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Showing posts from November, 2009

Favorite Discussion Tools

1) What questions do you have? The typical way of gauging whether your students are still with you, and prepared to move forward, is to ask "Any questions?" That's a yes or no question and in many cases students will simply answer 'no' to themselves and otherwise sit there silently. Instead, try "What questions do you have?" It presumes that students do have questions and puts the impetus on the students to identify the questions they actually have. 2) Silence The goal of the classroom experience is to engage students intellectually. If you're giving students something to think about, they're going to need time to think about it, too. Silence feels very awkward to the person standing up front but it's often barely noticed by the audience, especially if the silence is preceded by something worth thinking about. So after you make a point, take a long pause. If you ask students what questions they have, take a long pause to let them