GETTING STARTED:

Supporting Materials and Equipment

Carefully planned supporting materials can provide valuable visual aids to enhance the effectiveness of your teaching in a number of ways. They can:

• Provide visual focus and reinforcement for oral presentations and discussions of material.
• Allow students to observe phenomena that would otherwise be inaccessible.
• Increase the interest level of the class.

Common Ways to Convey Information Visually:

The marker board

Board work is generally most useful for situations where you want to make the "big picture" available to students. (For example, board work is helpful when you want to work out two different problems with the class in order to compare them; when you ask six students to the board to write out sentences in French; or when you highlight key points that students are making in a large group discussion. In other cases, the overhead projector (see below) may be more appropriate. Some tips on using the marker board include:

• Plan your board work before class. Determine the major elements of your presentation and consider how you could place them on the board for logical visual presentation.
• As you use the board, work from left to right, top to bottom, so that students can easily follow your visual presentation.
• Highlight and clarify through underlining, labeling, circling, or using different colored chalk. Keep diagrams near their written description and label carefully. When solving equations, show each step in a logical sequence and circle major steps and answers.
• Write neatly and large enough so that students can read your writing from the back of the room.
• Avoid blocking the board. Once you have finished writing, stand to one side to minimize visual blocking.
• Avoid talking to the board. After you write on the board, turn to face your students before speaking.
• At the end of your class, take a moment to stand in the back of the classroom and check the board. Can you reconstruct your lecture from what is written? Could students read your writing? Are diagrams labeled?

The overhead projector

One of the major advantages of using an overhead projector is that while you write, you continue to face your audience. Writing on the overhead usually takes less time than writing on the board, and it also enables you to use typed or printed material. Hints for using the overhead include:

• Face the students. The only time you should look at the screen is to check for focusing, visibility, and placement of materials.
• Prepare transparencies of complex diagrams ahead of time. You may even use several transparencies to overlay one another.
• Using paper to block out portions of transparency can be distracting; instead, use several prepared transparencies with less material on each.
• Project silhouettes of animals, plants, or objects when shape is important. Use different color pens to augment transparencies if appropriate.
• Give students enough time to view and copy material from overheads.
• Move away from the overhead whenever possible, but avoid blocking the light.
• Make sure you use overhead projector pens - obtainable from your department secretary or the University Book Store, and of course, write legibly and large enough to be seen in the back of the room.

Films and other recorded media

Films and other recorded media such as videotapes and audiotapes add variety and vividness to presentations of course material.

• Provide enough context for students to understand clearly the content of the film or tape.
• Explain to students its pertinence to the course.
• Think about generating study questions to guide students as they watch or listen. Afterwards, ask them to discuss their answers or respond in writing.

Slides

Slides (using a slide projector) can be the most effective and efficient way of presenting material with a strong visual component, such as ancient sculpture or protective coloration in caterpillars.

• Provide variety. Intersperse slides of graphs and tables with photographs of the organism, the building, or the place you are describing.
• Show for a short time.
• Consider using graphs and diagrams instead of tables. Graphs are often easier to read and have greater impact than tables when you are discussing relationships or results.
• Provide idea slides/summary slides. These will maintain organization and refocus student attention on the goal of your presentation.
• Keep each slide simple. Viewing time is short so only one major idea should be presented at a time.
• Once a slide has been used and you are moving on to another point or subject, change the slide. Slides that are unrelated to your discussion are distracting. Use blanks (blackouts) if you do not have an appropriate slide. If you must refer to the same slide twice at different times, have two copies of the slide to avoid going backwards.
• Use an electric pointer whenever possible to emphasize details of interest on the slide. Both your arm and a manual pointer will be lost in the projected image.