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Collect Questions Ask the students for specific questions or topics that they want you to go over. Write the questions &/or topics on the board. Do not answer the questions as they are asked. Keep collecting questions until you have a reasonably long list. Once you have the list of questions/topics on the board, you can look at the list and decide what to do first. You can go over the questions in order of importance, or logical order, or the order they were covered in class. Do whatever seems sensible to you. As you cover each question, check it off the list. The first few times you do this, it will be very difficult to get the students to speak up. So be patient and give them plenty of time to come up with questions. Wait until you have a decent length list before you start answering the questions. (See topic 3 -- how to avoid passivity.) This method works best if you can look at the list and see instantly what topics need to be discussed. So be sure your list is self explanatory. If the student says "Do problem 5" don"t just write "#5" on the board -- add a few words so you and the students can remember what problem 5 is about. For example, write "#5 -- crossing over" or "#5 -- protein synthesis" or whatever. If the student asks a long question, you don't have to write it out word for word -- just write enough on the board so everyone can remember what the question is about. For example, you don't have to write "Why is the maximum value for recombination frequency 50%?" You can just write "Max RF" or "why RF < 50%?"  The Old Card Trick Ask each student to come to class with at least one question written on a 3 X 5 card. Collect the cards at the beginning of class and use the questions to organize the session. One way to proceed is to spend a few minutes reading the questions silently. Then you can write the good questions on the board, as above, or read them outloud. Another way to start is simply to shuffle the cards and read one out loud at random. Once you have picked the question(s) to go over, you can answer the questions yourself, or you can let the students answer each other's questions. Ask Them a Question Ask the students a question, preferably about an experimental situation. For example: Suppose you find a one foot black and white sphere in Riverside Park and you suspect it is a new organism. (a) If it really is alive and not an abandoned soccer ball, then is it more likely to be a prokaryote or a eukaryote? (b) How can you decide (experimentally) if your answer to (a) is correct? After you pose the question, you can then ask the students: (a) What do you know that's relevant to this question/situation? (b) What do you need to measure or find out? After you have discussed what information you need, you can then go over how to use the information to get the answer. This sort of exercise will reveal what level of knowledge the students have (what facts they know) and their level of insight (how good they are at applying the facts). It will also allow any confusions the students have to surface. Pair them Up This method works well if the teacher has assigned questions, but the students have not had time to go over them. In other words, this works even if the students are not prepared. Divide the students up into pairs or small groups and have each group go over the assigned questions and prepare an answer sheet for the entire group. (You can also do this by making up your own questions and handing them out.) Allow about 1/2 hr. minimum for the students to go over the questions. While they are working, you should walk around the room and listen to what they are saying. Don't sit up front and wait for them to come to you. If they are stuck, help them. If they are fooling around, prod them into getting down to work. If they have made mistakes, ask them leading questions. At the end, collect the answer sheets and go over any points that are still unclear. |
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