Reflections on Lecture

Gary and I had a chat today about one of the ways in which lecture works beautifully for students: as synthesis as well as presentation.

Gary proposes that one of the best uses of lecture is to make connections between concepts and information with which the students already have a passing familiarity. When time allows, Gary has found students benefit from encountering the basics of a new unit in section or small groups. This can be an especially rich way to work with primary sources: letters, speeches, newspaper articles. Listening to the lecture then becomes a satisfying experience of connecting the dots as well as gathering information. The students have a chance to see how their teachers are interpreting the complex information that primary sources have to offer.