LECTURES

Although teaching assistants’ responsibilities vary from department to department and from school to school, most first-year teaching assistants do a minimum of lecturing. We have left a more extensive discussion of lecturing for later in this handbook.

However, lecturing can be an integral part of teaching a lab or recitation. When you are introducing a role-playing exercise in a discussion section or preparing students to perform a laboratory experiment, you are giving a lecture. Here are some helpful suggestions.

Lecture Notes. Very few people lecture without notes. To do so risks forgetting important information and obscuring central themes. Although your notes should reflect your personal style (some people like detailed notes, others like a mere outline), avoid "writing out" your lecture since that encourages a straight reading which many people find boring and difficult to follow. Instead, use your notes to keep yourself focused on the important ideas that you need to convey and to maintain a logical order.

Tailor Your Content. Keep your audience in mind when preparing a lecture. Address information that will be useful to your students and explain difficult terms that they may not be familiar with. Slow your presentation when presenting points that may be confusing.

Eye Contact. Eye contact is an important form of communication because it makes students feel involved and can help you to gauge your students' reactions to the lecture.

Pace and Tempo. Varying your pace during a lecture helps to emphasize important ideas and to keep students engaged. Avoid rushing through notes in order to cover material. It is always better to skip minor points than to rush and have students miss important ideas. Decide ahead of time what material can be left out if time does not permit you to address it. (The reverse is also true. Prepare contingency material so that you have enough to fill-out your lecture.)

Use Gestures and Movement. Gesturing, moving away from the lectern and writing important points on the board break the tedium of the lecture and can help to keep students interested.

Interact with Your Students. Lecturing should not be a means of avoiding interaction. Interrupt yourself to explain points in more detail when students seem puzzled, ask your students questions, and invite them to interrupt you (if time permits) with questions.

Use Props. Use the chalkboard, slides, overheads and computers to help listeners to follow your lecture and to organize their notes. Consider putting an outline on the board before you speak or use an overhead to present difficult names or technical information. Use other audio-visual aids (slides or computers) to illustrate ideas and information that can only be fully grasped visually.
 

 For a more detailed guide to writing and presenting a lecture, see Chapter 10 on "Teaching Your Own Class." For more information on public speaking, check out this web guide.

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