Week 1 — Speech Workshop / Rehearsal Studio · "Record Your First 60 Seconds"

Course: Public Speaking — Fundamentals of Oral Communication (COMM 1) · Silver Oak University (fictional sample) · Prof. Marchetti
Objective: Objective 1 — manage communication apprehension; begin the record-and-self-assess habit · SLO A (deliver) & SLO B (analyze a delivery)
Worth 50 points · Speech Workshops group = 15% of the grade · Workshop 1
Format this week: a record-and-self-assess delivery drill — no special equipment, just a phone camera or Zoom and an approved chatbot.

This is the course's signature weekly component. Every instructional week has one Speech Workshop. This week you learn the rehearsal loop you'll use all term — draft → record → watch → assess → redo — and the habit of judging an AI coach instead of trusting it. All you need is a way to record yourself; there's nothing to buy or download.

Part 1 — The Big Picture

Speakers aren't born; they're built, one recording at a time. The single most useful thing you can do this term is also the simplest: record yourself, watch it back, and notice one thing to fix. It feels awkward at first (everyone hates hearing their own voice — that's normal), but the camera is the most honest, most private coach you'll ever have.

This week's Workshop is your first gentle rep. You'll record 60 seconds, watch it like a coach instead of a critic, and start a habit that turns nervousness into skill. You'll also meet the course's running theme: an AI chatbot will happily tell you "Amazing job!" — which teaches you nothing. Your job is to make it be useful, and to supply the judgment it can't.

The guiding question: When I watch myself speak, what do I actually notice — and can I name one specific thing to improve?

Part 2 — The Drill: Record Your First 60 Seconds

Pick one of these to talk about for about 60 seconds (no script — just a couple of keywords):

• a quick self-introduction (you can reuse the idea from your Icebreaker Speech), or
• one thing you could talk about for a minute with zero research — a hobby, a place, a strong opinion about the best cheap meal, anything.

Do this:
1. Jot 3–4 keywords (not sentences) so you have a path.
2. Record yourself for ~60 seconds on a phone camera or Zoom. Speak to the lens like it's a friendly person.
3. Don't re-record yet. Watch this first take all the way through, even though it'll feel weird.

The point isn't a perfect clip — it's learning to watch yourself like a coach. Awkwardness is the tax everyone pays in week one; pay it now and the rest of the term gets easier.

Part 3 — Self-Assessment Scaffold (fill this in after watching your first take)

Rate each on a 1–5 scale (1 = needs a lot of work, 5 = strong) and add a one-line note of what you actually saw or heard:

Now pick your ONE thing: of everything above, what is the single most useful change for your next take? Write it in one sentence: "Next time I will ______."

Part 4 — Analysis Questions

Answer in a sentence or two each:
1. What surprised you about watching yourself? (Almost everyone notices something they had no idea they did.)
2. Which felt harder — the content (having a point) or the delivery (how you said it)? Why?
3. How did your nerves show up on camera, if at all — and which strategy from this week (preparation, reframing, breathing, focusing outward) might help next time?
4. After your "one thing to fix," do a second take if you can. Did naming one specific change actually help? (This is the whole rehearsal loop in miniature.)

Part 5 — Rehearsal-Coach Moment (BYOAI)

Bring in your approved chatbot (Gemini, Claude, or ChatGPT) as a rehearsal coach.

1. Paste your keywords and a quick description of how your take went (or type out roughly what you said), and ask: "I'm practicing a 60-second self-introduction for my public speaking class. Here's my plan and how it went — give me specific, actionable feedback to improve my next take."
2. Read its feedback and try its best concrete suggestion in your next take.

Part 6 — AI-Critique Moment (required — this is the BYOAI judgment step)

Here's the habit that protects you all term: make the AI be specific, and catch it when it isn't.

1. After it gives feedback, look hard at what it actually said. Chatbots overwhelmingly default to hollow praise — "Great job, you sound very engaging and confident!" — and vague advice — "Just work on your delivery and be yourself." Neither tells you what to do.
2. Push it: "That's too generic. Name the single most important specific change, and tell me exactly how to make it." See whether it can get concrete.
3. Write 2–3 sentences reporting: one example of empty praise or vague feedback it gave, and what genuinely useful, specific feedback would have said instead (e.g., "Not 'be more confident' — 'pause for one second after your hook instead of rushing into your name'").

The habit all term: the tool drafts, you judge. A chatbot will gush before it helps. Catching the empty praise — and demanding the specific version — is the skill.

Part 7 — What to Submit

Submit a single document (or text entry) with: your completed self-assessment scaffold (Part 3) including your "one thing to fix," your Part 4 answers, and your Part 6 AI-critique paragraph. Include your recording (upload or link) if your section requires it; otherwise the self-assessment is enough — but do the recording either way; it's the entire point. Due Sunday, Sep 6, 11:59 p.m. (50 points).

Instructor answer key & model responses — REMOVE BEFORE PUBLISHING TO STUDENTS

Students record their own 60 seconds, so there's no single right answer. The key grades the honesty and specificity of the self-assessment and the quality of the AI-critique — not the polish of a first-week clip.

Model self-assessment (illustrative):
- One clear idea: 3 — "I started strong but drifted into listing hobbies with no point."
- Pace: 2 — "Way too fast; I finished in 35 seconds because I was nervous."
- Filler words: 3 (count: 6) — "Six 'likes' — more than I expected."
- Eye contact: 2 — "I kept glancing at my notes instead of the lens."
- Energy: 4 — "Voice was alive, that part felt natural."
- One thing to fix: "Next time I will slow down and pause for a beat after my hook instead of racing through."

Model AI-critique (illustrative): "The chatbot opened with 'Fantastic, you're a natural!' which is empty — I'd just recorded a rushed 35-second clip. When I pushed it, it gave one useful note: 'Your hook and your name run together; pause after the hook.' Useful feedback names a specific moment and a specific fix, like that — not 'be confident.'"

Expected answers:
- Part 4: (1) any honest observation (rushing, fillers, fidgeting, a flat tone) — full credit for specificity. (2) either answer is fine if reasoned. (3) names a real apprehension symptom + a matching strategy (e.g., raced → practice the opening so it's automatic; shaky voice → slow breaths before recording). (4) full credit for actually attempting a second take and reflecting on whether the single-change focus helped.
- Part 6: full credit for a specific catch — most commonly the AI's generic "great job / be confident / work on delivery," paired with a concrete version of what useful feedback says.

Grading rubric — 50 points

Quality gate (self-checked): the four rubric criteria sum to exactly 50. This is a record-and-reflect workshop, so it asserts no external facts, statistics, or quotations — there is nothing to fabricate or misattribute. The AI-critique explicitly targets the chatbot's hollow praise and vague feedback — the discipline's load-bearing AI risk for coaching (the fabricated-citation risk arrives in Week 4 with research). No quoted material is used, so no citation needs verification this week.