next »

[hiddendragon]

Hi, everyone.  I've been gone for nearly a year so it's good to be back, but I apologize that my first post back is a question asking for your ideas.  Anyway, hope all is well with everyone.

I have this class that only enrolled about 20 students last spring.  So, as i re-prep the same class for this semester, I was expecting about 20 students.  Surprise, surprise!  I have 60 plus students and a reader/grader to toll along.  Because I had expected a small class, I designed my syllabus to have lots of discussions (15% of grade).  Now, I'm stuck with some 60 students in a lecture hall that is not conducive to discussions--seats are nailed to the floor and run from left to right in rows so students can't easily get up and move around to be with groups.  Moreover, if I assigned groups of 5, that's some 12 groups to monitor.  Whew!  I would really appreciate any ideas on how I should proceed with discussions.  I want discussions to be productive and not merely a gesture.  Help please.

[mountainguy]

Given the enrollment size and physical limitations of the room, I think you're going to find it hard to get all-class discussions going. The two options that I can envision:

1) Have students post weekly to an online discussion board. This hasn't worked terribly well for some instructors (interthreaduality), but one of my colleagues swears by it. And since you have a reader/grader, that would help to make the grading more manageable.

2) Another option is to a fishbowl-style discussion, where students have to participate in a graded discussion once or twice during the semester about some pre-assigned topic. Traditionally, it's called a "fishbowl" because the student desks are arranged semi-circles, but I've heard some instructors simply having students sit in the first row of the room when it's their turn. To keep it relevant to the rest of the class, non-discussing students have to do a worksheet evaluating the discussion or contribute written questions on a 3x5 index card as the discussion progresses.

[corny]

Can you have them do some of the group work in pairs instead? Obviously you *really* wouldn't be able to check on each group then, but you could give them five or ten minutes to do things in pairs and then call on a few to talk about the results of their discussion. I've done this before in big lectures with fixed seating of the kind you describe.

[spyzowin]

Hi, everyone.  I've been gone for nearly a year so it's good to be back, but I apologize that my first post back is a question asking for your ideas.  Anyway, hope all is well with everyone.

I have this class that only enrolled about 20 students last spring.  So, as i re-prep the same class for this semester, I was expecting about 20 students.  Surprise, surprise!  I have 60 plus students and a reader/grader to toll along.  Because I had expected a small class, I designed my syllabus to have lots of discussions (15% of grade).  Now, I'm stuck with some 60 students in a lecture hall that is not conducive to discussions--seats are nailed to the floor and run from left to right in rows so students can't easily get up and move around to be with groups.  Moreover, if I assigned groups of 5, that's some 12 groups to monitor.  Whew!  I would really appreciate any ideas on how I should proceed with discussions.  I want discussions to be productive and not merely a gesture.  Help please.

why would you award *any* points for participation? what is this? grade school?  If you have 60 students, you should be lecturing.

that's the problem with people used to breaking students into groups, or teams, or having discussion time... they've lost the ability to lecture properly.

[mountainguy]

why would you award *any* points for participation? what is this? grade school?  If you have 60 students, you should be lecturing.

that's the problem with people used to breaking students into groups, or teams, or having discussion time... they've lost the ability to lecture properly.

While I agree that lectures have their place in the academy, it is one of several teaching methods. They work better in some situations than others. Depending upon course goals, other instructional methods may be more appropriate. YMMV.

[melba_frilkins]

Hi, everyone.  I've been gone for nearly a year so it's good to be back, but I apologize that my first post back is a question asking for your ideas.  Anyway, hope all is well with everyone.

I have this class that only enrolled about 20 students last spring.  So, as i re-prep the same class for this semester, I was expecting about 20 students.  Surprise, surprise!  I have 60 plus students and a reader/grader to toll along.  Because I had expected a small class, I designed my syllabus to have lots of discussions (15% of grade).  Now, I'm stuck with some 60 students in a lecture hall that is not conducive to discussions--seats are nailed to the floor and run from left to right in rows so students can't easily get up and move around to be with groups.  Moreover, if I assigned groups of 5, that's some 12 groups to monitor.  Whew!  I would really appreciate any ideas on how I should proceed with discussions.  I want discussions to be productive and not merely a gesture.  Help please.

why would you award *any* points for participation? what is this? grade school?  If you have 60 students, you should be lecturing.

that's the problem with people used to breaking students into groups, or teams, or having discussion time... they've lost the ability to lecture properly.

OP was expecting 20 not 60.

To the OP: I teach sections of 50 and sometimes have them do small group work, turning in in-class writing as a product of their work. Guess that's a chime on Corny and Mountain Guy. You might also consider just eliminating that discussion grade and re-working your grade scale. But it would depend on your campus/student culture whether you could get away with that kind of change to the syllabus. I know I could do it (especially because my syllabus says "subject to change..."), however others on this forum seem to be at places where you have to stick to your published syllabus hard and fast.

[dr_alcott]

[To keep it relevant to the rest of the class, non-discussing students have to do a worksheet evaluating the discussion or contribute written questions on a 3x5 index card as the discussion progresses.
[/quote]

Another idea about index cards: have students prepare discussion questions on index cards that you'll collect at the beginning of class. Make students accountable for turning in a certain number of questions by a certain deadline. This works only if you're specific about different kinds of questions (factual, interpretive, etc.) and if you explain what type of questions you want. Ideally their questions will reflect real engagement with the material (and it will show them how hard it can be do frame good questions).

Or maybe small groups could work together to create questions that you can then address in your lecture.

[grasshopper]

I regularly have large classes do discussion. Break down into small groups (with chairs nailed to the floor, groups of 3-4 work best) , with one person recording the main points of their group's discussion. I leave about 15 minutes for groups to report to the class on the results of their discussion. At the end of the class, I collect the group's discussion reports, and give everyone whose name is listed on the sheet a little participation tick. You might not be able to monitor the entire class, of course, but it can still be a useful exercise.

[imawakenow]

I regularly have large classes do discussion. Break down into small groups (with chairs nailed to the floor, groups of 3-4 work best) , with one person recording the main points of their group's discussion. I leave about 15 minutes for groups to report to the class on the results of their discussion. At the end of the class, I collect the group's discussion reports, and give everyone whose name is listed on the sheet a little participation tick. You might not be able to monitor the entire class, of course, but it can still be a useful exercise.

Same here. I also sometimes cut the presentations to only 1-2, if there is other material I want to cover.

A variation is to have the discussions in groups of 2-3 and then to have each student write a short response to a question, which you then grade as "participation."

[porcupine]

You can also have the students help with the problem of monitoring discussion. Break the discussion into stages, e.g. for a class of 60:

1. Groups of 3-4 discuss question X and develop a conclusion/response (20 groups);
2. Each group shares the fruits of their discussion with another group (10 groups);
3. The groups agree on a combined conclusion/response to question X;
4. The 2 groups agree on a reporter for both groups;
5. Each reporter presents the conclusion/response back to class (10 reporters).

If you divide them between e.g. 5 different questions, then you get 2 reports per question. The reports are genuinely informative for those who did not discuss particular questions themselves and you can correct any factual errors during/after presentations.

[dentontrue2]

My class enrollment is capped at 60. One of the things I do often is have them do "one-minute papers". I have a question on the screen in big letters, sometimes with a work of art (I'm an art historian). I tell them to take out a sheet of paper and address the question; I also say "and I want to see everyone writing." Walk around the class a couple of times, then go to the whiteboard with a marker. Ask people to speak. Wait until the silence becomes unbearable. Someone will speak. Or I pick on a few people. Always make sure to write their ideas on the board, organizing them as need be, asking for clarification as need be. Never erase the board when students are in the room (wait until they leave).

I recommend a book where I learned about this strategy: Teaching Large Classes by Allan Gedalof, part of the Green Guides series. Full of practical information.

Good luck.

[systeme_d_]

I'll be teaching a class like this in the fall, so I am posting as a bookmark.

My thanks to the forumites who have already posted.

[spyzowin]

I routinely teach courses capped at 55. I do some of the things mentioned above, especially the write-then-contribute process.

But beyond that, I ask questions. Then I wait for someone to answer, and someone always does. I start with pretty basic things, just to get people to speak. I return credit for a strong answer to the student (as Jennifer suggested...) and even in the event of an odd, off-topic offering, I try like heck to find a way to reinforce something.

After a week or so, students see that I'm not waiting to pounce and devour them whole during class discussion. Some students will never speak in a room that large. But others will, given some encouragement. This means putting up with some meandering and sometimes weird responses. The payoff is usually worth it.

When I was in grad school, I TA'd for a professor who could coax good talk out of a lecture hall jammed with 300 students. He asked good questions, and provided good build-up to those questions. He was genuinely interested in what his students had to say.

I don't delude myself that my questions are that good, but I know it can be done.

and were the other 299 students interested in what that 1 student had to say? to me, if the room has 300 students, the subject matter is probably fairly introductory, and class discussions are utterly meaningless. Just lecture.

[new_bus_prof]

-Think-Pair-Share/Convince a Neighbor or Stranger
-Games
-Activity Sheets
-Response Writing
-Fishbowl/Question Cards
-Half-Half/ Debate/Pro-Con/ Agree-Disagree
-To the Board...Pass the marker
-Clicker/Card/Quiz Questioning
-Elevator Pitch/Impromptu 3 min
-Presentations
-Stressball/ Beachball/ On the Spot
-Notetaker...
That's just some of the things I can think of off the top of my head.

But, by all means use name cards. It will make your life easier.

[post_functional]

The best class I ever had was a constitutional law class with about 200 students in it--- discussion oriented.  It can work.  It helps to have an auditorium-like classroom where the prof can see everyone.