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Sharon Bowman 775-749-5247 [email protected] www.Bowperson.com © 2003 1

You know that the opening andclosing are the two most power-ful parts of your lesson or lec-ture. Learners usually rememberthe first and last things theyhear. So what do you do aboutall that information in the mid-dle? How do you get your lis-teners to remember the“message in the middle?”

Easy! You “mark the middle”with mini-openings and clos-ings. You decide where to in-clude a break in your talk. Thenyou decide if the break signalsthe beginning of new topic-

related information or the end ofthe information you’ve just cov-ered. In other words, you choosea learner-centered activity for thebreak that would be a memorablemini-opening or mini-closing.

Marking the Middle Activities

The following six Marking theMiddle activities serve three pur-poses:

• They are great short, quick,review activities that givelearners a chance to repeatthe information they’velearned;

• They help learners move in-formation into long-termmemory;

• They can be used as either amini-opening or a mini-closing activity.

Marking the Middle:Involving Learners in the Middle of a Lecture.

By Sharon L. Bowman, MA

Professional Speaker and Corporate TrainerDirector, The Lake Tahoe Trainers Group

P.O. Box 564, Glenbrook, NV 89413Phone: 775-749-5247 Fax: 775-749-1891

E-Mail: [email protected] Web-Site: www.Bowperson.com

Marking the Middle: Involving Learners in the Middle of a Lecture.


Suggested Time: From 30 sec-onds to 3 minutes dependingupon the activity.

Materials Needed: None

Group Size: From 6 to 600 (sizeis relatively unimportant).

Room Set-Up: Any set-up willdo.

Activity #1:Nudge Your Neighbor

Stop your lecture and say:

“It’s your turn. Look at yourneighbor - the person sitting tothe left or right of you. Make sureno one is left out. Nudge yourneighbor and tell him/her themost important fact you’ve justheard in the last ten to twentyminutes. Find out what yourneighbor thinks is the most im-portant fact. You have sixty sec-onds to talk to each other.”

When the minute is up, resumeyour presentation.

Activity #2:All Together Now

When you’re using a list ofbulleted points written on charts,overhead transparencies or slides,invite your learners to read eachpoint aloud with you. Vary the“choral reading” by directing

only certain people to read aloudeach time:

People with long hair/short hair.

People who are male/female.

People who are youngerthan/older than (name an age).

People who are wearingred/blue/yellow/etc.

People who are wearing a watch,earrings, etc.

People who were born in thewinter/summer.

People who have old/new shoes.

People who have a long first/lastname.

Activity #3: Signals

Stop your lecture and ask yourlearners if they agree or disagreewith the points you’ve just madeby showing you a “thumbs up”signal if they agree or “thumbs



down” signal if they don’t.Thumbs sideways can stand for“undecided” or “need more in-formation.”

Signals do three things:

1. They keep your learnersawake and interested.

2. They give your kinestheticlearners (the ones who learnthrough physical movement)something to do.

3. They help you check for un-derstanding. If many learnersshow you the wrong signal, or ifthey seem unsure about whatsignal to use, you know thatthey didn’t “get it” and you needto review what you just pre-sented.

Use a variety of signals to keepthe interest high:

Clap for “yes” and stomp for“no,”

Shout “Of course!” for “yes”and “No way!” for “no.”

Nod and shake heads for agreeand disagree.

Show the “okay” sign (thumband forefinger circled) to signalagreement.

Activity #4: Shout Out

After presenting some informa-tion, you ask the group to shoutout a number between five andten (between any two numberswill do).

Say someone shouts out thenumber “seven.” Now tell thewhole group that it’s their job tocome up with seven facts aboutthe topic that they’ve justlearned (or seven facts about acertain topic point, seven thingsthey remember from your lec-ture, seven bulleted points fromyour written information orslides, etc.) They shout out thefacts and you count them untilthe number has been reached.Then you add any importantpieces of information they mayhave forgotten – or correct anyerroneous information. Havethem give themselves a round ofapplause and continue with yourpresentation.



Activity #5:Stand Up, Sit Down

If your learners have been sittingfor a long while, it’s time to getthem up and moving. Direct themto form standing cluster groupsof 3-5 people Each person in thestanding groups tells the othersone thing they remember or havejust learned from the lecture.That person then sits down. Theactivity continues until everyonein each group is seated. Call timeafter about three minutes, even ifsome groups haven’t finished.

Activity #6:Micro-Macro Stretches

Maybe your learners have justeaten a meal, or maybe it’s earlymorning or evening – whatever!Your learners need a big dose ofphysical movement immediately,but you don’t want to waste anyof your presentation time on anactivity that doesn’t have any-thing to do with the topic. So youdo the following:

Explain to the group that microstretches mean moving a smallpart of the body (example: a fin-ger, toe, mouth, eye, etc.) Macrostretches mean moving a largepart of the body (leg, arm, torso,etc.).

Direct the group to stand. Tellthem you will model a micro ormacro stretch and they are to doit with you. While everyonestretches, you verbally state onefact you covered that’s topic-related.

Then you call on another personin the group to model a micro ormacro stretch. While the grouprepeats the stretch with that per-son, he/she states another factlearned about the topic.

That person then calls on some-one else – or you can do thenaming. After three or four mi-cro/macro stretches, the groupsits down and you continue yourpresentation.

From: Preventing Death By LectureAuthor: Sharon L. Bowman

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Author and traveling teacher SharonBowman helps educators and businesspeople “teach it quick and make itstick,” - fine-tuning their information-delivery skills and turning their passivelisteners into active learners.

Sharon is the author of six popularteaching, training, and motivationbooks, including: “Preventing Deathby Lecture,” “Presenting with Piz-zazz,” “How To Give It So They GetIt,” and “Shake, Rattle, and Roll.”She is a member of the NationalSpeakers Association and the directorof The Lake Tahoe Trainers Group.

She is also the “Trainer’s Coach,”helping individual teachers and train-ers polish existing lessons and trainingprograms, and creating new ones thatreach all learners.

For more information about SharonBowman and her books and training,log onto www.Bowperson.com, oremail her at [email protected].

For book orders, go towww.trainerswarehouse.com,www.amazon.com, or call BowpersonPublishing at 775-749-5247._______________________________

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