Preparing Session Inputs - I

Having worked on the session plan, let us now work towards implementing our plan by way of preparing “Session Inputs”. With relevant session inputs in place, we can gear ourselves for an effective and stimulating interaction with our learners. The session input section will also act as a platform where we will be able to test the veracity of our session plan.

While preparing for the Session Inputs, we will need to:

• Include the essential technical information on the topics to be taught in the session.
• Provide a systematic approach and concrete guidelines on the flow and the methodology that can be adopted to explain a concept more efficiently and effectively.
• Exactly map session inputs to the session plan.
• Justify the time allotted in the session plan to the content and the methodology used.

For the purpose of preparing one such session input, let us divide the Session Inputs into three main sub-sections:

• Introduction 
• Main Content 
• Conclusion

In this posting, we will concentrate exclusively on the Introduction.

As the common saying goes, the first 15 seconds often determines the success of an interaction or conversation. Similarly, the first 10 minutes or so, which forms the introduction of the Session Inputs, are instrumental in ensuring the progress and success of the rest of our session.

At the very onset of the session, it is possible to actively engage and stimulate the learners. Typically, we can begin a session by: 

• Recapitulating the previous session
• Introducing a new topic

Some of the effective methods for recapitulating a session are:

• Quiz (Word, picture, musical, etc), which is a direct form of testing the learners’ understanding of the concepts learnt in the previous sessions.
• Recalling key words learnt in the previous sessions in a short one minute time as a group/individual task.
• Caselets (short case-study), where the learners, based on the given scenario identify the concept related to or exemplifying the scenario.
• Impersonation where a learner pretends to be / imitates as the concept/device learnt in the previous session.
• Dumb Charades where learners are asked to use signs and body gestures without the use of words to communicate the concepts learnt. The audience is to then interpret and state the concept being mimed.

On the other hand, in order to introduce a new topic, we can use methods like:

• Analogy where the learners can be made to understand a concept by means of comparing two unrelated objects, situations or concepts and helping them derive a point of similarity.
• Demonstration where a concept can be explained with the help of illustrations such as models, charts and graphs.
• Mnemonics where a learner can be made to remember a new concept with the help of an easy to remember and meaningful sentence construct.
• Games where the learners can be made to discover knowledge by giving meaning to their individual experiences while playing a game.
• Role-play where learners are encouraged to enact and analyze a situation depicting the topic under consideration.
• Story-telling where the learners can be asked to interpret a concept from a story.
• Brain-storming where the learners can be asked to critically think and generate ideas in a limited time period either individually or in a group.
• Case-study where the learners can contemplate and analyze a real-life situation and arrive at possible solution/s.