I lecture in my classroom. I know, lecturing is out. It’s like the lowest form of teaching if I remember correctly from my many education classes at St. Cloud State. However, sometimes I find there is no way around it. I find that I cannot come up with a better mode for students to learn this information. When I do this, I often feel like the teacher from the most beloved film Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Literally the most boring teacher on the planet. But he’s not the most boring teacher on the planet. I am. When I lecture, I am.
While I am not actually this boring (hopefully), I find that lecturing is boring, but I am not sure how else to give my students the information. For instance, my writing class goes over many facets of writing conventions (punctuation, sentence errors, etc.). I have really debated how to give my students this information. How do I give them the information in a way that ensures they all get the correct information and understand it without lecturing?
My favorite way to lecture is with whiteboard notes. (Again, I know this is so old fashioned.) I find that writing on the whiteboard while my students are taking notes makes me more engaging and keeps my students engaged also. I also find that writing on the whiteboard allows for me to be spontaneous, taking into consideration the questions and suggestions from my students to create my whiteboard notes. I also love whiteboard notes because my students have to write everything down. Yes, they copy the notes I put on the whiteboard because writing is a form of studying. (I have talked about this on my blog before, but it’s so true.)
In the beginning of my teaching career, I had students take notes via Powerpoint. I do believe whiteboard notes are more interesting than Powerpoint notes, but now digital lectures have really come a long way. Powerpoint is of the past. The new things are Prezi and things like Nearpod. Prezi, while much like a Powerpoint, is a little more creative with the paths and images created. Nearpod, however, allows teachers to stop the lecture to check for understanding with questions and polls. Finally, there are websites that allow students to have an online discussion while lectures are happening. This gives students an opportunity to ask questions and give comments without interrupting the lecture or feeling self-conscious about asking a question. (Here is an example of that.)
What do other educators do to get students the notes though? Are there other lecturers like myself? Or is everyone more fun than me?
Umm. I wouldn’t say that lecturing is out. For me, it’s simply become one of the methods used in the classroom. It’s actually made for learners who are abstract, reflective learners. But for students who are concrete or active learners, it doesn’t work as well. (I’m a concrete learner, but I process information reflectively.) Anyway, my sense is that we need to use different methods so that we attend to the learning styles of all our students, so that they’re comfortable sometimes and stretching their skills sets at other times.
Having said that, lecturing can be modified a bit. The past four years when I’ve taught _The Hobbit_ to high risk students, I invited Dr. Glenn Davis, a medievalist, into class the first day to talk about Tolkien and fantasy. He’s a brilliant lecturer—knows how to use PowerPoint and highlighting to help students read more closely and also integrates classroom participation into the lecture. Every time he’s come in, he knows many if not most of the student names by the end of the 50-minute session, which is amazing to me. They also love the lectures.
So I would do two things, I guess:
1. mix lecture with other things
2. include some sort of participatory elements in the lecture, even if they’re short.