Best "Lecture" Ever

In the past I have asked students to read the chapter that was to be covered on any given day so they would be somewhat familiar with what I was going to cover in the lecture, which was an overview of the materials using powerpoint. Of course, few actually read it which meant they did not really understand what I was talking about. In fact, I could have delivered the entire lecture in French and they would have gotten as much out of it as in English because they did not do the reading because there was no incentive to do so.

So, I educated myself on ways to get the most out of assigned readings last summer. After reading a series of articles on getting the most out of assigned readings I started to require my students to prepare detailed study notes (that are graded) for the chapters that are to be covered on any given day as noted on the course agenda.

The change in student preparedness, given the study note assignment, proved to be powerful on the very first day. I simply started my "lecture" with a simple question, "What did you learn from your study of chapter 1?" Once the first student volunteered to share what was learned, I listened to what was being said. If that student was correct, I then asked another simple question of the class, "What else did you learn?" In effect, I continued to pose questions until the students had completely covered the contents of the chapter. What I liked most was that by having the students know the chapter materials it freed me up to augment what they read with relevant practical examples from our industry to assist with retention.

Best of all, the students indicated that they were HAPPY that they were being required to prepare study notes because it forced them to read the chapter and be in a position to understand what was being discussed in the class and so they got alot out of today's session.

This semester I am trying more structured worksheets instead of study notes to give more guidance on the key information that is to be covered from each of the chapters. We will also talk about the answers to the questions and grade them in class.

Give this technique a try. You will not regret it!

Teaching Tip: If requiring students to purchase an expensive textbook and you hardly use it -- stop it! Students resent having to pay so much for an expensive text that instructors hardly use and I cannot blame them one iota!