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PROFESSOR: One of
the things that's

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different about a
recitation like this

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is that you're really
coaching students as opposed

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to talking at them.

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So it takes a little bit
of a different mindset.

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In a normal recitation, you
prepare 50 minutes of material.

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And you would go in,
and you'd be prepared

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to lecture for 50 minutes.

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In a recitation like this, you
have to be much more flexible.

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You have to think about, how
far do I let the students go?

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Do I need to go intervene or let
them work it out a little bit?

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Sometimes it's
important for students

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to really struggle
a little bit to see

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what the central issue is, but
letting them struggle too long

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is not productive.

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So it's very useful,
at that point,

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to step in and try to help.

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I like to think of it as
coaching rather than telling.

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If you were teaching
students or athletes

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how to play soccer or
baseball, you wouldn't just

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tell them about it.

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You would go out and show them.

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You would watch how they do it.

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You would correct big mistakes.

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As that got better, you'd
correct small mistakes.

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And that's really
the way to think

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about a recitation like this,
that you're coaching them,

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you're helping shape the
students' understanding

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so that they can become,
hopefully, as expert

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as you are in the material.

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So most of us are
used to knowing

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what's going to happen in the
50 minutes in the classroom.

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So you prepare a certain
amount of material.

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You expect to go in and
present that material.

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You might run a little
short or a little long,

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but there aren't
any big surprises.

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When you run an active
recitation like this, well,

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what I typically do is
I prepare more problems

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than I think I'll need,
because I don't know

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how many I will actually use.

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And sometimes I
use three or four,

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and sometimes we
may only use one.

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And so one of the things
you have to be prepared for

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is to adapt on the fly.

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You've got to be willing to be
flexible and work a little bit

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without a net, because you're
just not quite sure what's

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going to happen.

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And I've seen this in
classroom instruction using

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active techniques as well, where
I've asked a concept question

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and discovered, through
this immediate feedback,

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that students have no idea
what I'm talking about.

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Well, it would just be
foolish at that point

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to plow ahead and keep
talking about this thing they

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don't know about.

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You really have to
adapt and figure out,

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what have I done wrong?

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How can I make this
concept clearer,

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because I haven't
really done a good job.

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This certainly is
a lead compensator,

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but I almost always write it
in-- a really good problem

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in recitation is one
that's not tricky

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but that is likely to expose
a misconception that students

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commonly have.

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So if you've taught
a class for a while,

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you may discover
that students often

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make the same kind of error
when looking at a problem.

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And if that's the case,
then a very good thing to do

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is to present a problem where
they have the opportunity

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to make that mistake.

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You don't want them
to make the mistake,

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but if they do
make that mistake,

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it's then an opportunity
for teaching, right?

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It's a teaching
moment where you can

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explain why that might
seem like the right answer,

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and why it's, in fact, not,
and correct that misconception.

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One of the things I really
like about this approach

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is that it's just fun.

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It's much more fun
to spend 50 minutes

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coaching students, talking
with them, chatting with them,

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getting to know
them a little bit,

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understanding what they don't
understand than it is to just

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talk at them for 50 minutes.

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So all other things
being equal, I'd

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much prefer to do the
stand up recitation

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than a conventional recitation.

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Of course, what really
matters is the outcome,

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but I do think the
outcomes are better.

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So in this case, it's
a win-win situation.

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I really enjoy
it, and I actually

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wouldn't do it any
other way in the future.