Rationale
I started my work in OER with a Linguistics of Spoken English website, then moved on to other projects. I have been looking for other ways to encourage oral communication based pedagogy since, mostly because Academia doesn’t actually do much with the spoken word. Further, when most instructors create oral communication projects, those projects are almost always speeches or, maybe, panel discussions. Podcasts are a valid form of public address. Assembling a podcast teaches students basic audio editing software and production skills.
Once I realized that a podcasting assignment was the endpoint, I thought about content. Over the past few years, I noticed that many Americans don’t have a decent grasp of Civics, so I selected several important Early American documents, ranging from the Flushing Remonstrance to the Bill of Rights. Any of these documents can be used to launch many different and interesting projects. I recited all of them, and added a resource collection for each document, so students have a starting point for their research.
Overall, I think this is a worthwhile project. I will revisit it, perhaps adding more documents — I considered the Northwest Ordinance, but it was long, and I am currently operating under time constraints. I may also go through the documents, and annotate them. Still, I think this is a good start.
The Manifold Site with the Early American Documents
Notes for instructors. Click here for dowloadable version.
The Assignment for Students Click here for downloadable version.
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