Interpersonal communication -Scenario planning

My philosophy is that assignments should be enjoyable for both my students and myself. I used to dread performance assessments because they were so repetitive—I remember sitting for two consecutive days, listening to the same situation presented by every class repeatedly. So, I decided that each class should receive a different scenario. Now, it's more interesting for me to listen to their performances.

I apply the same approach to the writing prompts I assign. Each class receives a unique prompt, so when I read their essays, the content varies.

One advantage of this approach is that students cannot "share" their class-specific situations with others, ensuring that their performances are truly unrehearsed and spontaneous.

Moreover, I believe that engaging students in real-world problems, scenarios, and challenges helps them see the relevance in their learning and encourages high engagement with the content.

There's no magic formula for creating scenarios for interpersonal performance-based assessments. However, when I write a scenario, I use the following "ingredients":

• The scenario must align with one of the unit's learning objectives (backwards design).

• It should be realistic.

• It must fulfill the requirements of interpersonal communication by being spontaneous and unrehearsed.

• Roles for the students should be clearly defined.

• It should involve a task such as problem-solving or persuasion.

• The task should be at an appropriate level of proficiency.

• It should require skills that students have practiced during the unit or a combination of skills they have learned previously.

• Lastly, it should be humorous—I enjoy creating situations where students can laugh at themselves.