Stand and deliver with this
simple teaching tool

By OliveAnn Davis Slotta

The phrase “Stand and Deliver” first emerged on the world stage as the title of a Hollywood movie about 20 years ago on the challenges of teaching effectively in Los Angeles faced by US highschool calculus teacher, Jaime Escalante. It has hung on as a clear descriptor of the task of the classroom teacher – to “Stand and Deliver” day after day, session after session – “standing” before a group of students and “delivering” as effectively as is humanly possible, the content message of a course.

Challenges certainly abound! What to do when the students do not want to be there? How can I make each and every class a unique learning event? Or occasionally, even worse – “I’m scared silly about teaching here or doing this presentation; I don’t even know this audience! How do I even begin to plan?”

Ever since becoming acquainted with the curriculum planning method of Imaginal Education, a course developed by the Institute of Cultural Affairs many years ago, I have practiced the discipline of using it routinely. It has never failed me; I “never leave home without it”. My professional planning files include one worksheet record for every class session I have taught, sorted by semester and year. In addition to the discipline of pre-thinking every presentation, this reference set also provides helpful details for the next time I present that particular session to a class.

The approach is based on psychological and cognitive understanding – the human attention span is about 20 minutes long, and so is best captured in 20 minute intervals. This reality is recognizable in the larger society in art forms such as concerts and plays, which are typically divided into three acts with one or two intervals.

The curriculum design process
One tool used in the curriculum planning method of Imaginal Education is the curriculum design worksheet as shown below. Any academic course or curriculum, whether in a public school, college or, as for me now, a major university, has required content – the course’s measurable objectives. And so, when planning a lesson or presentation, I use this chart as follows:


My first step is to list those objectives for that session – What do I want to measure or assess?

Next I decide those three major (20 minutes or so) parts – the movements.

Now, I figuratively pick up the “conductor’s baton” and look out at my “orchestra members” – the students! What experience can I create for them that will most inspire their best work? (I write it down as my experiential aim.)

Then come the small but important details: Are there special members of my “orchestra” that I need to pay attention to? (If so, I list them in the relationships box.)

Is there a personal story that will grab their attention? (I make a note of it.)

How about materials: Do I need any supplementary books or articles? Art supplies? Math manipulatives? (Note, note, note!)

Finally, I estimate the class minutes allotted to each part of my plan to help keep me on track. Planning a presentation in this manner does not require an outline of the lesson plan or a list of topics or just textbook pages – it employs instead, a multicolored “palette” of prompts and predictable categories that produce for me, an ongoing quick reference as I teach the class – a single script-like page of notes.

Class application
I presently teach mathematics at Metro State University of Denver, a public university of 22,000 students with a diverse student population. The students in one of my regular classes are not majoring in math, science or engineering; they are typically art or psychology or sports majors who come to me hoping to pass a math class and so meet a graduation requirement. I frequently receive e-mails from several of them prior to the beginning of class that indicate personal anxiety and/or displeasure at having to take this math class in the first place. How do I plan and prepare for a successful semester in this situation of anxious learners?

Similarly, this three-part planning scheme, when applied to the entire semester content serves us all – both professor and students – very well. Grouping the department syllabus outline into three image-based sections allows me to introduce the course content and other requirements in a completely understandable way. That is, by giving a simple “image” to each of three sections of the course, the students are presented with their first learning task and the course overview in a completely comprehensible format.

“We’re going to be examining the ‘Public Art’ on campus; then, looking at the film Moneyball and seeing how a baseball team manager uses an idea called the Z-scores to assemble a winning team; and finally, we will be investigating how to plan your future investments and pay off your college loans faster.”

Do I have their attention now? You bet! (This is instead of saying: “This course includes the topics of geometry, probability and statistics, and financial planning with compound interest applications featuring exponential growth.” A different first experience for my new math-phobic friends!

The blank palette of prompts is included; the creative content is yours to fill in. I recommend trying out this powerful tool as you prepare to “Stand and Deliver!”

OliveAnn Slotta, PhD, has been an innovator in urban school design since 1986. She has worked in classrooms with immigrant parents and students in the Canadian province of Québec and in the US states of Ohio and Colorado. She has consulted on aligning curriculum and standards with school districts and agencies such as Junior Achievement. She has received numerous state and national awards as a mathematics educator including The Disney Company’s American Teacher Award. She lives in Denver, Colorado with her husband, Jim. She may be reached at OSlotta@msudenver.edu.