Why School Should Focus on Engagement Instead of Lectures. Each school day, millions of students move in unison from classroom to classroom where they listen to 50- to 90-minute lectures.
Despite there being anywhere from 20 to 300 humans in the room, there is little actual interaction. This model of education is so commonplace that we have accepted it as a given. For centuries, it has been the most economical way to “educate” a large number of students. Today, however, we know about the limitations of the class lecture, so why does it remain the most common format? Are They Getting It? 4 No Stress Methods for Assessing Reading Comprehension in Your ESL Classroom. 3 Most Essential Reading Skills Your Students Need. 10 Ways of Using Discussion Questions in Your ESL Class. I’ve now uploaded quite a few topic-specific discussion questions and, for some topics, some other online and downloadable resources I’ve found to be useful. Here are 10 ways you can use the discussion questions in your classes: divide your class into groups of 5 and stick them around your classroom, then put your students in small groups and invite them to walk around discussing their answers to the questions.
For some reason, this generally makes people talk longer.