TEACHING TOOL
For the Companion Website
Interpersonal Communication: Relating to Others
4th Edition
Authors:
Steven A. Beebe, Susan J. Beebe, and Mark V. Redmond
Prepared by Sue L. Stewart
Texas State University
San Marcos, Texas
Table of Contents
Introduction iii
Chapter 1: Introduction to Interpersonal Communication 1
Chapter 2: Interpersonal Communication and Self 5
Chapter 3: Interpersonal Communication and Perception 10
Chapter 4: Interpersonal Communication & Cultural Diversity: 14
Adapting to Others
Chapter 5: Listening and Responding 18
Chapter 6: Communicating Verbally 23
Chapter 7: Nonverbal Communication Skills 26
Chapter 8: Conflict Management Skills 31
Chapter 9 – Understanding Interpersonal Relationships 36
Chapter 10: Developing Interpersonal Relationships 541
Chapter 11: Managing Relationship Challenges 47
Chapter 12: Interpersonal Relationships at Home, on the Internet,
& at Work 53
Test Questions 57
INTRODUCTION
This Instructor’s Manual with Companion Website Teaching Tool, prepared by Sue Stewart of Texas State University, is designed to make the use of Beebe, Beebe, and Redmond’s Interpersonal Communication: Relating to Others, (4th ed.) simple, enjoyable, and effective. Enough materials are provided to allow plenty of ideas to suit a variety of teaching styles and classroom situations.
The purpose of this Teaching Tool is to help you integrate the Companion Website into your own teaching style and classroom environment. The Teaching Tool is also designed to help you connect the media assets on the Companion Website with the content your students are learning through your lectures and their textbook. The goal of this supplement is to allow you to use the website to its full benefit, for your teaching and your students’ learning.
WHAT IS THE COMPANION WEBSITE?
The Companion Website is an interactive site that provides students with an exciting new way to learn course content. When your students buy a new textbook, they receive full access to the Companion Website which contains media assets including web links, interactive activities, journal suggestions, essay topics, and related resources.
TEACHING WITH THE COMPANION WEBSITE
The Companion Website adds variety to your course materials, motivating students to learn. It also places course content into real world settings, helping students apply their knowledge to different situations. The Companion Website includes learning objectives established by the text authors for each chapter of the text. Media assets such as weblinks, flashcards, activities, and practice tests are also ties to these objectives.
Assisting Students - Getting Started
If you have access to a computer lab, take the students step-by-step through the following process. Have students access the homepage for the text at http://www.ablongman.com/beebe and follow along as you access the site on your own computer. Remember that this a free, open access site that does not require either registration or passwords.
If you do not have access to a computer lab, but have access to a computer and projection equipment, demonstrate how easy it is to use the web site on your own computer. Take students through a tour of the Companion Website, showing them all the features they can access.
If you are teaching in a lecture class and do not have access to a computer, you can describe how students can easily access the site and what students might expect to see and do once they begin using the Companion Website.
To ensure that all students are familiar with the process of accessing the Companion Website, you might ask them to do one activity or one practice test from the site during the first week of class. Since all activities and practice tests can be e-mailed to the instructor, this is a good way to confirm that each student has logged onto the site.
How to Use This Teaching Tool
The Teaching Tool will show you how to implement the Companion Website in your course. As you plan your syllabus and lectures each semester, look to the Teaching Tool to provide discussion starters, classroom exercises, homework, and even test questions. The Companion Website should not be dismissed as a student supplement that they use at their own discretion. Because it offers such a potential benefit to students, the Companion Website should be an integral part of your course – as important as the textbook you chose to adopt.
In each chapter of this Teaching Tool, you will find teaching notes for a selection of media assets on the Companion Website. Not every media asset is discussed in this manual. Entries may include:
· Annotation. This briefly describes the media asset being discussed. For example, it might describe the action of a video clip or the content of a website.
· Learning Objective. Describes what the student will learn by reviewing the media asset.
· Faculty Note. Explains the purpose for using the media asset and what particular concept the asset will address. Often, it will include a page reference to the textbook that shows where the concept is being discussed.
· Activity. Suggests an activity that can be done in class, for homework, or as a long-term project based on the content of the media asset.
· Additional Resources. These are books, articles, or other websites that expand on the media asset.
· Test Question. Multiple choice, essay, and True/False questions are provided, so that you can assess students' understanding of the media asset.
· Test Bank. The test questions from each chapter can be found at the end of the manual, aggregated to make it easier to prepare tests.
This information will help you use the Companion Website more fully in your course.
Good luck!
TEACHING WITH THE COMPANION WEBSITE
The Companion Website adds variety to your course materials, motivating students to learn. It also places course content into real world settings, helping students apply their knowledge to different situations. Students however, cannot experience these benefits if they are not using the Interactive Companion to learn. This Teaching Tool will provide solid instructional ideas to help you integrate the Interactive Companion into your existing course structure.
Each of the media links take students to additional content related to key concepts in each chapter of the text. Students will find activities, practice tests, and links to relevant websites. In addition to expanding the content of each chapter, the links help get students involved in the subject material and help them remember what they’ve learned.
For example, an ACTIVITY ICON leads a student to interesting activities to enhance or expand their understanding of the material. Students may be asked to research, discuss, think critically, review or respond to content within or outside of the textbook.
A WEBLINK ICON provides links to current websites about the specific topic being discussed in the textbook. Weblinks are carefully monitored and updated by the publisher, Allyn & Bacon.
When students want to test themselves on the material being studied, they can select the PRACTICE TEST ICON and complete a self-scoring practice test. This feature will prepare them for quizzes and examinations while they cover the information in the textbook.
How will the Companion Website help my students learn?
· The Companion Website adds variety to course materials and studying methods, motivating students to learn. Instructors can enhance student motivation to learn by varying the modes of presentation and including interesting materials from outside of the text. The Interactive Companion provides engaging multimedia with a variety of approaches to help students absorb, retain, and review information.
· The Companion Website expands subject matter beyond an academic setting. By connecting textbook material to sites on the World Wide Web, the Interactive Companion helps students understand the relevance of what they study.
· The Companion Website provides students with frequent feedback. Practice Tests and Activities give students immediate feedback on their learning in an enjoyable and non-threatening way. Even though an instructor may not always be able to give constant and immediate feedback to every student, the Interactive Companion provides a mechanism for students to interact with and use the material they’re studying.
· The Companion Website helps in learning transfer. By providing opportunities for students to understand how concepts operate in different situations, the Weblinks, Audio, Video, and Activities provide students with the opportunity to transfer what they’ve learned to other contexts.
· The Companion Website increases student’s involvement with new technologies. The Companion Website inherently connects students with new technologies through the use of the computer, which can often increase the students’ motivation to learn. The student is motivated to spend more time with the subject area while learning how to use the new technologies.
How can I use the Companion Website in my classroom assignments?
Here are some suggestions for incorporating the Interactive Edition into your classroom assignments:
Individual Writing Assignments
· Have students create a journal. For every chapter, students can write in a journal about their favorite website from among the Weblinks and explain why it is significant within the context of the course. Many activities can also be completed as Journal Entry. In addition, students can be encouraged to find websites of their own and report about what they find.
· Use the Weblinks as the basis for essays or reaction papers. Assignments can be created around Weblinks that bring current issues into course work.
Collaborative Writing Assignments
Group projects can reduce the number of papers the instructor needs to grade while encouraging students to learn from each other. “Electronic communities” of students can be assigned an Internet activity to complete cooperatively. Ask the students to communicate about their ideas through e-mail. This allows them an opportunity to practice their skills in expressing themselves clearly in writing and allows the instructor with a record of their individual participation. As part of the assignment, have the students review the transcripts of their discussions and analyze what helped them learn and produce the final product.
Practice Tests
Each practice test and activity can be emailed to the instructor from within the Companion Website. Choose a few activities and practice tests in each chapter and have the students email you their work so you can monitor their progress in the class.
To make the Practice Texts an important part of their learning, tell students you will select a few questions from the Practice Tests for your own exams.
Research
A useful exercise on researching through the Web begins with a discussion of how to analyze a website for reliability. Ask the students how they might evaluate web resources in the context of the five traditional print evaluation criteria: accuracy, authority, objectivity, currency and coverage. Have them consider the following questions:
· Who is the creator of the site?
· What is the authority or expertise of the individual or group that created the site?
· Is there an evident bias in the site?
· Do the web pages have many typos and grammatical mistakes that may indicate a lack of editorial oversight and questionable accuracy of content?
· Are the hyperlinks maintained and current?
Class Presentation and Discussion
One effective way to get students speaking in class is to organize the students into groups and have each group present the major points from one of the chapters in the book to the rest of the class. Students should be encouraged to use the media elements from the Companion Websitein the presentations or as a part of the research to create a multimedia presentation integrating electronic and print resources. Video and audio clips can also be used as a springboard for classroom debates.
vii
Chapter 1: Introduction to Interpersonal Communication
This chapter introduces the student to the importance of interpersonal communication. It compares and contrasts the definitions of communication, human communication, and interpersonal communication, and looks at communication as action, interaction, and transaction. It also looks at myths surrounding interpersonal communication and identifies strategies that can improve communication effectiveness.
You can encourage your students to visit all of the weblinks or you may choose from the following:
Weblink National Communication Association
http://www.natcom.org/
Content: This weblink leads students to the homepage of NCA exposing them to the variety of resources and activities provided by the association and its members.
Objective: To expand the awareness of students concerning the discipline of Communication Studies.
Faculty Note: Many students are unaware of the diversity of our discipline. This offers them the opportunity to visit the site, explore programs in communication, and take a look at some of the areas of research.
Activity: Direct students to Research area of the site. Posted in that area is the survey on How Americans Communicate. (If this section has been modified, there is always a posting of current research.) Ask students to review this report and comment on some of the findings shown below:
Most people realize that the lack of effective communication with others can lead to serious problems in a person’s life: 44% of Americans believe that it "very frequently" causes a marriage or a relationship to end, fewer (38%) say that money problems "very frequently" get in the way of a relationship, some name interference of relatives or in-laws (14%), others blame sexual problems (12%), previous relationships (9%), and children (7%).
Weblink Dean Ornish says good health springs from love and intimacy
http://www.findarticles.com/cf_1/m1571/n12_v14/20442632/p1/article.jhtml
Content: This Weblink contains an interview with Dr. Dean Ornish, the Bucksbaum Chair in Preventive Medicine at the nonprofit Preventive Medicine Research Institute in Sausalito, California. Dr. Ornish discusses the powerful influences that love, intimacy, and relationships have on our physical and mental health.
Objective: It will expand the students’ concepts of what intimacy might involve and demonstrate how important these relationships are to our health and well being.
Faculty Note: This site offers an alternative view on the importance of intimacy and connection. It will expand the students’ concepts of what intimacy might involve and demonstrate how important these relationships are to our health and well being. Dr. Ornish may be known to them from his appearances on television or through his books.
Activity: Have the students read the interview and work in groups to discuss how the concepts of relationships, connection, and intimacy play a part in their lives. This may address the areas indicated in the text on pages 9-11.