Alternatives to Lecture

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Think about your last few classes. How much time did you spend lecturing to your students? How much of what you said did they actually hear? We often slip into "lecture mode" because it seems like a quick and easy way to get the information we are required to teach into our students' minds. If students could effectively learn information just from lecturing, that's all we would have to do everyday. Unfortunately, we remember only about 20 percent of what we hear. So we need to come up with alternatives to lecture.

There are many ways to learn information that can make your classroom a more inviting, engaging, and educational place for you and your students to spend time learning together. These alternatives don’t require a big investment of your time, money, or preparation. Keep reading to get ideas for ALTERNATIVES TO LECTURE.

TIPS: ALTERNATIVES TO LECTURE

1. SIMULATIONS

Instead of giving students a lecture about a topic, let your students work out the information on their own through simulations. Simulations are effective learning experiences because they are natural extensions of the primary way in which students have gathered information all their lives – through their daily experiences and their play. They have played house, pretended to drive a car, or acted out a battle.

When planning a simulation, describe a scenario, provide the means by which the students can find the information they need, and let the students act out the situation. Through simulation, we can add to students' prior experiences and even orchestrate a desired outcome. The more planning and creative input provided by the teacher, the greater the possible growth by students.

Here are some suggestions for subjects about which you can arrange simulations to impart information and stimulate learning:

• Preserving Land — Students act as community members working to save a parcel of land as open space for recreation. The simulation begins when students learn the city plans to sell a parcel of empty land to a developer for a new commercial building. The land happens to be used by many community groups for picnics, sporting events, etc., even though it is not officially designated as a park. The students represent the interests of community members who want to preserve it for recreational use. In this simulation, students take on many roles to fight for their cause. This simulation allows students to explore concepts of land use, local government policy, law, negotiations, and social sciences, as well as practice skills in cooperation, speaking and interaction.
  
  
• Hurricane Watch — In this simulation, students predict the time at which a hurricane will arrive at a certain location. A large map is displayed that includes a longitude and latitude grid. Students use a smaller version of this map. They are given the speed and direction of the hurricane. Maps of the wind systems and ocean currents are used to alert boats in the area that they must move to a safe area. The problem posed is, "How can all the boats make it in time? What needs to be done?" This simulation prompts students to learn information about hurricanes, ocean and wind patterns, calculating weather patterns, and map reading, and helps them practice skills in decision-making, problem-solving, and creativity.

2. COMPARING THREE ITEMS

One of the most fundamental ways that students learn about something new is by comparing it to something that is already known. You can have them find and share similarities between and differences among something that is known and something that is new. When students come up with this information on their own, you do not need to provide a lecture about it.

This activity encourages students to compare and analyze. The small group format allows you an opportunity to create a student-centered classroom rather than a teacher-centered classroom.

Put three similar items into several sandwich baggies (e.g., three pencils, two of which don't have erasers and have blue lead could be in one baggie, handwritten note cards with two verbs and one noun could be in another baggie, two pictures of conifer trees and one picture of a deciduous tree could be in another, etc.)

Put students in small groups and give each group a baggie. Instruct them to find as many similarities and/or differences as they can and explain those differences. Or you can come up with specific questions to guide discussion as students handle the objects.

3. DYADIC ENCOUNTERS

Instead of leading a discussion, encourage your students to have a discussion in pairs.

Stage a dyadic encounter in pairs. Provide handouts with multiple questions ("What do you think the most pressing problem in our world is today?" "What is one way we as a country can address that problem?") or sentence stems ("The character in the novel who is most like me is…" "Things would have turned out differently at the end if that character had…"). Put students in pairs and allow each student to respond to the questions or sentence stems you pose. Students are encouraged to ask further questions to clarify each other's opinions and ideas. Dyadic encounters stimulate thought about a certain topic. Students may successfully come up with paper topics, ideas for journaling, or even just clarify their own thinking during a dyadic encounter.

4. COOPERATIVE LEARNING PACKETS

Cooperative learning lends itself to many activities that can be used in place of lectures. Having students create cooperative learning packets is a unique way to impart information in a way that allows your students to interact with and find the information about which you normally would have lectured.

Prepare written information about a topic, such as descriptions of the 13 original colonies. Divide students into 13 groups and ask them to each pick a colony that their group will represent. (Make sure all colonies are picked, and no groups have duplicated a colony). Instruct each group to read the data on all the colonies, and then think of items they can use as clues that will reveal some piece of information about their chosen colony that makes it different from the other colonies. You can bring in items from which they can choose, they can make items themselves, and they can use items they already have in their desks or around the room. Give each group a baggie in which to accumulate the items.

Ask each group to write on a sheet of paper 1) what each clue is, 2) what each clue represents, and 3) their reasons for choosing each item.

When all groups finish, have each group present their clues for the class to determine which colony each collection of clues represents.

Here are some other topics cooperative learning packets could be used for:

• Biology: marine or plant species identification
• History: famous battles, or historical figures
• Chemistry: compound or element identification
• English: characters in a novel

For additional ideas, see "Taking It Further."

Sources: The above Alternatives to Lecture are based on PLS's graduate course Meaningful Activities to Generate Interesting Classrooms® and Ronald L. Partin's book, Classroom Teacher's Survival Guide.

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