Re: reviewing for Students

["John S. Denker" <jsd@MONMOUTH.COM>]

Tina Fanetti wrote:
> ...  Asked them if they had any questions ...  Nothing.
> So my class lasted an entire 8 minutes.

Students aren't responsible for the syllabus and lesson
plan.  The teacher is.

Here's how I do it:  At the start of each lesson, I say:
        "I've got in mind some things that we might
        work on... but first let me ask if you have
        any questions left over from last time, or
        from your reading, or anything you would
        particularly like to work on."

Note that I don't ask them what they want to work on until
_after_ I have said that I've got some things in mind.  Reason:
once-upon-a-time I unwisely tried it the other way, and it
was suboptimal.  It put the students on the spot.  They would
sit there and squirm trying to come up with a half-baked answer
to a question they weren't expecting.

Of course after about the third lesson they _are_ expecting
it, so they sometimes show up with little lists of questions.....

But I'm certainly prepared for the possibility that they don't
have more than a few minutes worth of questions.  There's a
lesson plan ready to go.

Here's a standard scheme for a review session:
Presumably you know from grading papers what areas they're
weak on.  So pick a problem in that area and do it on the
board.

===

On a related topic:  It's a good practice to keep in the back of
your head a few "backup lesson plans".  Here's the scenario:
Imagine that you might be called in (on ten seconds' notice) as
a substitute instructor for some students you've never seen before.
You want to be able to immediately pull the trigger on the
backup lesson plan.