UNLV Best Teaching Practices Expo Faculty Affairs

2-8-2019

Reducing Anxiety While Boosting Creativity: Lessons from the Progymnasmata

Bryan Blankfield University of Nevada, Las Vegas, [email protected]

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Recommended Citation Blankfield, Bryan, "Reducing Anxiety While Boosting Creativity: Lessons from the Progymnasmata" (2019). UNLV Best Teaching Practices Expo. 54. https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/btp_expo/54

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This Poster has been accepted for inclusion in UNLV Best Teaching Practices Expo by an authorized administrator of Digital Scholarship@UNLV. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Reducing Anxiety While Boosting Creativity: Dr. Bryan Blankfield, Assistant Professor in Residence Lessons from the Progymnasmata Honors College

Student Anxiety Student Responses Progymnasmata Scholarship An Approach for All Disciplines The fear of public speaking is a widely These “mini speeches” are routinely Fleming, J. David. “The Very Idea of A Each discipline can readily incorporate shared among individuals. This can be praised by my students as instrumental Progymnasmata.” Rhetoric Review 22, these speaking exercises into their classes. difficult to overcome when students are in their growth as a speaker. Here’s a no. 2 (2003): 105–120. Pick and choose exercises that seem most assigned several large, heavily-weighted small sample of their responses: relevant. Feel free to invent your own! Hagaman, John. “Modern Use of the speeches with few opportunities to Progymnasmata in Teaching Rhetorical become acclimated to standing in front of • “The many mini speeches we had to In my presidential rhetoric class, I have Invention.” Rhetoric Review 5, no. 1 an audience. do helped build my confidence when it students impersonate a president giving a (1986): 22–29. comes to public speaking.” war message. Doing so teaches them Limited Time to Improve • “I liked how we had plenty of Kennedy, George Alexander, genre and historic context. Larger class sections are common at opportunities to practice and improve ed. Progymnasmata: Greek Textbooks of major universities like UNLV. This is a our public speaking. I think this is way Prose Composition and Rhetoric. Brill, In a chemistry class, I would have students special challenge for public speaking more effective than just having 2003. give a speech of praise or blame about an students do three big speeches all element or compound. What are the uses classes because students are afforded Ray, Brian. “A Progymnasmata for Our semester, and not having an of NaCl? What about 235U? Doing so would fewer opportunities to give speeches. In Time: Adapting Classical Exercises to opportunity to improve with each encourage students to think about the real- a public speaking class of 30 students, Teach Translingual Style.” Rhetoric speech.” world applications of their knowledge. professors easily devote 1/3 of their Review 32, no. 2 (2013): 191–209. class time to listening to the three major • “Doing different types of speeches speech assignments alone. helped me because I used different In a pre-med class, I would assign my aspects of each to improve my own The Original Progymnasmata students to describe their patient’s response 1. Fable Method speeches.” upon learning of a terminal diagnosis. 2. Narrative Inviting students to think ahead to such Several times throughout the semester These speeches are successful for many 3. Anecdote scenarios would help cultivate empathy and students are assigned a 2–3 minute long reasons. They give students low- 4. Proverb lead into a discussion on what they might speech inspired by the progymnasmata pressure speaking situations that 5. Refutation say when faced with such a situation. (a series of rhetorical exercises from encourage creativity. Each speech 6. Confirmation Ancient Greece). The speeches vary acclimates students to standing in front 7. Commonplace Grading Practices widely from presenting a fable to 8. Encomium (speech of praise) of an audience. Finally, the variety I grade these speeches out of 50 points. 10 impersonating an individual. 9. Invective (speech of blame) provided by these speeches serve as a points is for their outline, 20 for their building block to larger speeches. A 10. Comparison These speeches increase in difficulty content, and 20 for their delivery. The low fable’s moral can teach students how to 11. Impersonation throughout the semester. Just as a point value prevents them from worrying too write a thesis statement. Likewise, the 12. Description weight lifter steadily increases weights, much about their grade, while still narrative speech teaches an important 13. Thesis so, too, do students progress to more recognizing their work. The outline prevents feature of most speeches; namely, telling 14. Proposal of a Law challenging speech assignments. them from making it up on the fly. a sequence of events clearly.