Between The Lecture And The Discussion
I’m not against giving a lecture in class. Sometimes the information lends itself to lecture. I sometimes have to lecture briefly on formatting essays, for example.
I keep it short, however. I get them back in the driver’s seat constructing knowledge. Students are the ones that need to come up with the thesis. They’re the ones that have to come up with the topic. They’re the ones that have to discuss and present their ideas to the class. Even in those few moments that I lecture, I’m setting them up to construct their own knowledge.
My job is to come up with questions that help students construct knowledge. When they come up with thoughts to questions that challenge them to analyze, synthesize and evaluate what they don’t know that they know already, then they’ll never forget it. They made it, they’ll keep it. If I fill their heads with knowledge from a lecture, and every other teacher does that too, how much knowledge can stick?
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