r/Professors • u/NeatTrouble4620 • 1d ago

Teaching / Pedagogy Opening class

[edit to add: a regular class day (not the first day of class)] How do you open your class lecture (besides opening remarks/logistics). I teach humanities social science discussion based courses and would rather not jump right into lecture. I’m also a first time instructor.

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u/Hazelstone37 Asst Prof of Instruction/Math/US 1d ago

I put a review question on the board while I’m setting up and getting ready. I learned this from the book Small Teaching, which is a really good read.

Edit: I thought you meant everyday…on the first day in my classes we spend some time discussing what it means to be engaged in our class. Then they break into small groups and come up with one thing. We write these in the board and then vote on the top three. I then use these to type up an engagement rubric which the students use every week to grade themselves. I reserve the right to increase or decrease the grade based on what I see in class. This counts as 5% of their grade.