Now that you have put your knowledge of communicating in the classroom to the test, try your hand at these learning activities.
A1 — Whenever you feel that delivering a traditional lecture is your only option, engage in the following creativity exercise. First, make sure you have defined your learning outcomes. Then, imagine that a new law prohibits lecturing entirely. Come up with at least five different strategies for achieving your learning outcomes with your students, however wild these strategies may seem: Do not worry just yet about their practical feasibility. Once you have listed all of them, think about how realistic they are, given your constraints; think about how you might adapt them to make them more feasible.
A2 — For sessions with a reasonably small group (25 or less), choose a learning outcome and design a game that will help students achieve it. It can be a board game, a role-playing game, or a television-like game, and it can be played individually or in teams, as long as it is well-defined, competitive (there must be a winner), and fun. As in the previous activity, start without constraints and progressively refine your ideas until you arrive at something realistic. Finally, try your game during a session and collect student feedback about it. Moreover, evaluate for yourself whether the game allowed students to achieve the corresponding learning outcome.
A3 — Brainstorm with yourself different ways to increase student motivation or reward student participation. For example, if you are running activities in subgroups, you could develop intergroup contests. Still, instead of rewarding the fastest or best solutions, which may discourage slower students, list other outcomes you could reward: the most neatly presented lab report, the shortest (as opposed to the fastest) solution to a problem, the most creative graphical presentation of the solution, etc. Consider actual, if symbolic, rewards: a candy bar, small amounts of extra credit, etc. If you choose to purchase rewards, such as candy bars, research possible financing from your professor, from student organizations, from teaching initiatives, etc.
A4 — Think of a classroom with mobile tables and chairs, ideally one that you use often, and imagine all the different ways you could rearrange this room. Think of how you could arrange the tables and chairs present in the room. Next, include scenarios with fewer tables (no tables at all, just one table, two tables, and so on). Consider the advantages and drawbacks of the various arrangements you imagine; in particular, think of where students' gazes would converge (on the blackboard, in the center of the group or subgroup, etc.). Do not worry at first about the rearrangements being feasible or acceptable: Have fun with the creative process. In the end, select the two or three more promising arrangements in terms of achieving the learning outcomes, assess their feasibility (for example, think of where you would put the tables you do not need), and try them out. As with other classroom initiatives, evaluate these new arrangements.
A5 — If you have developed an original classroom approach as suggested above (an alternative to lecturing, a game, a reward system, a classroom setup), search for ways to give it visibility. How can you share it with other instructors? Can you enter it in a contest for teaching initiatives, as sponsored by your department, your school, or your local center for teaching and learning?
Unit 6: Communicating in the Classroom
