Lecturing

Delivering a Lecture, by Barbara Gross Davis, is an excellent resource for learning how to lecture well. Davis says:

Lecturing is not simply a matter of standing in front of a class and reciting what you know. The classroom lecture is a special form of communication in which voice, gesture, movement, facial expression, and eye contact can either complement or detract from the content. No matter what your topic, your delivery and manner of speaking immeasurably influence your students' attentiveness and learning. Use the following suggestions, based on teaching practices of faculty and on research studies in speech communication, to help you capture and hold students' interest and increase their retention.

The "Change-Up" in Lectures is an interesting article by Joan Middendorf & Alan Kalish that provides practical strategies for breaking up lectures with activities that foster active and collaborative learning. They say:

When you plan your classes, you will want to decide how often to add a change-up and what activity to use. Use the 20 minute attention span as a rule of thumb: in a 50 minute class, use one change up in the middle; in a 75 minute class, use two change-ups, at roughly 1/3 and 2/3 of the way through the class period. But don't follow this slavishly; anything that becomes predictable will have less impact. Variety is a powerful force. Having a handful of activities you can use comfortably will keep the students guessing, wondering what you will do next.

Tips for Teachers: Twenty Ways to Make Lectures More Participatory, is a resource from The Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, Harvard University. An excerpt:

Asking for student participation highlights the distinction between faculty covering material and students learning it. ...students learn more material than in a traditional lecture course, because they truly grasp the fundamentals and have more chances to clear up confusion. Large numbers of students in class does not preclude interaction. The following list of ways to open up lectures to student participation have been used in classes of up to 1200 students, as well as in smaller groups.

Delivering Effective Lectures, by Rick Sullivan, Ph.D., and Noel McIntosh, M.D., discusses best lecturing techniques for medical education.

Preparing to Teach the Large Lecture Course, also by Davis, provides useful advice for teaching large classes.

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