Thats Not a Large Class Its a Small Town1

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Thats Not a Large ClassIts a Small Town!1
Lee Seidel, Teaching Excellence Program Laurie
Trufant, Instructional Development
Center University of Hampshire
1Lynda G. Cleveland, Thats Not a Large Class
Its a Small Town How Do I Manage? in Stanley
and Porter, Engaging Large Classes (Bolton, MA
Anker Pub., 2002).
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Our objectives

• List challenges of teaching large classes
• Identify useful teaching models
• Name simple technology-based strategies
• Share faculty experiences at UNH

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Teaching LARGE Classes

• What is large?
• What are the implications?

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Attention Span
Attention
Class Duration
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Questions

• What are 3 primary implications of a LARGE
  class?

• From a teaching perspective

• From a learning perspective

• What can you do to address these implications?

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Small group activity

• Work in pairs

• List challenges

• Share ideas

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Assignment

• Structured note-taking

Fill in key words and concepts

• Study quiz

Within 24 hours, take the Blackboard study quiz

• Feedback in class

Address unclear points and unresolved issues in
class
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Best practices???

• Lets consider some data

• Question 14

• Question 5

• Lets practice what we preach

• Dealing with large

• Active learning

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Question 5 Fall 02/03
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Dealing with LARGE

• Shulmans model of college teaching

• The classroom as theatre

• Rules and Roles Norms and Customs

• On being a good citizen

• Presenting material effectively???

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Active learning approaches

• The professor as human highlighter

• Using in-class writing

• Critical questions and concepts
• Problems and predictions
• Construct an example of

• Questions as opportunities

• Be an ACTIVE presence (Murray)

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Projecting an active presence

• Be enthusiasticeven as an act

• Use vocal variation, movement, and gestures

• Use concrete examples and questions

• Introduce intended repetition

• Follow a road map

• Use a Classroom Assessment Technique (CAT)

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Blackboard Study Quiz

• Reinforce concepts and keywords

• Give students out-of-class feedback

• Create opportunities for in-class follow-up

• Create opportunities for small-group work

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Blackboard Grade book

• Gauge general comprehension

• Create opportunities to adapt content

• Create opportunities for in-class follow-up

• Place a graded value on class participation

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Homework

• Log into Blackboard and answer the following
• question

List all the strategies, techniques, and tools
you can remember from today's presentation that
can help you teach large classes more
effectively. Choose the one you think would be
most effective in your own classes and explain
why.

• Each discussion topic counts as 2 points
• toward your final grade

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Our objectives today

• List challenges of large classes
• Small-group exercise
• Identify useful teaching strategies
• Study quiz
• Name simple technology-based strategies
• Discussion board
• Share faculty experiences at UNH
• Panel

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The payoff
A teaching environment that turns your small
town into a cooperative learning community built
on clear expectations, trust, and shared
objectives.