The use of lectures for training adults has several advantages and several disadvantages. So does the use of training games. What if we combine these two approaches in a complementary fashion? That is the idea behind interactive lectures.

Interactive lectures involve participants in the learning process while providing complete control to the instructor. These activities enable a quick and easy conversion of a passive presentation into an interactive experience. Different types of interactive lectures incorporate built-in quizzes, interspersed tasks, teamwork interludes, and participant control of the presentation.

One effective approach to adding interactivity to lectures involves requiring participants to review what they heard and summarize the key points. This approach reinforces learning and improves recall.

Missing Sentence provides an intriguing twist to an interactive lecture that is based on the review-and-summary strategy.

Purpose

To review the content of a lecture and to summarize the key points.

Participants

Any number. The ideal size is 15 to 30, divided into teams of three to five.

Time

About 45 minutes (depending on the length and complexity of the lecture content).

Preparation

Think through your presentation, preferably with the help of an outline. Write down several sentences that summarize the key points. Rearrange these sentences in a random order (so that they don't follow the sequence of your presentation). Remove one of these sentences and print the remaining sentences as a bullet list.

Supplies

Summary of key points (with one of the sentences missing)
Paper and pencil
Timer

Use this Strategy When—

The instructional content contains a significant amount of key points.
Participants have sufficient language skills to write effective summary statements.

Sample Topics

Principles of positive psychology
Handling negative feedback
Using open-source program
Preventing sexual harassment
Dealing with difficult employees
Knowledge management

Flow

Make the lecture presentation. Start with your regular presentation, encouraging participants to take notes.

Organize participants into teams. At the end of your presentation, organize participants into one to five teams, each with two to five participants. Explain that team members will share their notes and review the key points from your lecture.

Distribute the list of summary sentences for each team. Explain that someone prepared this list of summary sentences. These sentences are not arranged in a sequential order but in a random order. Unfortunately, one of the summary sentences dealing with a key point got lost in the process.

Ask participants to add to the list. Invite them to review their notes from your presentation and the list of summary sentences. Working as a team, ask participants to try to reconstruct the missing summary sentence. Encourage them to add one or two additional sentences to the list.

Conduct team presentations. At the end of 5 minutes, blow a whistle and ask teams to quickly complete their task. Then ask each team to read its sentences.

Comment on the summary statements. Identify the key elements included in the summary sentences. Make suitable clarifications to remove misconceptions revealed in these sentences.

Beyond Lectures

You can use the Mixed-Up Sentences game flow with other content sources such as podcasts, audio recordings, and video recordings. You can also use this approach with printed materials to create effective textra games.

Let's walk the talk. Here's a list of sentences that summarize the key point from this lecture. They are listed in a random order. Unfortunately, one of the sentences got lost. Can you review this list and the article and reconstruct the missing summary sentence?

Asking participants to review notes from a lecture and summarize the key points increases retention and recall.
Interactive lectures combine lecture presentations with training games.
One summary sentence is missing from the list.
Participants get a list of summary sentences in a random order.
The activity begins with a lecture presentation.
You can create textra games using this strategy.