Classsroom Procedures for Showing videos and Guest speakers

Videos, internet, dvd's, movies ...

Purpose to assist with bringing a vividness or reality you cannot bring from conventional lessons.

Guidelines:

Procedures for Movies and Videos

If you spend more time showing videos than actually teaching, that is a misuse of videos. A few simple cautions can help guide the use of videos in class.

  1. The video must be relevant to an objective within the curriculum.
  2. View it in its entirety before showing it to students. If you can't view it, don't show it.
  3. Teach the behavior for viewing a movie. Consider what behaviors are important for students to exhibit if we are to get the most out of watching this video. While remaining quiet, staying awake, taking notes may seem like the common sense thing to do, don't assume that your students have the same expectations that you have with respect to video viewing behavior. Remember, any specific behavior you want, you must teach
  4. Give students a specific task to do while viewing the video, such as taking notes by using a note-taking framework with specific questions that follow the sequence of that video.
  5. Another effective video viewing strategy is to remember the following ideas that result from memory research. Students at the elementary level can handle 5 to 7 minutes of a video before they shut down. Students at the secondary level can handle up 10 to 12 minutes of a video. In order to avoid losing student focus during a video, you should stop after that duration (5 to 7 minutes for elementary and I 0 to 12 minutes for secondary) and have the students do something using what they have seen/learned.
  6. Asking students to share the information that they have written in their video note-taking framework for specific questions is one proven strategy to keep students engaged for the full duration of the video. If you are working with adults, it is helpful to know that most adults can handle 20 minutes of video viewing before losing focus.
  7. Finally, it is important that you do a Closure activity at the end of the video to assist students in focusing on important information presented in the video.

Using these strategies is not only indicative of good teaching, but they ensure focus, retention, and enhance the rate and degree of learning

Guest speakers

Purpose to bring a vividness or reality you cannot bring with conventional lessons.

Guidelines

Procedures for Guest Speakers

Guest speakers can bring a vividness or reality to the classroom that you cannot bring. A guest offers several benefits for you and your students if the speaker has expertise in areas where you do not. Then, the guest can speak with greater authority, reinforcing the information you have already provided your students. The guest speaker can share personal and professional insights of benefit to the students and you. She can inspire and motivate students to embark on more elaborate examinations of that topic or profession.

With these benefits in mind, consider the following.

  1. Make sure the guest speaker's information is relevant to an objective in the curriculum.
  2. Teach the behavior your students need to properly interact with a guest speaker.
  3. Visit with the guest before the appearance to discuss the following important areas.
    • What is the speaker's understanding of why she/he has been invited?
    • What does he/she specifically plan to say?
    • What materials, if any, does she/he plan to use?
    • Work out any discrepancies in content, delivery method, philosophy, connection to your objectives beforehand.
  4. Teachers should never leave students alone with a guest. Teachers need to be present at all times with their students: it's the law.
  5. Never be discourteous to the guest. You and your students are representing the school to the public. Therefore, it is important that even if you disagree with something the guest says or does, you must remain courteous. Keep in mind that every community has undesirable people with an agenda other than ours, or the schools. That is precisely why we must meet with a guest speaker in person beforehand to detarmine any questionable ideas or topics that could be infused in the guest's comments or materials. Remember, the students are a captive audience and we cannot let the guest prey on the students' physical, emotional, psychological, social, sexual or spiritual needs. If a guest is inappropriate, says or does inappropriate things, stop the activity immediately and remove the guest from the setting. If a guest says: "what I'm going to be talking about is personal and private, so to get the students to open up, I'd like you, the teacher, to not be present." Your reply must be, "Teachers need to be present at all times with their students."

 

Dr. Robert Sweetland's notes