Suggestion 43. Use "closed lists" whenever possible in your lectures

IF YOU WANT TO:

• Give lectures that are easy to outline

• Summarize major points

Using "closed lists" whenever possible in your lectures.

A political science teacher says he makes frequent use of closed lists. "I make a habit of saying things like, `There are three main implications of X, number one is...' or `Remember in the last lecture, we were discussing the six principal steps that an administrator goes through when...; these are Number one..., etc.'"

"Closed lists are marvelous," he says. "They are fictional constructs, of course, and this needs to be pointed out to the organizer for the students. Nevertheless, they provide a good advanced organizer for the students. Closed lists help them both to listen for major points and to take notes. They also provide a very natural bridge or transition mechanism for letting students know when your are changing from one topic to another. Finally, I find that closed lists provide a good structure for summarizing, because they help differentiate between the main points and the detailed examples or digressions."

Limitations on Use of Suggestion

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