How To Overload Students
Via Explorations in Learning: Powerpoint and Sage vs. Guide explores some thought provoking research around the use of powerpoint as an education tool…primarily what not to do with Powerpoint.
So if you want to overload your students, you simply should throw up some slides with lots of text, zero images, and read the slide text - word for word - to your class. I think you’ll be impressed with the effecient speed at which you can throw your student’s brains into flatline.
Nelson points to a fascinating article in the Sydney Morning Herald (I accessed it on May 13, 2007) entitled Research points the finger at PowerPoint.“…people don’t process the same information as effectively when it’s presented both verbally and in written form. With respect to Powerpoint, then, you don’t want to just read words off a slide.” (Nelson,Powerpoint and Sage vs. Guide )
If you use Powerpoint in your classroom, or in any other environment, you should take a peek at what this article has to say.
Some key points that I took away:
- Don’t read your powerpoint slides. Speak about them.
- Don’t speak and have audience read at the same time. (Maybe this goes against typical ESL classroom practice of having students read text out loud - what do you think? Are we overloading when we do this? very often Students say that they either focus on correct pronunciation to the expense of understanding what they are reading, perhaps this is explained by the overloading idea?? To fix this, we could just ask students to read silently and then talk about what they read?
- Give students the answers - reduces “memory load” and promotes learning. Grammar rules: I wonder if this would mean showing sentences with the grammar rule in action, and invite students to notice it??
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Hi, I’m a reading teacher who recently discovered your great blog. Regarding your question about the effectiveness of ESL students reading out loud, research has shown that reading out loud has countless benefits as long as the student is given time to read silently to themselves several times first. Reading silently, they can focus on comprehension, and then work on pronunciation when they read aloud. Hope this helps!
Comment by luv_bug — May 14, 2007 @ 2:10 pm
That is a great comment! Thanks for the idea around reading silently first a few times, and then outloud. You wouldn’t have any links about this, would you? And what about longer articles? Works the same? Or would you suggest reading blocks at a time?
Thanks for your help!
Comment by Aaron Nelson — May 14, 2007 @ 2:48 pm
Hi, I too recently discovered this blog. I am soon to be a coporate trainer, but I do recognize how important reading is.
-Heidi
Comment by plymouth — June 16, 2007 @ 10:41 pm