I often have students ask me questions during class that pertain to information I had planned to cover later that class period. I struggle with whether to stop and answer these or to tell the student I'll be getting to the topic in a few minutes and then trying to remember to come back to the question by the end of the class.
Dr. George H. Williams (University of South Carolina Upstate) has a great solution to this. He asks the students to write down all the questions they have during his lecture as they come up. At the end of class, he usually finds that he has covered most of their questions and he can then answer those few remaining ones. You can read more about his technique here.
I usually tell them that I am coming up on that in a few minutes and want to put it into context. Then I tell them to hold onto the thought and if I haven't answered the question by the time I am done with that part of the lecture to ask me the question again. Works great.
Posted by: Michelle | May 02, 2011 at 09:55 AM