After Mid-term: Foundations of Verbal Communications

I am in the process of reading the informative essays for FVC-102.F3. The work is going steadily, but slowly.

Begin thinking, please, about two things: first, the development of your persuasive essay thesis, which should be developed using the dialectic (more on that soon). Second, looking ahead to the end of the semester, be considering carefully and systematically your assessment of the year in FVC.

Consider your own challenges as a listener, a speaker, a reader, and a writer. We have about six weeks left in the semester to address those challenges. I hope you will be bold enough to identify both strengths and weaknesses in your work, and use the talents around you -- including mine -- to support your strengths and minimize your weaknesses.

Consider, too, the next generation of students. Were you to start again as a foundation student, knowing what you know now, what would you like to see change, and what should stay the same, in the FVC curriculum. This is not necessarily about what was fun, or what you liked, but what was useful to you as a listener, speaker, reader, and writer.

Consider the "logos" of the class: which of the readings were most valuable, and why? I basically dropped the reading component from the course, concentrating instead on writing and oral presentation: do you feel in any way cheated by that? Do you have any thoughts on developing the oral presentations and listening exercises, again, not so much so that they will be more fun (although I would welcome such suggestions, too), but more useful?

Finally, despite the fact that I do most of the talking in the class, I feel that I have not asserted myself very much, that I have not been imposing on you very much, as in, for example, asking you to read and then comment on some one work that we all encounter, and then holding you to be able to interpret that work closely. This may suit some of you very well, but my own sense is that this is a deficiency -- that I should be challenging you to closer and fuller analysis, whereas my perception is that the class is open and loose, lacking in structure. I am comfortable with the way individual class sessions happen, but I fear the looseness is not serving some people well.

Please let me know what you think about these matters. The sooner you share with me, the sooner improvements can be made based on the sharing.

Disclaimer:

Please understand that while I will give any and all suggestions a full listen, I must also weigh suggestions against larger curricular, and perhaps budgetary, concerns. So, yes, it might be a Lovely Thing to have a breakfast buffet waiting for us every morning, and I might even justify this as a meritted expense, the practical exigencies of such a notion are such that, well, it's not likely to happen this semester.