Lose the Lecture and Find Your Flow: Get Students Doing More of the Learning

Sometimes you need to tell students something. But when direct instruction becomes the default, teachers do most of the work while students simply watch. This fast-paced session explores practical ways to break up the lecture and get students thinking, talking, creating, and moving while protecting the rigor your lessons require. You will learn to recognize when direct instruction is useful and when students should take on more of the intellectual work. Through interactive demonstrations, you will experience simple structures for discussion, retrieval, collaboration, movement, creation, and reflection that can replace or break up extended teacher talk. You will leave with a practical framework for examining an existing lesson, spotting opportunities to shift ownership to students, and making small changes that create a more active learning experience without sacrificing clarity, content, or rigor, and without throwing your slide deck in the trash.