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Engaging Students in Large Classes SlidesTRANSCRIPT
Engaging Students in Large Classes
Tessa HillEric PetersonMonday July 29, 2013
Engaging Students in Large Classes (Outline)• Setting the stage• You, your students, your team• Goals for the course• Promoting thinking and learning
• The interactive lecture• Delivering the Lecture• Engagement Triggers• Engaging non-majors• Presentations & Assessment
http://gallery.ilstu.edu/bonestudentcenter/main.php?g2_itemId=1882
Interactive lectures: “classes in which the instructor breaks the lecture at least once per class to have students participate in an activity that lets them work directly with the material.”
Setting the stage• You, your students, your team• What is large? 50, 100, 200, 500?• Do you have teaching assistants?• Define their role and your expectations to the TAs• Explain the TAs role to class
• Identify your teaching style – Informer, Questioner, Entertainer, etc.• Play off your style (strength) but incorporate other
deliveries.
http://finance.fortune.cnn.com
How do you prepare for big lectures?
• Suggestions• Identify your main
points (2 to 3)• Determine how each
slide advances these• Prepare your visuals• Practice your unfinished
talk; revise… • Write out sentences that
need to be precise• Focus on your slide
transitions• Print out notes
• Keep track of time• Don’t install new
software right beforehand• Don’t be rigid in
delivery, adapt as needed• Take notes on how you
would improve for next year• Use a lecture
preparation checklist
Preparing the teaching team• Detail your expectations in writing• Explain TA duties: lecture attendance, office hours,
proctoring exams, maintaining grades, setting up projectors, participation in in-class discussion, running review sessions, punctuality.• Team work: make clear division of labor, set up
regular meetings• Records: TAs must keep records of all
communications and assignments, but not keep personal student data on their computers (security).• If co-teaching a class: make sure each professor has
clear responsibilities
Goals for the course• What is the purpose of the course• Major vs Non-Major• General Education• Content vs Process• Content – Breadth vs Depth
• Develop an informative syllabus (set the expectations)• State the goals of the course• Explicitly express policies and procedures for grading,
attendance, late homework, missed tests, office hours, etc. Making up rules as you go along sets a bad precedent.
• Publish all important dates at the beginning of the class, with a clear plan for students who miss exams
• Send a welcome email to the class before it starts• Identify all resources that will be used and have them ready for the
class• Describe your email policy in advance
Engaging students in large classes
• Identify a large class that you might teach (see worksheet)
• What are your top 5 goals for what students will learn in this class?
The Interactive Lecture• Delivering the Lecture• Engagement triggers• Engaging non-majors• Presentation & Assessment
Delivering the Lecture• EXPRESSIVENESS is the most basic and most direct
way to keep students’ interest• Vocal variation, facial expressions, movement, gesture, style
variation• Is more interesting and easier to understand• Yields contagious enthusiasm• Improves retention of material• Is more about communication than about entertainment (is
compatible with the content coverage and high academic standards)
Tomorrow's Professor Msg.#790 How to Create Memorable Lectures - http://cgi.stanford.edu/~dept-ctl/cgi-bin/tomprof/posting.php?ID=790
• Interpreting Graphs• Making Calculations• Demonstration/making
predictions• Brainstorming• Reading to solve a
problem• Physical prop• Evocative visual/picture• Cartoons• News Clips & Articles
• Clips from movies or tv shows
• Think-Pair-Share• Minute paper• ConcepTests• Question of the Day• Small group discussion• iClicker• Google Earth (or other
tech)
http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/earlycareer/teaching/LargeClasses.html
Engagement Triggers
Example - In-Class Activity• In a 10-20 minute breakout:
• Break into groups of 5-10 (works even in auditorium seating)
• Provide a single question, set of questions, or exercise that students need to discuss.
• The question(s) can be used as an introduction or as an assessment of presented material. Each group independently discusses the question and negotiates a group answer.
• You and the TAs monitor and guide groups. Collect each group’s answer (a singular assignment with everyone's name listed).
Example - Daily Question• The core (center) of the Black Hills of South
Dakota is composed of granite. The Columbia River Plateau of Washington and Oregon is composed of basalt. Using a Venn Diagram, compare and contrast the two locations highlighting the composition of the rocks, the texture of the rock, and the location (depth) where the rocks formed.
Black HillsColumbiaRiver
Interactive LecturesIndividual work
Please spend the next few minutes on an activity that you’d like to use in your class. • What concept do you want students
to better understand? • How will you engage the students?
• How will you know it is working?
Interactive LecturesGroup Brainstorm and Sharing
Now share your idea with a partner and provide each other with feedback.
Interactive LecturesGroup Brainstorm and Sharing
•What are some of the potential problems or concerns you do, or will, face using these and other interactive activities in the classroom?
•How can you overcome them?
Engaging non-majors• Many large lecture classes serve as a breadth
requirement and have many non-majors who are not necessarily engaged in the topic. This is your opportunity to get them interested and excited in geoscience:•Make it relevant to their lives•Make pop culture work for you• Recognize different learning styles• Bring in your personal experiences
Make it relevant for their lives• How has geoscience been
involved in your daily activities?• Water• Electronics• Vehicles• Buildings• Weather & Climate
• Food• Energy resources• Hazards
Pop culture: Have lecture soundtracks (music to start your lecture)
• Ring of Fire, Johnny Cash• Four Seasons, Vivaldi• The Tide is High, Blondie• Blowin’ in the Wind, Bob Dylan• Dust in the Wind, Kansas• Black water, Doobie Brothers• Water, The Who• Volcano, Jimmy Buffett• After the gold rush, Natalie Merchant• Eye of the Hurricane, The Alarm
Pop culture: Analyze the scientific facts/fiction in a popular movie
• Day After Tomorrow• Dante’s Peak• Volcano• The Core• Jurassic Park• Andromeda Strain
(don’t need to show whole movie – select a ~10-15 minute clip that exhibits facts & fiction and ask students to analyze)
Recognize different learning styles• Visual: pictures, diagrams, spatial understanding• Auditory: by sound, including music• Verbal: speech, reading, writing• Physical/kinesthetic: use of your body,
including hands & touch
• Also, “social” vs. “solitary” learning styles
Example – Kinesthetic Learning• Ekman
transport: A rotating column of water that forms when surface water moves at an angle to the wind direction due to Coriolis Effect.
Bring your personal experiences to the classroom• Where have you done fieldwork?• What inspires you?• What environmental issues keep you up at night?• Where have you traveled?• What is the societal relevance of your work?• What career path did you follow and what
experiences shaped that?
Presentation StylesWhat works best in a large classroom? (discuss!)
• Blackboard / whiteboard can be useful• Check to see if students in the back can see what you are writing!
• Mix of videos, slides, blackboard• Powerpoint - students write down everything
on your slides! • Post your powerpoints online (before class) • Post partial powerpoints online, students fill in what is missing • Post lecture outlines or main points online, • or ….post nothing!
With any of these techniques, it is a good idea to….
assign textbook/ reading ahead of time ask students to review vocabulary / conceptual ideas
as part of their reading (outside of class)
….then spend more time on activities, discussions, interpretation, analyses during your lecture
Consider a "flipped" classroom, where in-class time is as active and thoughtful as possible: http://www.knewton.com/flipped-classroom/
Presentation StylesWhat works best in a large classroom? (discuss!)
Assessment that is consistent with your engaging style…• In "large" classes, you can use a variety of techniques,
depending upon the # of students and how much TA support you have: • Multiple choice/ scantron • Online quizzes/tests • Short answer / short essay • Fill in the blank • Matching (vocabulary) • Diagrams that you've used in class - fill in blank or
interpretation
• Familiarize yourself with Bloom's Taxonomy, and aim for students to be working at the "top" of the pyramid in class, and in your exams, as much as possible
• Consider collaborative exams!
Final Words
• Be flexible and adaptable• Not everything will work: failures can be learning
experience• The literature is clear: students learn more
when they are actively engaged in their learning.
Again, visit http://serc.carleton.edu/introgeo/interactive/index.html(or http://serc.carleton.edu/ in general)
Materials were adapted and modified from Randy Richardson, Michael Wysession, Andrew Goodliffee, and Robert Rhew