Week 1 — Assignment (Adaptive Learning) · The Icebreaker (Self-Introduction) Speech

Course: Public Speaking — Fundamentals of Oral Communication (COMM 1) · Silver Oak University (fictional sample) · Prof. Marchetti
Objective assessed: Objective 1 (the communication process; ethical, audience-centered speaking; managing apprehension) · SLO A (compose & deliver a speech)
Worth 100 points · Speeches (Assignments) group = 25% of the grade
Format: adaptive learning — an AI speech coach walks you from idea → structure → rehearsal, then helps you score your own recording against the rubric and raise it with another take. You submit the coach's self-scored report (plus your chat link) and your recording.

Assignment 1 of the term, and your first speech — a short, low-stakes self-introduction. Every instructional week carries one graded assignment (alongside that week's quiz, discussion, and Speech Workshop); this week's is the icebreaker.

Part 1 — Student Instructions (read this first)

What this is. Your first speech is a 60–90-second self-introduction with one clear point about who you are. An AI coach helps you find your point, shape the speech, rehearse it, and then assess your own recording against the rubric — teaching you to improve at each step. Want a better score? Do another take.

How to run it (about 30–45 minutes, including recording):
1. Open any approved AI chatbot — Gemini, Claude, or ChatGPT (free versions are fine).
2. Copy everything in the box below and paste it as one single message.
3. Work through it with the coach: pick your point, shape the speech, record yourself (phone camera or Zoom), then watch your clip and answer the coach's self-assessment honestly.

What to submit (three things):
1. The coach's report — its first line is STUDENT'S SCORE: X/100.
2. Your conversation's share link.
3. Your recording (upload the file or paste a link). The recording is part of the grade — the self-score is your honest estimate, and Prof. Marchetti spot-checks it against the clip.

Integrity note. Do your own thinking and record your own speech; the coach helps you prepare and self-assess. Submitting a report or recording you didn't actually make is an integrity violation. (This is an adaptive-learning activity — you complete it with an approved chatbot, per the course AI policy.)

Part 2 — The Coach Prompt (copy everything in the box)

⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯ COPY EVERYTHING BELOW THIS LINE ⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯

You are my speech coach and grader for Week 1 of Public Speaking (COMM 1) at Silver Oak University. You will coach me through preparing, rehearsing, and recording a 60–90-second self-introduction speech with ONE clear point, then help me score my own recording against the rubric below and improve it with another take. You grade ONLY against the rubric below — never invent criteria or inflate scores. Total possible: 100 points.

ABOUT THE SPEECH
- Goal: introduce myself to the class with one clear point about who I am (not a list of random facts).
- Target length: 60–90 seconds.
- Shape we'll use: Hook → who you are → one real detail with a point → close.
- Delivery target: extemporaneous — prepared and practiced, spoken conversationally from a few keywords, NOT read word-for-word and NOT memorized robotically.
- This is a first speech: be warm and encouraging. Nerves are normal. Build my confidence while still giving me honest, specific feedback.

THE RUBRIC (100 points) — grade against THIS, and teach me to hit each part. Do not show me the whole rubric as a block up front; reveal each piece as we work on it.
- One clear point / content (25): the speech centers on a single clear idea about me, not a scattered list.
- Organization (20): a recognizable Hook, a self-introduction, one developed detail, and a real close (beginning–middle–end).
- Vocal delivery (20): audible, clear, well-paced, with few filler words ("um/like/so").
- Physical delivery (20): looks at the camera/audience, steady posture, speaking (not reading) — natural energy.
- Length & completion (15): lands in the 60–90-second window and is actually recorded and submitted.

HOW TO RUN IT (with me, the student) — go in STAGES, one at a time:
1. Greet + name. Greet me warmly in 1–2 sentences, ask my FIRST NAME and my major/interest. (If I skip my name, continue, but ask before the final report.)
2. Stage A — Find the point. Ask what one thing I'd want classmates to remember about me, and help me sharpen it into a single clear point (one sentence). Don't move on until I have one.
3. Stage B — Shape it. Walk me through the four-part shape (Hook → who → detail-with-a-point → close), one part at a time, helping me draft a keyword for each. Keep it to keywords, not a script.
4. Stage C — Rehearse. Have me say it out loud once (type it or describe how it went). Give ONE or TWO specific improvements (e.g., "your hook is a fact, not a grabber — can you open with the surprising part?"). Remind me to aim for extemporaneous, not memorized.
5. Stage D — Record. Tell me to record myself on a phone or Zoom (60–90 sec), then watch it once.
6. Stage E — Self-assess against the rubric. Go criterion by criterion. For each, ask me what I actually observed in my clip (e.g., "How was your eye contact — were you looking at the lens or reading?"), then help me assign honest points and give specific, kind feedback and one concrete fix.
7. Offer a re-take. Ask if I want to record again to raise my score; if yes, coach the fix and re-assess. My BEST take counts (capped at full marks).
- If I ask about the material, answer briefly, then return to the stage. If I go off-topic, one friendly sentence, then — IN THE SAME MESSAGE — back to the stage.
- Until the final report, every message ends with a question or a clear next step.
- Score HONESTLY against the rubric — encourage me, but don't hand out points I didn't earn; a vague, read-aloud, 20-second clip scores lower than a clear, conversational, 75-second one.

IMPORTANT — NO FABRICATION: do not invent quotations, statistics, or "facts" for my speech, and do not put words in my mouth — this is my self-introduction in my words. (We're building the habit now: the tool helps; it never fabricates.)

COMPLETION + REPORT. After I've assessed my best take, produce the report in EXACTLY this format — the FIRST LINE is my score:
STUDENT'S SCORE: X/100
WEEK 1 ASSIGNMENT — The Icebreaker (Self-Introduction) Speech
Student: [name] | Date: ___
One clear point / content (a/25): [one line]
Organization (b/20): [one line]
Vocal delivery (c/20): [one line]
Physical delivery (d/20): [one line]
Length & completion (e/15): [one line]
Strongest moment: ___
One thing to carry into your next speech: ___
(The five scores must add up to the number on line 1.) Then say, verbatim: "Copy this entire report AND your share link to this chat, and submit both in Canvas for this assignment — and don't forget to upload your recording." End with one genuine sentence of encouragement.

GETTING STARTED
Begin now: greet me, ask my first name and major/interest, and start Stage A.

⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯ COPY EVERYTHING ABOVE THIS LINE ⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯

The Speech Rubric — 100 points (what the coach grades, and what Prof. Marchetti confirms)

Levels describe observable behavior so grading stays fast and consistent. (This same rubric is what the adaptive coach grades against.)

Instructor grading note (Prof. Marchetti)

• Record the STUDENT'S SCORE: X/100 from line 1 of the submitted report into the Speeches group.
• Spot-check the recording against the self-score — this is a self-assessed speech, so the clip is the ground truth. The embedded rubric keeps the coach grading the same way for every student and every chatbot.
• The rubric lives inside the coach prompt (embed-don't-trust), so scores stay consistent across Gemini / Claude / ChatGPT. Known weak point (H5/H7): an AI-self-scored grade is gameable; requiring the recording as part of the submission is the check that keeps it honest. For higher stakes, grade the recordings directly.

Canvas placement block

canvas_object    = Assignment
title            = "Week 1 Assignment — The Icebreaker (Self-Introduction) Speech (adaptive)"
assignment_group = "Speeches (Assignments)"
points_possible  = 100
grading_type     = points
assignment_type  = adaptive
submission_types = [online_text_entry, online_url, media_recording]   # report (score on line 1) + chat link + the recording
due_offset_days  = 6
published        = true
provenance       = "~ Prof. Marchetti's edition · Fall 2026 · built with thecoursemaker.com"

Traditional variant — for comparison. This sample course is configured adaptive learning, so its actual Week-1 assignment is the AI-coached, self-scored version in I-assignment-and-rubric-week-01.md. This file shows the same Week-1 speech built the traditional way — the student prepares and records the speech and submits it, and the instructor grades against the rubric — so you can see both formats side by side. (Choosing assignment_type = traditional at course setup generates this style instead.)

Course: Public Speaking — Fundamentals of Oral Communication (COMM 1) · Silver Oak University (fictional sample) · Prof. Marchetti
Objective assessed: Objective 1 (the communication process; ethical, audience-centered speaking; managing apprehension) · SLO A (compose & deliver a speech)
Worth 100 points · Speeches (Assignments) group = 25% of the grade

The Assignment

Your first speech is a 60–90-second self-introduction delivered to the class (and recorded). The goal is not to list facts about yourself — it's to make one clear point about who you are, and to get a first, low-stakes rep at standing up and speaking. Prepare it extemporaneously (from a few keywords, not a script), record it (or deliver it live and record it), and submit the recording. You'll be graded on the rubric below — read it before you start.

Build it in four moves (the shape we used in class):
1. Hook — open with something that grabs attention (a surprising line, a question, a vivid image). Not "Hi, my name is…"
2. Who you are — your name, and the basics that matter for your point.
3. One real detail with a point — the heart of the speech: one story, interest, or fact, and why it says something about you.
4. Close — a clean ending that ties back to your point (don't trail off with "yeah, that's it").

Delivery target: extemporaneous — prepared and practiced, but spoken conversationally from a few keywords. Don't read it word-for-word, and don't memorize it so hard it sounds robotic. Look at the camera/audience. Aim for 60–90 seconds.

A note on nerves: this is everyone's first speech and almost everyone is nervous — that's normal. Practice out loud a few times (it's the #1 thing that helps), do a couple of takes, and submit your best one.

Integrity & AI note. This is your own speech in your own words. You may use an approved chatbot (Gemini, Claude, or ChatGPT) to brainstorm or tighten your point, but the speech you record must be yours — and don't let a chatbot invent "facts" or quotes for you (we start that habit now). If AI helped you prepare, add a one-line note of which tool and how. (Note: this is the traditional format. In this course's actual adaptive assignment, you work through the speech with a chatbot coach and submit its self-scored report — see I-assignment-and-rubric-week-01.md.)

Rubric — 100 points

Levels describe observable behavior so grading stays fast and consistent. (This same rubric is what the adaptive variant embeds for the AI to grade against.)

Instructor answer key & model — REMOVE BEFORE PUBLISHING TO STUDENTS

A self-introduction is personal, so there's no single "right" content. This model shows what a full-marks speech looks like in shape and delivery; grade students' own speeches against the rubric, not against this exact content.

Model self-introduction (≈75 seconds), in keyword form (the student would speak it, not read it):
- Hook: "I've broken the same bone twice — and it taught me the most useful thing I know."
- Who: "I'm Priya, a first-year kinesiology major."
- Detail with a point: "Two soccer injuries and a long recovery turned me into the person who actually finishes the physical-therapy plan — so I learned patience and consistency the hard way, and that's how I plan to get through tough classes too."
- Close: "So if you ever want a study buddy who won't quit halfway through, that's me."

Why it earns full marks: one clear point (consistency/patience), all four structural parts, a hook that isn't "my name is," a detail that means something, and a clean close. Delivered extemporaneously, with eye contact and an audible pace, inside the time window.

Common ways students lose points (watch for these):
- A list with no point ("I like soccer, and pizza, and my dog…") → content cap.
- Reading the whole thing off the screen → physical-delivery cap.
- No hook / no close (starts with "um, hi, so, my name is" and trails off) → organization cap.
- 15 seconds or 3 minutes → length cap.

Canvas placement block

canvas_object    = Assignment
title            = "Week 1 Assignment — The Icebreaker (Self-Introduction) Speech (traditional)"
assignment_group = "Speeches (Assignments)"
points_possible  = 100
grading_type     = points
assignment_type  = traditional
submission_types = [media_recording, online_upload]
due_offset_days  = 6
published        = true
rubric_ref       = "week-01-icebreaker-rubric"
provenance       = "~ Prof. Marchetti's edition · Fall 2026 · built with thecoursemaker.com"