Mini-Demos as well as Mini-Lectures
In a class where the students change every three weeks, but most of the food preparation tasks remain the same, I have seen many of the same mistakes being made repeatedly. To pre-empt this, I have found that performing small, quick, well organized mini-demos throughout the first week of class as a very effective communication tool. This gets important information to the whole class, avoids many unnecessary mishaps, helps the class run more efficiently and prevents much frustration in the students.
Hi Gina,
Spoken like a true educator. You have taken what you know and turned that into planning for preventing the same mistakes and problems over and over again. Your students have a leg up on the previous students as a result of your professional development in this area.
Gary
I actually do this in my IT classes as well. In my hardware class, I do a series of smaller mini-demos instead of larger demos where things can get out of order, or confused.
I too think that demonstrations will help repeat mistakes. I assign a paper and a presentation at as my course final, and after a few times of some students not doign a good job on their presentation, I started giving a mock-presentation myself, during which I basically do the presentation as a student. This allows the students to get a feel for what I am looking for, and also the ability to ask questions about my presentation. I also write up not cards with speaking points which I "use" during my presentation and show the students what these look like. Since these mock presentations, the quality of my student's presentations have improved dramatically.
Hi Patria,
I like your approach to get student improvement. With your method you really are doing a demonstration because you are showing the students what you want from them and how they can achieve the level of skill you want them to have.
Gary
I agree. I think todays student has even a shorter attention span (at least in the culinary field)so quick, focused and constant repetition is very affective.
I agree that mini-demos are a great way to focus students on which techniques are the most important. Repetition is key to student comprehension.
In a food prep class where, most often the preparation takes longer than 10-15 minutes, I try to keep my lecture short so as not to contribute too much time to my overall demonstration time. I find that doing little min lectures while I'm at a slow point in my demonstration (ie something has to cook or come up to a boil) helps to keep students engaged. I will also try to ask them questions about why I'm doing something or what the next step would be, if it is something they have seen before to keep them involved.
Hi Emma,
Great job of finding a flow for your content sharing. You are using all of your instructional time in an effective and efficient manner. The mini-lectures are a great way to fill in the blanks while keeping the class moving forward.
Gary
In a cooking class, after the students have performed a task a few times, I would do a mini demo with the students' help. Say for instance, the demo was to make mayonaise, I would ask the students to walk me through the steps and before I do the step, I would ask the students to explain why this certain step has to take place now and what is actually happening during this step. This method ensures that the students not only know the processes but why they are doing it...this will stimulate the brain and promote some active thinking.
Hi Kim,
This is a great way to involve the students. By having them "step" in at certain times with information they get to use their newly acquired knowledge plus it keeps them on their toes because they are never sure who will be called on.
Gary
