feature have for our cognitive model of turn taking?
For these presentations, students will split up into groups of 2–3, each of which will be assigned to represent a particular proposed feature of conversational turn taking. On the presentation day, pairs will meet each other and make the case for their feature. We will then discuss as a group if/how people’s perspectives shifted over the course of the presentations about the fundamental features of turn taking.
Students will have two in-class work sessions with their partner to develop a case for their feature, which includes a description of the feature, some specific examples, an argument for why it is necessary to explain conversational turn taking, and an outline of the consequences it has for cognitive models of turn taking.
An outline of this case presentation is optionally due after the second in-class session (0 points). The completed case (0.5 points) is due by the start of class on the day of the presentations, April 30th.
Participation in the presentations is worth 0.5 points.
Full credit is therefore gained by submitting a presentation case with the defined information above and by participation in the presentations.
Unable to participate in one of these activities?
If you are unable to participate in one of these activities, please let Marisa know as soon as possible. We can discuss the possibility of making up this credit on a case-by-case basis.