Using a Lecture Format Effectively in High School

Purpose: To use direct instruction effectively

Joyce Poetics Lade, University of Nebraska, Lincoln

Materials: Your lecture notes, visual aids, pretest handouts

Procedure:

1. Greet students at the door when they enter the classroom.
   
   
2. Start the class on time.
   
   
3. Make a grand stage entrance to hush a large class and gain attention.
   
   
4. Have students write out their expectations for the class and their own goals for learning.
   
   
5. Give a pretest on the day’s topic.
   
   
6. Start the lecture with a puzzle, question, paradox, picture, or cartoon on slide or transparency to focus on the day’s topic.
   
   
7. Elicit student questions and concerns at the beginning of the class and list these on the chalkboard to be answered during the hour.
   
   
8. Have students write down what they think the important issues or key points of the day’s lecture will be.
   
   
9. Stage a figurative “coffee break” about twenty minutes into the hour; tell an anecdote, invite students to putdown pens and pencils, refer to a current event shift media.