Promising Practices
Keeping a Class Organized and Keeping Students Focused
One of the challenges of teaching a discussion section is keeping students' attention, especially because they sometimes consider the TA's class to be irrelevant compared to the main lecture. In my experience, it is easiest to keep the students focused by maintaining strict organization in each class and throughout the semester. My goal is to make sure the students always know what to expect, so they don't drift off into feeling like activities in class are meaningless in the overall scheme of things.
I make a point of arriving early enough before each class to write on the board the dates of the next assignments, review sessions, and tests. Even though students already have this information in their syllabus and have probably heard it in the lecture, you can never tell them enough times when the next test will be! I don't discuss this mini-schedule until the very end of class, when I take 30 seconds to ask if anyone has questions about it. It's important to remember that even though the TA is teaching only one class, the students are usually taking four or five classes, all of which have complicated (and sometimes conflicting) schedules.
In addition to reinforcing the semester-long schedule in every class, I also make a point of giving the students a road-map to each individual class. Before class, I write on the board a brief list of topics to be covered. This is not a detailed list—it usually says something like: "1.questions from lecture, 2.central place theory, 3.group activity, 4.presentations." At the end of the list, I also write the class objective in one sentence, something like: "Understand Rachel Carson's basic arguments and assess their strengths and weaknesses." The road-map and objective stay on the board throughout the class so that students can always see what's coming next, and I refer to the list every time we transition from one topic/activity to another.
I find that these simple exercises not only help keep students focused, but they also ensure that I stay organized as well. By forcing myself to arrive early and to write a class road-map, I ensure that I will have my thoughts collected before the class begins. When students arrive in class, they immediately check the board and open their notebooks, which helps create what I think of as "an environment of attentiveness." Much better than a classroom where everyone is dozing off because they don't see any value to the class.