teaching demo essay

How to Give an Effective Teaching Demonstration

Reviewed by Jon Konen, District Superintendent

Giving a teaching demonstration can be intimidating. In fact, you can win (or lose) a job based on your performance during a demonstration lesson.

It is important to know what you are getting into and how you can effectively prepare for the lesson.

On this page education expert Professor MacGregor Kniseley provides tips and resources that will help you ace your teaching demonstration.

What Is a Teacher Demonstration Lesson?

A demonstration lesson is a planned lesson taught to an interview committee or a group of students to assess your teaching abilities and skills. The process can vary depending on the school:

• You may be directed to teach a specific topic or a particular skill; or, you may be able to teach a lesson entirely of your own choosing.
• You might be asked to teach a 15-minute lesson to the interview committee; or, you might be asked to teach a 45–60 minute lesson to a class of students.
• Sometimes the interview committee will provide time after the lesson to reflect with you on how it went as well.

What Do Employers Evaluate During a Demonstration Lesson?

Employers judge qualities related to effective teaching. They often use professional teaching standards such as the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) and state certification standards to define their expectations.

Below are four important criteria for giving a job-winning demonstration. For each criterion we provide the indicators that employers are likely to use to evaluate your demonstration lesson, tips for ensuring your teaching demo meets these criteria, and valuable resources to help you plan.

1. Organize and deliver a purposeful lesson.

What with standardized testing and criteria for teaching to specific standards, teachers face high demands for accountability. There never seems to be enough time in the school day to cover everything. Effective teachers must be well-prepared, well-organized, and purposeful in their instruction.

Indicator: Conveys a strong sense of purpose and knows the lesson well.

Tips for making it happen:

• Practice, practice, practice! You can never practice too much before your actual teaching demo.
• Provide a copy of your formal lesson plan to all evaluators.
• When preparing, make sure you are clear about the objective of the lesson. In the classroom, begin by telling students the goal of the lesson so they have clear expectations.
• Choose a lesson subject that you know inside and out.
• Don’t load up on creative strategies or tools (such as technology) that don’t add to the purpose of the lesson.

Indicator: Sequences planned learning experiences with a timetable.

• Have a clear beginning, middle, and end to your lesson.
• In preparing, give yourself a rough timeframe for each part of the lesson.
• Although you need to plan the sequencing and flow of the lesson, be flexible. Don’t rush to a new part of the lesson if students aren’t ready. Don’t linger on another part if students have a good grasp of the material

Indicator: Delivers an engaging lesson that motivates students to learn.

• Use interactive teaching strategies such as cooperative learning to engage all learners simultaneously.
• Provide students with many opportunities to interact, both with you and each other.
• Model concepts and instructions.
• Deliver positive feedback that is specific and genuine.

Resources to Help Get You There

How to Plan Effective Lessons (Association for Curriculum Development, ASCD)

5 Tips to Improve Your Lesson Plan (NEA Today)

10 Teacher Resources For Lesson Planning Templates & Tools (Teachthought.com)

Teaching Channel (videos, ideas for lesson plans, lesson planning strategies)

5 Strategies for Creating Effective, Engaging Lessons (TeachHUB.com)

Lesson Planet (online curriculum search tool for K–12 educators)

3 Reasons Why Teachers Need To Use Technology in the Classroom  (Concordia University blog)

2.  Respond to all learners.

Effective teachers recognize the wide range of needs among diverse learners in the classroom. They use knowledge of how their students learn along with their students’ individual interests, strengths, challenges, language, cultural backgrounds, and developmental needs to mold their lessons. In addition, effective teachers collaborate with other school personnel in teaching students with special needs.

Indicator: Connects with all students in the classroom.

• Begin the lesson by getting to know the learners, building rapport, and pre-assessing.

Indicator: Differentiates instruction to engage all learners.

• Incorporate a variety of teaching techniques into your lesson to ensure you address all learning styles.
• Anticipate the cultural differences in your class and weave in cultural connections in your lesson.

Indicator: Assesses student learning.

• Check in with students regularly to make sure they are grasping the content.
• If some students are having difficulty, determine whether you might reach these students using another technique.
• Bring the lesson to a close by allowing students to self-assess and/or summarize their learning.

Resources for Addressing Multicultural and Diversity Issues in Your Classroom (National Education Association, NEA)

The National Association for Multicultural Education

Preparing for Cultural Diversity: Resources for Teachers (Edutopia, George Lucas Educational Foundation)

Culture in the Classroom (Teaching Tolerance)

6 Ways to Implement a Real Multicultural Education in the Classroom (the Edvocate)

Tips for Educators on Accommodating Different Learning Styles (UMass Dartmouth)

Teaching Strategies to Approach Different Learning Styles (TeachHUB.com)

Learning Styles: All Students Are Created Equally (and Differently) (Teach.com)

How to Engage the 7 Types of Learners in Your Classroom (Literacy Planet)

3.  Manage the class.

Effective teachers create the conditions for a safe, productive learning environment. They have a plan for a well-managed classroom based on a learning community, structures, routines, and clear expectations and instructions.

Indicator: Creates a positive environment that fosters learning and respect.

• Begin the lesson by setting ground rules (norms) for successful learning (e.g., respect, safety, responsibility).
• Use specific positive feedback to motivate students and set a positive tone for learning.

Indicator: Makes smooth transitions from the whole class to small groups.

• Make notes in your lesson plan about when working with small groups might be advantageous.
• Have students form small groups at the start of the lesson so you can easily move from whole-class instruction to small-group interaction.

Indicator: Has command of the classroom.

• Remind students of the ground rules you established at the beginning.
• In order to foster trust and rapport, address individual students (or small groups) by name when providing feedback, and make the feedback specific to the actions of those students.
• Don’t be afraid to move around the classroom.

Management Tips for New Teachers (NEA)

Ten Tips for Effective Classroom Management (National Association of Elementary School Principals, NAESP)

Classroom Management (Education World)

32 Strategies for Building a Positive Learning Environment (Edutopia)

19 Big and Small Classroom Management Strategies (Edutopia)

4. Reflect and make adjustments in the moment of teaching.

Effective teachers work from a well-conceived plan of action. However, during instruction they should monitor their students’ learning and make changes to their lesson plans as needed.

Indicator: Uses results of formative assessment to make instructional decisions.

• Frequently ask students questions to assess their understanding.
• Change direction if students are not grasping a concept.
• Re-teach if it’s clear students are confused or need more information.

Indicator: Is flexible, yet maintains a focus on the purpose of learning.

• In preparing for your lesson, consider other ways to present the material if students aren’t grasping the concepts.
• If you need to change direction during your demonstration, make sure you keep the overarching goal of the lesson in mind. Don’t go off on tangents that take you away from the purpose of your lesson.
• Use your gut. Every lesson is different, and there are no set prescriptions for how to react to the unexpected in the classroom. Don’t be afraid to follow your instincts.

Resources to Help You Get There

What Are Formative Assessments and Why Should We Use Them? (Scholastic)

6 Questions to Tackle When Demonstrating Flexibility and Responsiveness in the Classroom (Teacher.org)

3 Ways Lesson Plans Flop—and How to Recover (Edutopia)

When a Lesson Goes Wrong (Teaching Channel)

In Summary…

• Interact with students and encourage them to interact with you.
• Model instructions or concepts.
• Establish rapport with students.
• Keep in mind the overarching purpose of your lesson.
• Assess student understanding as you go and alter instruction as needed.
• Prepare your lesson well ahead of time and practice, practice, practice!
• Recognize the diverse needs of students.

DON’T

• Assume that everything will go as planned.
• Incorporate lots of bells and whistles that don’t contribute to the effectiveness of the lesson.
• Gloss over students’ questions in order to stick to your lesson plan.
• Get in over your head with regard to subject matter.
• Lose sight of what you want students to achieve.
• Focus on how well YOU are doing—instead, focus on how well students are learning.

Author:  Dr. MacGregor Kniseley, Ed.D.

Dr. Kniseley began his 35-year career in education as a teacher employed in non-school environmental education programs. He taught for 10 years in elementary and middle schools, and since 1990, has been a professor of elementary education at Rhode Island College. He is the author of “The Guide to Winning a Teaching Position in Any Job Market,” based on the workshop he leads of the same name.

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The Professor Is In

Guidance for all things PhD: Graduate School, Job Market and Careers

How To Give a Teaching Demonstration (A Guest Post)

By Karen Kelsky | January 10, 2012

Today’s post is a Guest Post by Dr. Melissa A Barlett, who is an Instructor in Biology at Mohawk Valley Community College in Utica, NY.  Melissa kindly came to my rescue when I asked for a post on the Teaching Demonstration.  As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve had only one of these in my career, and bombed it so badly I have wiped it mostly from my memory.  I made the classic mistake of assuming the students had read the assigned text, based my entire lesson plan on discussion of the reading, and then had to stand there in the excruciatingly painful silence of a roomful of non-participants for most of 50 minutes.  It was dreadful.  Thanks, Melissa, for sharing the insights that will prevent this from happening to others.  (For a bit more on the subject, be sure to also read the Addendum in the middle of this post , provided by another reader).

Take it away, Melissa!  (and see below for a later addendum added by Karen in April 2015)

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One of the things that makes Academic Interviews so much different from many other interviews is the presentation. Depending on your discipline and the school you are applying to, this can come in a variety of forms. For example, after a year’s worth of interviews for biology positions, I could give my research seminar in my sleep. However, in some schools, and especially SLACs, they are starting to get away from the research seminar and are moving more towards the teaching demonstration where you actually teach either a lesson or an entire class.

For many people, this is a terrifying prospect. You probably haven’t spent much time in front of students. Even a typical TA, in my field at least, is not usually creating their own lecture materials on a regular basis. Of course, since a huge part of what you’ll be doing in the near future, especially if you get this job, will be teaching, this is probably something that the committee will weigh heavily. Therefore, you want to do everything you can to make a great teaching impression.

Fortunately, I have some tips to help you out.

Tip 1: Know your audience

Ask lots of questions.

Are you actually teaching a class or are you giving a demonstration mainly to faculty? If it is a class, be sure you know the student population. Are they majors? Non-majors? Freshmen? Seniors? If you are only doing a demonstration, ask specifically what level/type of student that your teaching should be geared for.

Teach to the correct level. You are not showing off how much you know in a teaching demonstration. You are trying to show how well you can explain a complex concept to someone who has never studied it. Even if you are teaching to a “class” of faculty, treat them like the students you would be teaching. This isn’t talking down, nor should it be to students, but be sure you define terms as appropriate and go over difficult concepts a few times. Repeating things 2-3 different ways is a common teaching technique.

One of the best things you can do is try to physically engage your audience. This can really depend on the type of class. For very large classes of younger students, engagement is often more difficult. I like to throw out simple yes/no questions near the beginning of my lectures. Then I can ask “How many people say yes?” and when no one raises their hands, I add on, “nodding is a completely acceptable way of responding.” Usually, if you work them in slowly, head nods will turn into hands raising. Even then, my favorite line was, “How many for A? How many for B? How many abstain from answering?” Students always raise hands for that last one, which shows that they are listening. I also once did a sorting exercise during a teaching demonstration where I had two columns and put up a word on the powerpoint. I then had the students point right or left as to where it went. They didn’t have to talk, but they mostly played along. This lets you and the evaluating faculty know the students are listening.

Tip 2: Make the material fit the course and the time

Find out not only the topic, but where this topic fits into the course outline. Better yet, find out what textbook they use and find/borrow a copy so you know what the students will be seeing.

Choose the topics that you will cover to fit into the time period. Going over time in a seminar is usually forgiven. If you are teaching a class and you go over, they might just walk out on you, which is probably not the impression you want to make. I’d even say aim for shorter rather than longer. Although, being able to show that you can time a lecture within 5-10 minutes of class time goes a long way to showing that you could do that when you are teaching as well. What this might mean is that you have to teach a smaller chunk of material than the probably broad topic you were given. Choose something that makes a good complete story. It is impossible to cover an entire actual textbook in a semester of lecturing. Showing that you can pick and choose the important topics or choose an appropriate level of detail shows you could do that in your own class.

As a biologist, I teach Human Biology to non-majors. I don’t need to cover the material that would be covered in an Anatomy and Physiology class, so I choose to focus on how structure relates to function and not on the details of each system. I want my students to see how signals travel in the nervous system, but I don’t need to stand up in front of them and describe what each neurotransmitter does in detail.

Tip 3: Use visuals effectively

The number one way to lose students is to hit them with a block of text or a non-stop lecture. There are probably two main possibilities of visuals for this demonstration: powerpoint or writing on a board. I’ll discuss both. First of all, find out as much as you can about the room and the available technology. Is there a computer set-up? A place to plug in a laptop? Chalk? Smart board or white board? The more you know, the better you can prepare.

Writing on the board

The bonus to this method is that you are showing that you are comfortable enough with the topic to not need extra visuals. However, this is not a method you should use if you have bad handwriting (or in my case, can’t draw a picture to save her life).  The other problem is that you have to turn away from the class to write. Be sure not to talk to the board! You say something, turn and write the word/phrase, and then turn back around and say it again. It will feel strange to you if you’ve never done that before because for the moment that you are writing, there is silence. Most people hate silence, but when teaching, it gives the students a chance to write and process the material. You can’t rush through a lecture. In all cases, watch the students. If most of them are writing, pause. Thirty seconds of silence will seem like ten minutes, but it will show that you are aware of the students’ needs. Many times, students are told they will be tested on this material. Keep that in mind.

To avoid rushing through a powerpoint based lecture, you need to be aware of how much text you put on the slides. As a general rule, less is more. I typically use sparse bullet-pointed lists containing only the most complicated terminology. Remember: your presentation supplements your lecture, it shouldn’t be your lecture. I’m a huge fan of pictures, videos, and animations. The whole point of the computer is to explain things that are difficult to talk about or draw on the board. Make use of that. I typically browse Google Images and YouTube for materials that are different than the textbooks. I’ve been known to have ten slides in a row with just a title and 1-2 pictures. If you are any good at all with powerpoint animation functions, use them. People are always impressed with a well-done animation. Do not use a canned presentation, make your own. I was asked on multiple occasions if my presentation was premade, and I was glad to be able to answer “no.”

Some other quick notes about making a great looking powerpoint for teaching. Assume you will be in a lit room (dark rooms put students to sleep, keep the lights on), and therefore, you should use a light background and dark text. However, don’t use white, it’s too bright to look at for long periods. Use a light color and a dark color of matching text. Preferably, use a gradient on your background, but still in light colors, for example: light blue transitioning to light green. On that I would use a nearly black navy text in bold. Make sure it’s bold, and at least 24 point font (watch the font sizes on pictures). Most of the pre-made choices for backgrounds are terrible, don’t use them. Don’t use a dark background and light text, it’s hard to read in a lit room. Don’t mix red and green, just don’t.

Here’s an example of a slide from one of my presentations on how to give a presentation.

Tip 4: Practice

Unless you are an experienced improviser who feels like they can estimate times without practicing, you should always practice. Gather up your closest friends and colleagues and teach them. The best thing you can do is use a mixed audience as well. Use your spouse/friend in another field and see if they can follow and understand you. Ask them about your flow, how topics run into each other, and how the story connects together.

Then, have them ask you questions. Tell them to channel their inner annoying freshmen and ask questions like, “Will this be on the test?” When you are answering questions, don’t forget not to make up answers for students. Even during a teaching demonstration, it is fair to respond with, “You know, I’m not sure about that, but I’d be glad to discuss it with you after class.” Or, if you have an excited questioner in your class, you can try, “That’s really interesting, and I’d love to talk more with you later about it, but it’s more detail than the class needs to know, so hold that thought until after class.” You might have the faculty ask you “student” questions. I know I did at one of my interviews. Answer them the same way as you would a student, this is a teaching demonstration, demonstrate being a teacher.

So, these basic tips: know your audience, make the material fit the course and time, use visuals effectively, and practice should be able to help you on your way. The only other major tip I have for you is to have fun! You are in this field because you love it, and as a teacher, one of your jobs is to make your students love it as well. Let that come through, and everyone will notice.

I talked more than you should in your lectures, so I think that’s enough!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Refer to this excellent column by Rob Jenkins in the Chronicle of HIgher Ed on Teaching Demos:

January 26, 2009

Demonstration or Demolition?

By ROB JENKINS

The teaching demo is arguably the most important part of the community-college interview — and the most terrifying

If you’re fortunate enough to have scored a job interview at a two-year college, congratulations. Now it’s time to start preparing for what is arguably the most important, probably the most arduous, and certainly the most daunting (judging from the e-mail messages I receive) part of the interview: the teaching demonstration.

Over the course of my 30 years’ teaching at community colleges, I’ve observed dozens of teaching demos. Only a few were actually good. Most were just OK, and many were downright awful. I’ve seen a number of otherwise-solid candidates derailed by their demonstrations, and many other people whom we hired despite a lackluster performance, hoping against hope that it was an aberration.

Those candidates were not bad teachers. OK, some of them were, but in most cases, the problem was not that they didn’t know how to teach but rather that they didn’t know how to conduct a teaching demonstration during a job interview. The two things, while obviously related, aren’t exactly the same.

Here, then, are some tips to remember as you prepare your teaching demo.

It’s a demonstration, not a presentation. One of the biggest mistakes job candidates make is treating the teaching demo like a conference talk, sometimes even complete with PowerPoint slides and handouts of those same slides.

It’s not that using technology is a bad idea (more on that later); it’s just that candidates who are using it in that particular way are demonstrating the wrong thing. They’re showing the committee how well they can present information to peers in a conference setting, not how well they can teach students in a college classroom.

The problem with the presentation approach is that candidates spend all their time talking about what they would do in such-and-such a class rather than actually doing it. That deprives committee members of the opportunity to observe the way candidates present real material in a real-time, quasi-classroom setting. And that’s what we need to see in order to hire the best teachers.

Choose a manageable topic. While some search committees allow candidates to choose a subject for their demonstration, most panels provide the topic. In fact, committees often give all of the candidates the same topic in an attempt to place everyone on an equal footing.

If you don’t get to pick your topic, you still have some important choices to make: Exactly what information, and how much, do you hope to convey in the time allotted (usually 15 to 20 minutes)? How will you present it? Will you mostly lecture? Invite some discussion? Involve everyone in a group activity? Dazzle committee members with your technological brilliance?

The first step is to narrow your topic to something you can manage in your few minutes on stage. Here again, one of the biggest mistakes that candidates make is covering too much information — basically, trying to squeeze a 50-minute lecture into a 15-minute presentation. Once again, they end up talking about what they do instead of doing it.

My advice is to identify a 15to 20-minute segment of a familiar lesson, an excerpt that can stand on its own without a lot of background or lead-in material. Preferably, it should be something you’ve taught often enough that you already know how you’re going to present it.

Treat committee members like students. Sometimes a search committee will give you this directive explicitly, either in written preinterview instructions or verbally as you’re about to begin. But whether they mention it or not, remember that you can’t teach without students — and committee members are the only other people in the room. (It’s true that a few colleges have job candidates teach actual students in a classroom setting, while committee members observe. But in most hiring situations at two-year colleges, it’s the committee members themselves you’ll be “teaching.”)

Treating committee members as if they were students means forgetting, for a few minutes, that they hold your professional future in their hands and relating to them as you would to students in a classroom. Address them just as you would address students. Ask them questions, try to engage them in discussion, and call on them to answer. Involve them in activities, whether they, much like real students, appear willing or not.

Although that approach may seem to involve a great deal of role-playing on your part — and perhaps on the part of committee members as well — it actually provides them with invaluable insight into your teaching style, your classroom manner, and your ability to establish a rapport with an audience.

Just be careful not to appear condescending. If you do, committee members will wonder if you will treat a bunch of 18to 20-year-olds the same way, or worse. And don’t take the “student/teacher” relationship too far, like the candidate who confiscated a committee member’s cellphone during “class.”

Do more than lecture. Tempting as it might be to stand up and talk for 15 minutes, don’t. And for heaven’s sake, don’t simply read from lecture notes; that’s a surefire way to eliminate yourself from contention.

At the very least, mix in a little discussion and some question and answer. (One nice thing about having faculty members as your “students”: They’re going to know the answers.) And be sure to distribute at least one handout that clearly enhances the lesson.

You might also use a group activity, although I would add three caveats: First, make sure the activity is, shall we say, age-appropriate. Don’t be like the candidate who gave each of us on the search committee a cracker, asked us to stare at it for three minutes, and then instructed us to write a paragraph about what we saw. I confess: I just saw a cracker.

Second, don’t use an activity that will take up too much of your time. We want you to do more than just lecture, but we do want to hear you lecture. So choose an activity that can be completed in no more than five to seven minutes.

Finally, don’t expect committee members to be any more enthusiastic about participating in your activity than your actual students would be.

Use bells and whistles — in moderation. After you are invited to an interview that includes a teaching demonstration, one of the first things you should find out is what kind of technology will be available to you. If it’s something you’re comfortable using — that is, something you already use regularly — plan to use it in your teaching demo. So, for example, if you normally use PowerPoint in your classroom, or like to pull up YouTube videos on the Internet, the committee would probably love to see you do it.

On the other hand, you shouldn’t go to great lengths to concoct some “totally wired” lesson plan that doesn’t reflect the way you actually teach, just to show how savvy you are. Your lack of comfort (and perhaps familiarity) with the technology will almost certainly be evident.

Also, even if you’re a bona fide geek, avoid giving a teaching demo that is so technologically based that it’s almost a lesson on technology rather than on the topic at hand. Remember, search committees at community colleges are looking for the best teachers, not necessarily the best techies. By all means, dazzle them with technology, but do more than just dazzle. Teach.

And bear in mind that if you do intend to use technology, it’s vital to have a backup plan. In my experience, nothing is more common during teaching demonstrations than for the classroom technology to malfunction. So if you’re using a CD, have the data on a flash drive as well. Prepare handouts that you can substitute for the images that won’t appear on the screen if the projector refuses to boot up. (Here’s where those copies of your PowerPoint slides might come in handy.) If all else fails, be prepared to teach in the old-fashioned way.

By following those few simple steps, you can set yourself apart from other candidates. And if you’re interviewing at my institution, where I’m once again serving on a search committee, I’m not just suggesting you follow my advice — I’m begging.

After all, how many awful teaching demos can one person sit through?

Rob Jenkins is an associate professor of English and director of the Writers Institute at Georgia Perimeter College.

Similar Posts:

• Five Tips for a Successful Teaching Demonstration (Learned From Failure)
• The Teaching Demonstration: 3 Goals
• The Zoom Teaching Demo: Eight Guideposts
• How to Turn Your Teaching Duds into Memorable Statements
• The UK Job Market, Part IV: Interviews, British-Style

Reader Interactions

January 10, 2012 at 9:45 am

Another helpful suggestion– especially if your teaching demonstration to a group of students at an SLAC. Come to the demo with a stack of index cards and black sharpie, pass the cards out to the students and ask them to write their first names with the sharpie marker to be displayed on their desks, facing you. This allows you to call on students by their names (which is so much easier and less crass than simply “yes” or “you” and you can refer to their comments, “as Janet was saying earlier….” or “this goes back to Andrew’s question”), it creates an instant atmosphere of congeniality, and it demonstrates to the observing faculty that you care about making a connection with their students.

January 10, 2012 at 9:56 am

January 11, 2012 at 8:33 am

This is great. But how do you handle not a class, but a “meeting/interview” with SLAC students during a campus visit? How do you charm a bunch of students when you’re not teaching them, and when they don’t have their own research to talk about (since they’re not graduate students)?

January 11, 2012 at 8:34 am

oh, another wrinkle! I don’t know. Others—-please weigh in!

January 11, 2012 at 8:56 am

Ask them questions! Undergrads almost never get asked how the department’s offerings are working out for them, so it’s a great opportunity for them to reflect and for you to learn a bit more about the place. Ask them where they are in the program, what courses they have taken, what courses they wish they could take, have they had any interesting outside speakers, do they have a study-abroad component, do they make use of other resources in the area outside the university, do they find the department’s offerings to complement other courses they’ve taken outside the department, etc. etc. It doesn’t have to be an interrogation, but if you listen closely, you might learn something more about the feel of the place, which can help you in envisioning and communicating how you might fit in there during the interview.

January 11, 2012 at 9:17 am

Responses to your question from the FB page:

Martina Miles: When I was a student at a small, private, liberal arts college, I went to many lunches and meetings and “informal chats” with prospective professors, in my field and others, and the faculty took our recommendations seriously, so I understand that this much be a very fraught meeting for the job candidate. But the professors I always liked best were the ones who asked more questions instead of just rambling on about their plans and who made genuinely interested inquiries into what kind of campus we had, what kind of faculty-student interactions we enjoyed, and what kind of niche that new professor could fill that perhaps the faculty wouldn’t know about. If they had this kind of attention to the campus environment as a whole, I knew they would not only be interesting to take classes from, but also a vibrant member of our close-knit community. 15 minutes ago · Like

Meghan Roberts: The key is to never talk down to them, bore them, or act disinterested. Like Martina said, you want to ask them questions about the college community, because they probably love to talk about it. If they’re seniors working on honors theses/independent studies, you can ask them about their work. They’ll want to talk about what classes you’ll offer, so be sure to have copies of your teaching materials — namely a list of courses that you’d teach and sample syllabi — because they probably won’t have access to your file. But above all, be fun and relate-able. Coming across as arrogant and out of touch is especially problematic in this situation. 8 minutes ago · Like

January 12, 2012 at 11:11 pm

Thanks! This is really helpful!

June 10, 2012 at 8:32 am

Insightful post. Here’s a follow-up question.

How do you approach a teaching demonstration that is geared toward students; however, because students are on break, you will be presenting it to faculty. Typically I would ask students basic questions and play off their responses. Do you do the same for an audience of faculty, or should you approach it as more of a straight lecture.

There is a balancing act here: you don’t want to insult the faculty members’ intelligence, but you still want to show that you can engage students.

June 11, 2012 at 7:47 am

great questions; difficult to answer. I’d do it more as a straight lecture, with some lively questions thrown in as punctuation, but not the main text so to speak.

June 17, 2012 at 9:28 am

How would you approach a teaching demonstration in which you are given the subject, have 15 minutes to prep, and then present a 15 minute lesson to the committee? They want to see if I can “think on my feet.”

June 18, 2012 at 5:23 pm

run the other way. ha. that’s insane. but basically, don’t panic. Try and “spin” the subject to reflect your long-standing areas of expertise. Never try to fake what you don’t know.

August 20, 2012 at 3:54 pm

This happened to me this year, only I wasn’t given 15 minutes to look it over, and it was a major musical work I had never seen before that I was supposed to “teach” to someone pretending to be a first year undergrad. I turned this job down. I felt that giving me such an unreasonable test in the interview – which I think I actually did fairly well with – did not bode well for the tenure process.

September 26, 2012 at 7:10 am

This post is very helpful. I am at the moment preparing for a teaching demo. Although I’ve had more than 500 students in my budding career, and spoken in front of senior colleagues, being aware that someone is actually testing your teaching skills can be nerve racking.

April 2, 2013 at 7:22 pm

Any suggestions for a teaching demonstration that will intentionally be outside my field?

January 1, 2014 at 2:54 pm

I am currently teaching at a local two year college where I teach communication classes such as public speaking, intro to com, etc. I am full-time and love what I do. But, as silly as it sounds, I have an issue with writing on the chalkboard. I teach from PowerPoint as well as facilitating classroom activities. But, I have terrible handwriting and feel this hurts my credibility with students to write on the board. The result is I do not write on the chalkboard unless it is to post updated information for important dates, etc. I find however, that not using the board hinders me. Do you have any suggestions for other visuals other than PowerPoint to use in place of writing on the board?

Warm Regards, Lisa

September 9, 2014 at 6:38 pm

I’m not sure if you still need the advice eight months later, but I wanted to share my thoughts in case you or others might find it helpful. If you’re using a computer already for PowerPoints, you could flip to a Word or Google doc where you could type in the same sorts of things you would write on the board. If you find that it works for you and you’re able to get some relevant and helpful information in the document, you could even send it to the audience as a way to sum up what was covered during the presentation. I usually use the board for taking down student contributions, so sharing them in a document is a nice way to let others engage with their peers’ thoughts (and also can demonstrate that you value the intellectual work students do in classes). I’ve started using this method in the past year because my handwriting is a cursive/printing sort of hybrid, and most of my students, who are no longer being taught cursive in elementary school, are baffled by my handwriting.

Best, Marie

April 22, 2014 at 5:53 am

Hi, this is all fairly good advice. Although a bit past when this piece was posted, I am based in Japan and I am applying for Visiting Assistant Professor jobs at the moment. However, I interviewed at a SLAC last week via Skype and they have asked me to make a 20-minute teaching demonstration video. I would be interested if anyone has any observations from their own experiences of doing this or if they have any special advice…

October 17, 2014 at 6:57 pm

I’m going to give a demonstration class after few days. I think it’ll help me in delivering my lecture. And, I’m very grateful to you for your great suggestion. Thanks.

December 23, 2014 at 12:46 am

I’m preparing for several on-campus interviews with teaching demonstrations, and I’m trying to figure out how much “myself” I should be in the class. I have a lot of teaching experience, and I’m generally a very informal and relaxed – and funny, so I’m told – professor. But should I dial that down a few notches for a teaching demo? On the one hand, I get that people watching and evaluating my teaching isn’t the same as a standard environment; on the other hand, I think that my comfort in the classroom is my strongest attribute as a prof, and it seems a shame to lose that now. Any ideas?

January 5, 2015 at 7:39 pm

How do you deal with them asking you to send a teaching demonstration on a cd or online? I don’t have any of my classes recorded and only have 2 weeks to do this. I will only have one class before the deadline and it will be the first meeting of the semester when I go over syllabus and other things. Should I record a lecture online and just send it to them without them seeing me physically in front of a class?

February 16, 2015 at 3:50 pm

How to do with a demo if I dont have any experience before in the teaching field. ?

March 27, 2015 at 1:50 am

I am scheduled to do a teaching demo in a law enforcement school. My audience would be police officers. I was told to do a demo. I am thinking now what topic should i discuss with that kind of audience. Can you help me.

October 11, 2015 at 7:53 pm

I’m interviewing for a community college teaching job. Like most community colleges, they emphasize “active learning”, and I tailored my teaching statement around providing evidence of my commitment to active, engaged learning. And truly, I think one of my strengths as a teacher is situating material in a way that promotes discussion, questions, reflection activities, etc.

As part of the interview process I am asked to give a 15-minute teaching demonstration… to the panel interviewing me (no students present), with no use of technology, and it can’t be interactive.

As I’m preparing to give an exceptionally clear, well-organized, and interesting lecture, I’m wondering about how I might showcase my ability to engage students (but, you know, without making them do anything).

Should I…

(a) situate a discussion question, identify contributions a student would plausibly make, and respond (i.e., lecture in a way that simulates a conversation I would expect to have).

(b) make little asides about what I would do if I were interacting with students (e.g., note how I typically begin a lesson with activities that get students to identify what they believe/know/notice/wonder, note where I would typically break for discussion, note how I would end a lesson with activities that encourage students to reflect on what they learned / give me a sense of what they learned, etc.)?

(c) something else?

(d) stick to the clear, well-organized, and interesting lecture?

October 25, 2015 at 9:24 am

I have been invited for a demo lecture on a topic which is not very close to my expert field. I am not so much theoretically and technically knowledgeable about the given topic. The lecture duration would be not more than 20 minutes. After my lecture, there will be a 10 minutes question answering session which has made me more panicked and uncomfortable. In this situation what is your advice for the preparation of my demo lecture? The audiences will be students and selection committee.

August 5, 2016 at 4:02 pm

Great advice. I’ve been asked to give a 40 minute teaching seminar demonstration during a Skype interview (the actual position involves teaching in person, not online). Any thoughts / experience with adjusting to such constraints?

August 9, 2016 at 11:36 am

Not on a skype teaching demo per se, but please do check out today’s Chronicle Vitae post on managing skype interviews in general.

March 6, 2018 at 1:24 am

it was indeed a great advice for me, hope it will help me for my demo, Thank you so much! Hope I can make it, without any butterflies because it was my first interview and first demo.

[…] I did find this helpful post about giving test lectures with a focus on those given to actual students in an on-going class […]

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Teach Like You Mean It

By  Sarah Bray , Josh DeSantis and Nicole Hesson

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Between discussions with potential future colleagues, delivering research presentations and interviewing with a provost or department chair, you’ll find no shortage of angst-inducing moments during an interview for a faculty position. With so many potential pitfalls, many candidates neglect preparation for their teaching demonstrations.

Don’t make this mistake. Show the search committee your skills and commitment to teaching with an engaging lesson demonstration. Consider the following approaches to impress the search committee, students and your future colleagues.

Delve. Learn as much as you can about the context in which you will deliver your demonstration. Most search committees provide you with the basic topic on which you will be expected to teach and the required length of time of your demonstration. With some prodding, many search committees will share more. Ask the committee:

• What year are the students in?
• Will the students be from the academic department, or is this a general education course?
• What background knowledge do the students have on the topic?

You can also ask about the teaching space and the availability of technology. You might ask:

• What is the furniture arrangement in the space?
• Is there a digital projector? How can I connect my device to it?
• Are there mobile devices available to the students? Can they bring their own?

Remember that the members of the search committee want to find a successful candidate and, in many cases, are willing to help candidates put their best foot forward during the interview. They don’t want to have to search again. Let them help you by learning as much as you can from them about the demonstration before your interview.

Design. Use what you learn from the committee to refine your topic. In most cases, search committees give you a general idea of what you might teach. Begin by defining the topic more clearly. Ensure that you organize your lesson in a way that is both interesting for you and engaging for the students. Most important, make sure it is a topic that you can present within the allotted time.

Remember that you are planning to teach, not to tell. As you begin to plan the instruction, ask yourself, “What do I want the students to know or be able to do when we finish?” Then plan a question that encapsulates that idea and structure a series of student performances that will position them to attain that understanding by the close of your demonstration. Share this question with the group at the beginning of your demonstration and again at the end.

Effective lessons usually include three basic components: an engaging opener, instructional activities and a closure. The engaging opener should generate interest in the topic. It could be as simple as posing a question and assigning students partners or small groups (think, pair, share) or something more complex, like using large poster paper and markers to generate ideas on different categories of information related to the topic (carousel brainstorming).

The instructional activities portion of the lesson is your opportunity to present new information to students. If your teaching style is learner centered, you might use a cooperative learning approach. That could entail breaking students into teams to explore different facets of the topic and to present what they learn to each other. If you have a more didactic style, you might provide content to students more formally with a presentation; just remember to preplan several higher-order questions or brief activities to keep students engaged. The closure portion of your lesson should again be a short student activity or assessment.

You might also consider other means of elevating student engagement in your demonstration. For example, you can help students stay on topic by creating a graphic organizer for them to record information during direct instruction in your lesson. You can also telegraph your technology skills to the search committee by using an online application for a portion of your lesson. Several free technologies like Nearpod , Kahoot and Poll Everywhere allow you to present information and ask questions of students using their phones.

While you should present content accurately and effectively, it is just as important to engage meaningfully with your students. With thoughtful planning, you can prepare a lesson that helps them understand the material. That is sure to impress any search committee.

Deliver. Most interviews include a short break before the teaching demonstration. No matter how hard you prepare, it is still perfectly natural to feel anxiety in those minutes. That is where the hard work you put in while designing your plan pays off. Use this time to unpack your materials, set up the classroom space and prepare your technology elements.

Remember that your demonstration begins when the first students enter the room, usually one or two at a time. That offers you a great chance to build rapport with them. At a minimum, smile and project confidence (even if you don’t have it in the moment) to the students. Some candidates shake students’ hands or give them folded note cards to write their names, allowing them to use their names throughout the lesson. Building connections with the students at this stage will help you hold their attention throughout the demonstration.

During the lesson, solicit students’ attention by using inflection in your voice and presenting instructions with clarity and sufficient volume. Move out from behind the podium or lectern throughout the lesson, especially during direct instruction. Mentally divide the classroom into four zones and try to spend at least a little time in each while teaching. If your lesson includes small groups or partner discussions, move among the groups while they work. Kneel to students’ levels while you hold your discussion with them. Display genuine human warmth by liberally distributing compliments on good answers and smiles throughout the demonstration.

Don’t forget to end the lesson with your opening question. That shows the students and your evaluators what you accomplished in your lesson.

Deliberate. The search committee will probably ask you to reflect on your demonstration as part of the interview. Be prepared with an answer. No teaching demonstration will ever be perfect. Note some positive things about your lesson -- the students’ engagement level or understanding of the objective, pacing, use of technology and the like. Suggest ways you would improve on the parts of the lesson that didn’t go as planned.

The fact that the committee organized a teaching demonstration for you shows that good teaching is valued at the institution. They are looking for a candidate who understands how to teach. You can show the committee that you are that candidate by delving to learn more about the context, designing an engaging lesson and delivering inspired instruction during your demonstration.

Many candidates choose to play it safe for the teaching demonstration. Resist that urge and teach like you mean it.

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• Documenting Your Teaching

Planning a Teaching Demonstration

Teaching demonstrations are artificial—the students aren’t yours, you won’t see them again for follow-up lessons, you might even be “teaching” faculty, etc.—but they are also a critical part of an academic job interview. Candidates for academic positions need to show more than just knowledge of their content area in their teaching demonstration; they need to show that they have pedagogical content knowledge. That is, the ability to select, structure, and deliver complicated content so that students can learn it. Your teaching demonstration must prove not only that you can create and follow a lesson plan, but also that you can engage and interact with students to enhance their learning.

You’ll want your teaching demonstration to reinforce whatever you’ve said about your teaching in your application materials. For example, if you have said that you create student-centered classrooms and provide students opportunities to actively learn, don't lecture for the entire time during your demonstration. 

A successful teaching demonstration ultimately comes down to careful planning and practice. If you showcase your best teaching during your demo, you’ll go a long way toward convincing the committee that you can handle the challenges of teaching day-to-day. The guidelines and tips below will get you started.  

A. Know your Audience

• Will you be teaching a class of actual students, a group of faculty, the hiring committee, or some combination of these three groups?
• What level of student should you be preparing for? (E.g., Majors, non-majors, graduate, etc.)
• If you are teaching a class of actual students, ask for a copy of the course syllabus and any relevant assignments. Read the course description and objectives, and review a copy of the textbook. It might also help to get to know the students in general by looking at the university’s website and, if possible, by visiting campus and chatting directly with students. More realistically, you might attend a class at your current institution on the topic you are going to be teaching and then talk with the instructor, the TAs, and the students.
• If you are teaching to faculty members posing as students, be sure to indicate for them the level and background of the students for whom your lesson would be intended, then pretend that the faculty members are those students and teach at the correct level. Expect, however, that faculty might ask questions at a higher level than would actual students and don’t go overboard with pretending that they are students (e.g., don’t confiscate a cell phone if one of them can’t stop looking at it!).  

B. Make your Material fit the Course and the Time

• If you’re given a topic to teach in an actual course, find out where that topic fits into the course itself. What have the students learned beforehand? What will they be learning afterward? What assignments will they be working on? What textbook are the students using? Get a copy and read the relevant sections.
• If you’ve been given a broad topic area from which to select a particular lesson, choose something that you can manage in the time given.
• If you’re teaching for a full class period, aim to end no more than 5 to 10 minutes early for questions. Have a back-up plan in case for any reason you end earlier.
• If you’re only teaching a short lesson in 10 to 15 minutes, choose a topic or lesson that will stand on its own in that time. Don’t squeeze a 50-minute lecture into 15 minutes.
• Plan enough time for any activities you’ll include; they can sometimes run long if not properly planned and managed.

C. Engage your Students

• Remember, this is your teaching demo, not your research talk. Don’t just lecture to the students; show that you can do something more by engaging them with active learning. Get the students interested, involved, and interacting positively with you and with one another—they might be evaluating you for the committee.
• Use brief, meaningful activities that last no more than 5-7 minutes each. If you’re teaching faculty members, don’t expect them to be any more interested in participating in activities than are students. Create a handout, ask questions.
• Start with a relevant hook to grab students’ interest (an alarming statistic, a current event, a thought-provoking question, etc.)
• If you’re teaching a small group of students, bring index cards and black sharpies. Have the students write their names on the cards and set them up on their desks. Doing so creates an instant connection with students by allowing you to address them by name as you would in a class of your own.

D. Use Technology Purposefully and Effectively

• If you plan to use technology, be sure that it serves some clear and relevant pedagogical aim; don’t use it just to impress the committee or to show off your techy side. Technology shouldn’t overwhelm the topic you’re teaching, and the contribution that technology makes to student learning should be obvious and significant. Handouts are often a better alternative to technology, since they provide everyone with a concrete takeaway by which to remember you and your demonstration.
• Use visuals only to support your teaching and promote learning. For example, PowerPoint slides should be used sparingly and should ideally include questions or problems to which students can respond. Remember, PowerPoint should support your teaching, it shouldn’t be your centerpiece. If you do use a PowerPoint, be sure to tell students that you’ll write on the board any key information that you would like them to put in their own notes, otherwise students might try to write down everything you have on your slides.
• In terms of PowerPoint design, use pictures, colors, and animations, but do so carefully, and don’t put too much text on any single slide. Choose a light background and dark text, and make sure that the slides are visible in a well-lit room. (You shouldn’t plan to use PowerPoint slides in a darkened room unless you want to put students to sleep.)
• Use the board only if your handwriting is good. When writing on the board, don’t speak to it. That is, face the students and say whatever you want them to hear, and then turn and write it on the board. Doing so maintains your connection with the students and gives them an opportunity to copy down what you write.
• Plan for technology to break down. Have an alternative plan.

E. Have a Backup Plan. Have Another.

• Create your ideal lesson plan, a contingency plan in case you run out of time, a contingency plan in case you finish early and have too much time remaining, a contingency plan in case students simply don’t respond or if things are otherwise not working out as intended. Plan for technology to fail and know what you’ll do if and when it does.
• Plan more material than you can possible use, and make decisions in the moment about what to leave out. Don’t indicate to your students, however, that you’re cutting something out due to time constraints.  

F. Practice. Practice. Practice.

• Whether you’ve taught before or not, you can ask colleagues or mentors for the opportunity to lead a session in their classes. Ask them to observe your session and provide feedback. Alternately, gather some colleagues, perhaps from different disciplines, to serve as a group of students whom you can teach. Have them ask you questions just like actual students would. After the lesson, have your colleagues comment on your flow, on the way your topics connected with each other, on your body language and any verbal or physical tics you might have, and, of course, on how you might improve your overall performance.
• If you have taught before, review any observation reports you may have from colleagues or mentors, as well as evaluation feedback from students. Consider what has worked well and what hasn’t. What improvements can you realistically make and practice before your demonstration?

Helpful Tips and Hints

• Aim to be relaxed and confident in your demonstration, but also plan to show your enthusiasm and passion for the topic.
• Remember that you want your demonstration to be accessible to the intended audience, as well as factually or procedurally accurate and also clearly effective in terms of student learning.
• Show respect for students and that you like working with them. Acknowledge their contributions and thank them for participating.
• Don’t let talkative students sidetrack you. Indicate that you are glad they are interested, but that you need to continue the class. Ask them to stay after to discuss the material with you.
• Consider providing students and the committee with suggested follow-up assignments or next steps to show that you are aware of that teaching is a continuum, not a once-off intervention.
• If you use graphs or other data visualizations, don’t let them speak for themselves. Instead, get students to respond to these visualizations. For example, orient students to a graph by briefly explaining what it shows, then pose questions about the graph and ask students to interpret it in some way to get students involved.
• Push yourself to demonstrate your best teaching, but don’t try a technique or technology with which you’re not yet completely comfortable.

Questions to Consider as You Begin Planning your Teaching Demonstration

Don’t be afraid to ask the committee for details and clarification about your demonstration. At the same time, you need to ask yourself a number of important questions as you get started. The list below should help get you going.

Ask the committee:

• How much time will I have? A whole class period or only 10 to 20 minutes?
• Whom will I be teaching? Actual students or faculty posing as students?
• At what level should my teaching be aimed? Majors? Non-majors? Graduate?
• Will a topic and/or materials be provided, or should I select a topic and/or materials on my own?
• If a topic is provided and if I’m teaching in an actual course, how does the topic fit into the course in relation to other topics? Can I get a copy of the syllabus? What textbook do the students use? Have students been given any homework? If so, what? Can I get a copy of the assignment materials?
• Where will I be teaching? What sorts of technology or other resources are available?
• How and by whom will my teaching be evaluated? If I’m teaching actual students, will they provide any feedback to the committee?

Ask yourself:

• Exactly what information, and how much of it, do I want to convey in the time I have?
• What approach is most appropriate for the topic, the students, and the institution itself? Will I mostly lecture or will I involve students in a discussion or an activity?
• Do I want to use technology? If so, what will that technology add to my demo in terms of helping students learn? Am I comfortable using the technology that is available?

Reference and Resources

• Smith, M. K., Wenderoth, M. P., and Tyler, M. (2013). The teaching demonstration: What faculty expect and how to prepare for this aspect of the job interview. CBE Life Sciences Education , 12(1), 12–18. http://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.12-09-0161 http://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.12-09-0161
• CTL's teaching demonstration rubric - the CTL uses this teaching demonstration rubric to evaluate and provide feedback on teaching demonstrations given by graduate students in the Emerging Scholars of College Instruction Program. 

The CTL offers a workshop on preparing and delivering an effective teaching demonstration. Watch a recording of the spring 2020 webinar facilitated by Dr. Debbie Herold where she provides several strategies and guidelines for a successful teaching demonstration. Panelists Dr. Katherine Adams and graduate student Matt Walsh share their experiences of having given teaching demonstrations recently with tips to prepare for and navigate the unexpected challenges that may arise during the demonstration!

For more information about teaching demonstrations, contact Jessica Alexander ( [email protected] ) or Anusha S. Rao ( [email protected] ). 

Updated by Anusha S. Rao, April 20, 2020 Created by James Gregory, November, 2016

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Center for Teaching

Teaching demonstrations: advice and strategies.

Posted by Rhett Mcdaniel on Friday, March 29, 2013 in Commentary .

by Adam Wilsman, Graduate Teaching Fellow

If you’re on the academic job market, you may be hearing back from more schools each week as many start to make decisions about their open faculty positions.  If you’re among the lucky ones, you may even receive a campus invite or two.  While this is a major accomplishment in this difficult job market, this exciting development can also be a nerve-wracking one.  Your credentials and references have gotten you far in the hiring process, and the campus invite is your best (and likely last) opportunity to make your case!

Each institution organizes the campus visit differently.  Most have interview components where you meet the relevant department heads, various administrators, and other interested parties on campus.  Many require a “job talk” where you present your research.  Some even require a “teaching demonstration.”  Of these common aspects to the campus visit, the teaching demonstration can be particularly intimidating because while most graduate students and young faculty members have seen a job talk and know what a good one looks like, not all academic departments on Vanderbilt’s campus and elsewhere require a teaching demo from job candidates.  Thus, the teaching demo is more of a mystery to many of us.  So what makes a good teaching demonstration anyway?  And how can you best approach the teaching demonstration to put yourself in a position to receive a job offer?

Preparing for the Teaching Demonstration

The first thing you’re going to want to do is gauge the specifics of the teaching demonstration.  Sometimes, the job committee will tell you all about who, what, and where you will be teaching.  Other times job committees will give you minimal information, leaving you to guess things like who you’ll be teaching and what classroom resources will be available.  Knowing the specifics of the teaching context is very important for your preparation: presumably, you would not teach the same to a lecture hall of 400 than you would to a seminar of 10.  Thus, it’s important to ask questions early on to find out how to best prepare.

Here are some potential questions to ask your contact(s) on the job committee:

• Who will be in the audience? Only faculty?  Only students?  Both?
• TIP: Remember, this isn’t a job talk where you’re trying to demonstrate your expertise on a given topic or extrapolate on your innovative research. The teaching demo is an opportunity to show the job committee that you can communicate with novices and engage them in your discipline.  That said, faculty members in the room may ask questions during your lesson and those questions may be more advanced than what you hear from the average undergraduate.
• Are you being assigned a topic or are you free to teach what you like? In either case, how does what you’re teaching fit into the broader course?  For this, you may want to ask to see a course syllabus.
• TIP: If readings have been assigned for the course, do not assume that all students have read them. You can certainly touch on those readings and ask questions about them, but if you base your entire lesson plan on discussion of the readings, you could run into problems trying to coax participation out of students who haven’t done the reading and aren’t particularly invested in making you look good. One possible alternative is to give students a short piece of writing, a poem, a photograph, or demonstration to discuss in class.
• What resources are available in the classroom? A blackboard? A whiteboard?  A computer and projection screen?  Does the classroom have wireless internet?

Once you know the answers to these questions, you can start lesson planning.  When you begin, you should keep in mind that all the things that you’ve previously learned about good teaching still apply.

Some general teaching tips to keep in mind:

• Why this matters: This isn’t just good teaching technique.  It also demonstrates to the job committee that you are organized and thoughtful as a teacher.
• Why this matters: Job committees often want to see versatile teachers who can engage their students.  If you notice your students’ eyes are glazing over, there’s a good chance the job committee will notice too.  Furthermore, sometimes job committees ask students to fill out evaluation forms, so the job committee members aren’t the only people in the room that you need to impress.  Work hard to engage your students and underscore your dynamism as a teacher to faculty members and students alike!
• Allow time for student questions and/or discussion during the teaching demonstration.
• Be mindful of your body language.  Make eye contact with students.  Be wary of any physical or oral tics that you might have when speaking in front of an audience.

While these general teaching tips certainly apply, there are also elements to the average teaching demonstration that might be quite distinct from your other teaching experiences.

Here are some common problems and how you might deal with them:

You have no rapport with the students and limited knowledge of their interests and backgrounds. Perhaps you will have a brief exchange with a student or students prior to the lesson, but in the vast majority of cases, you will not know anyone in the room except for a few faculty members and administrators.  This rapport can be critical when trying to elicit class participation, so how do you deal with this issue?

• Consider using name tags so that you can call on students by name.  This can help facilitate a cooperative environment.
• To mitigate the problem of not knowing what your students know about your teaching topic, consider including a brief assessment at the start of the lesson to gauge student knowledge.

There is no “next time!” We’ve all seen it a million times: the absent-minded professor tries to fit too much material in too little time, scrambling to finish during the last moments of class.  “We’ll finish up next time!” the professor often says.  There is no next time for you, so plan accordingly.

• Have a backup plan!  Your computer isn’t working with the classroom technology?  Be prepared to take the lesson to that old black board!  Your audience isn’t participating?  Be prepared with an alternative activity or a different set of discussion questions!
• If you’re teaching a 60-minute class, be prepared to go 70 minutes.  You almost certainly won’t need that extra ten minutes of material, and don’t make note of it to the class if you don’t get to everything, but sometimes things go more quickly than we expect.  You don’t want to be caught at the front of the room with nothing left to say and ten minutes left on the clock.

You have sixty minutes and a repertoire of teaching techniques.  How do you narrow down your choices for a lesson plan?! It can be hard to decide how to approach your lesson plan.

• Refer to your job letter!  If the job committee operates like most search committees, you likely wrote and sent off your job letter months before your campus visit.  Now is the time to pull out that letter once again.  What did you tell the job committee about your teaching?  Your teaching demo is your chance to show them what you could only describe in your job letter.  If you described yourself as a strong discussion leader in your job letter, make sure that you dedicate much of your lesson plan to discussion.  The contents of your job letter were impressive enough for the school to invite you to campus, so follow-through the best that you can.  You do not want to leave campus and have the head of the job committee say, “She said she was a great discussion leader, but why didn’t I see it?!”

Finally, practice, practice, practice .  Practice in front of your colleagues.  Practice in front of your friends.  Practice in front of your dog.  By the time you arrive on campus, you should have a good sense of the flow of the lesson as well as how long it takes.  It can be particularly valuable to practice in front of people who can mimic your audiences’ level of expertise.  If you’re teaching to a group of freshmen, practice your lesson in front of a group of relative novices.

In the end, preparation is key for teaching in general, but teaching demos in particular.  If you prepare well, mindful of this advice, you’ll be putting yourself in an excellent position for a job offer.

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How to Make a Memorable Teaching Demo Lesson

teaching demo lesson is a crucial component of the job application process for educators. It provides an opportunity to showcase your teaching skills, engage with students, and demonstrate your instructional abilities. Making a memorable impression during a teaching demo can significantly impact your chances of securing a teaching position. In this article, we will explore how to create a memorable teaching demo lesson that effectively highlights your teaching skills in action.

Understand the Audience

Before planning your teaching demo, gather information about the students you will be teaching. Consider their age, grade level, learning styles, and any specific needs or preferences they may have. Tailor your lesson to meet the needs of the specific audience to create a more engaging and relevant experience.

Define Clear Learning Objectives

Clearly define the learning objectives you aim to achieve during the teaching demo. What specific knowledge or skills do you want the students to acquire or demonstrate? Having well-defined learning objectives will help you structure your lesson and ensure that you stay focused on the desired outcomes.

Incorporate Active Learning Strategies

Engage students actively in the learning process by incorporating interactive and hands-on activities. Use a variety of teaching strategies such as group work, discussions, multimedia resources, or problem-solving tasks. These strategies not only make the lesson more memorable but also encourage student participation and enhance understanding.

Use Visual Aids and Technology

Utilize visual aids, props, or technology tools to support your teaching. Visual aids can help illustrate complex concepts, enhance understanding, and make the lesson more engaging. Consider using multimedia presentations, interactive whiteboards, or online resources to create a dynamic and interactive learning environment.

Demonstrate Effective Classroom Management

Showcase your ability to manage a classroom effectively during the teaching demo. Establish clear expectations for behavior, provide transitions between activities, and use positive reinforcement techniques. Effective classroom management ensures a productive and focused learning environment.

Encourage Student Engagement and Participation

Actively involve students in the learning process by encouraging their engagement and participation. Ask thought-provoking questions, provide opportunities for discussion, and create a safe and inclusive learning environment. Encouraging student voice and involvement fosters a memorable and interactive learning experience.

Incorporate Assessment and Feedback

Include formative assessment strategies to gauge student understanding and provide timely feedback. Use techniques such as questioning, group work observations, or quick quizzes to assess student progress. Address misconceptions and provide constructive feedback to students during the teaching demo.

Reflect and Seek Feedback

After the teaching demo, reflect on your performance and seek feedback from the observers or evaluators. Analyze what worked well and areas for improvement. Consider the feedback received to refine and enhance your teaching skills for future opportunities.

A memorable teaching demo lesson is an opportunity to showcase your teaching skills and make a lasting impression on potential employers. By understanding the audience, defining clear learning objectives, incorporating active learning strategies, using visual aids and technology, demonstrating effective classroom management, encouraging student engagement, incorporating assessment and feedback, and reflecting on your performance, you can create a teaching demo that effectively highlights your teaching skills in action. Remember to be passionate, enthusiastic, and authentic in your delivery. With careful preparation and practice, you can make a memorable impact and increase your chances of securing a teaching position.

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Preparing for Teaching Demonstrations

Posted on December 18, 2019 by Charmian Lam

Depending on the discipline and institution, teaching demonstrations may not be required (Smith et al., 2013). However, most four-year and two-year institutions do have teaching demonstrations as a part of the interview process (Gannon, 2019). So, how can we prepare for teaching demonstrations and take a reflective look at our teaching practices? Here are a few tips to keep in mind:

• The audience may not be your usual audience, but that’s okay! In teaching demonstrations, the audience can be a mix of students (both in major and outside of the major), the hiring committee, and/or departmental faculty. You should still proceed to design and deliver the lesson to an audience that is typical of your course. Because the hiring committee wants a sample of your “typical” teaching, treat the whole audience—faculty, committee, and all—as students.
• Your tried-and-true lessons may need additional context. Your “greatest hits” lessons work in your classroom, but will they work for a teaching demonstration? Consider how your lessons fit into the curriculum of the department in which they were created. Are there skills that students need in order to be successful in your popular lessons? Will the students in your new classroom have the requisite skills? In teaching demonstrations, think about how your lesson fits into their department, curriculum, and student population.
• If your lesson relies on a piece of technology, be sure to have a back-up plan. Access to technological teaching tools varies between institutions. What you have access to at one institution may not be available at another or not be available on their internet connections. Additionally, technology can unexpectedly fail. What are some other ways your lesson can have the same impact? How else might you motivate the audience to practice the same disciplinary-specific skills in your lesson?

For more detail on planning your lesson for a teaching demonstration visit our new guide or contact our office for an individual consultation.

Smith, M. K., Wenderoth, M. P., and Tyler, M. (2013). The teaching demonstration. CBE Life Sciences Education, 12(1), 12–18. Retrieved from http://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.12-09-0161

Gannon, K. (2019). How to succeed at a teaching demo | Chronicle Vitae. Retrieved from https://chroniclevitae.com/news/2161-how-to-succeed-at-a-teaching-demo

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Five Things To Know Before Delivering Your Teacher Demo Lesson

We highlight the top five elements that we’ve seen form the foundation of a successful teacher demo lesson, typically the final stage in the teacher interview process.

If you have an upcoming demo lesson at a school, congratulations! You have made it to what is usually the final stage in the interview process. For many teachers, the demo lesson phase elicits the most anxiety.

Fortunately, we’ve got your back! We’ll make it easy for you: this article highlights the top five elements that form the foundation of a successful demo lesson. To help you remember what these elements are, we created the “ POISE ” framework: Be P repared, manage the O bjective, keep the lesson I nteresting and S imple, and set E xpectations.

What is a Demo Lesson?

A demo lesson is a lesson that you plan and execute for a group of students, or a group of adults posing as students, at a hiring school. Think of it as an audition to be a teacher at the school.

For many, the demo lesson is the most challenging part of the hiring process. You are obviously unfamiliar with the needs of the students, which makes two things difficult: behavior management, and knowing what content to teach. And if you are a new teacher, there is the additional challenge of trying out strategies you have learned but have had little experience with.

Fortunately, hiring managers and school administrators are very much aware of the impact these challenges have on demo lessons, and they don’t expect perfection. They do, however, expect that you can keep students safe and that students will learn something from your lesson. Also, rest assured that if you are unsatisfied with the outcome of the lesson, you will have the opportunity to discuss it during the debrief.

P : Prepare | P OISE Framework

Bring any and all materials you plan to use:

You are probably already nervous, and you certainly don’t need an additional obstacle. Being overly prepared means you can avoid unnecessary challenges and potential mistakes.

There are lots of variables beyond your control, but whether or not you have a functioning marker is not one of them! Having to stop in the middle of a lesson to ask where the tape is, or erasing a board with your hand because you don’t have an eraser, will probably rattle you, even if only for a moment. Bring all of the materials you will need for the lesson, including tape if you are using posters, dry erase markers, magnets, and anything else you will need. It’s one less thing to worry about.

Set up for success:

Pre-make charts that are needed for the lesson. If your plan is to elicit responses from the students and record what they say on the chart, pre-make the rest of the chart and leave only those sections blank. Why? 1) Writing uses up a fair amount of time that could be used for something more valuable, and 2) it is difficult to write without turning your back to students. Since you haven’t developed a relationship with these particular students and you don’t know what to expect from their behavior, it’s better not to give them this opportunity.

Prepare everything the night before -- your clothes, your route, the lesson plan, and all materials needed for the lesson. You will sleep more soundly and be clear-headed the next morning.

Prepare for student interaction:

Plan and rehearse routines students will need to execute during the lesson. Examples include getting a writing utensil, finding a partner, passing papers out, turning papers in, and any others you can anticipate. To help you decide which ones you will need to teach during your demo, use our planning guide and list of common routines . Teachers often overlook this important step. Sloppy or unclear routines can cause disarray, which gives off the impression that you are potentially unable to keep students safe. It also wastes time that you already have so little of. Examples:

If you plan to have students work in groups, scaffold the process. (If you say “pick a partner” and let them assume the responsibility, problems will surely arise.) Instead, use a strategy such as having students count off, or naming them “peanut butter” and “jelly” to pair them.

If you are teaching lower grades, plan how you will direct students from the carpet to their seats. “Time to go back to your seats and work!” will likely result in students rushing to their seats all at once -- talking and off-task. Instead, try saying “When I call your row, you may take 30 seconds to quietly walk back to your seat and start working” and then calling one row at a time. When in doubt, tell them what they should be doing, how they should be doing it (the behavioral expectation, such as quietly), and for how long.

Prepare for when things go wrong:

Often, teachers think that students will follow their directions or be on their best behavior during the demo just because their principal is watching. Do not count on this. We see students breaking rules constantly during demos, and administrators always notice and evaluate to see how the teacher reacts.  It doesn’t need to be perfect, but you do need to clearly demonstrate a strategy and be prepared to reflect on how you could improve next time. Sometimes during demos, teachers feel awkward disciplining students  they don’t know in front of other adults. Here are a few tips on how to redirect students in a respectful manner:

• 1 - 5 students off task: Use silent signals, proximity or other warm/strict corrections to redirect behavior (example: student is answering the wrong question on their page, teacher walks over and points silently to the correct question)
• 5 - 10 students off task: Positive narration or proximity (example: speaking to the whole class, “Most groups are on the second or third question. If you need help, raise your hand.”
• 10+ students off task: Reset expectations with the whole class. Use an attention-getting signal, remind the class of the expectations, and then scan for compliance. (example: “Just a reminder, we are on chapter 2, page 31…” --teacher scans the room for compliance -- “Good. I’ll give you a few more seconds to get to page 31. Almost everyone is there. Great.”

O : Objective | P O ISE Framework

Align the objective with grade-level standards:

It is essential that the objective aligns with grade-level standards, unless there are special circumstances that the school has shared with you. The common core website lists standards by grade level , and you can use this to plan your objective.

Communicate the objective:

Have the objective of the lesson posted and clearly visible to you, the students, and the recruitment or leadership team members that are observing. You would be surprised how well this keeps teachers focused on their objective.

Choose assessments that align directly with the objective, and assess throughout the lesson, not just at the end. This will ensure students are on track to master the objective.

I : Interesting | PO I SE Framework

Sometimes teachers are so focused on the details that they forget the very basic concept that the lesson should be interesting! Put yourself in the students’ shoes. What would keep you engaged during a 45 minute lesson with a teacher you’ve never met?

No matter how fascinating your lesson content, if you are doing most of the talking and students are passively listening (or just appear to be listening, it’s hard to tell if you aren’t checking) they are probably only partly engaged. Students should be interacting with you, other students, or the content, for the duration of the lesson.

Insider Tip: Use a hook to draw students in right at the beginning of a lesson. A video, a demonstration, a joke, or an interesting fact will get their attention and help them feel invested in the lesson.

S : Simple | POI S E Framework

We’ve seen hundreds of demo lessons, and it’s rare that the timing is perfect. The lesson almost always runs over, not under. In other words, most teachers over-plan. This is not a dealbreaker, but administrators like to see that you can teach a lesson from start to finish in the amount of time given. In order to achieve this, you must keep it simple. This doesn’t mean that you should “dumb down” the rigor, but you might need to decrease the scope of your objective. You can always create a back-up plan for extension activities in case you breeze through the lesson.

A rule of thumb is that the lesson goal or objective should be simple enough that students can state what they are learning when asked.

Insider Tip : Break each section of the lesson (Do Now, Guided Practice, etc) into time increments, then practice using either a timer or video recording device. We highly recommend the latter. Keep rehearsing until you can comfortably execute the lesson in the allotted time. It might take a few tries, but we can assure you it’s worth it.

E : Expectations | P OIS E Framework

Set expectations for behavior before you start your lesson. This is perhaps the most important piece of advice we have for you.

• Use a pre-made chart, especially for lower grades, with three simple rules. Use images to support the words for Special Education or Grades PK-6.
• Your explanation of the expectations should be very brief—two minutes at most.
• Make the explanation interactive. For example, if you want students to use a quiet thumb to show they have an answer, ask them to demonstrate that when you first present the expectation so that you can check for understanding.
• Post directions fo students so they know what to do during work time. This way, if students are off-task or unsure what to do, you can point to the directions to redirect them. This frees up your time to assess and conference with students, which is a much more valuable use of your time. It’s also a less-intrusive behavioral correction, and has the added benefit that it also helps administrators and recruiters who are observing follow along.

Reflecting on the Demo Lesson

Chances are, your demo lesson is not going to go exactly the way you planned. Does any lesson ever? The good news is, even if you feel it was a complete disaster, remember 1) it usually wasn’t as bad as you think, and 2) you have an opportunity to discuss it during the debrief.

We have seen quite a few demo lessons that were less than stellar but the candidate still received an offer . Why? Because they recognized what went wrong and took ownership over what they would do differently if given another opportunity. School administrators want teachers who are reflective and receptive to feedback because these are the teachers they can work with and mold into effective teachers at their school. If you can demonstrate that you are thoughtful, coachable, and committed to constantly improving --  you can save an imperfect demo lesson and get a teaching job that you love.

Additional Resources

• Course: Deliver a Successful Demo Lesson
• Course: Exemplar Demo Lesson and Sample Lesson Plans

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10 Elements To Include in Your Demo Lesson for Teacher Interviews

This is your time to show them you know what you’re doing.

Sweating over needing to teach a demo lesson as part of your new-teacher interview process? We’ve all been there! That’s why we’ve gathered this list of must-have elements to include in a demo lesson. These are the lesson elements interviewers will be looking for, and including them will show that you know your stuff. Plus, we’ve included some ideas for demo lesson topics toward the end of this article!

Make sure you start off your lesson with an engaging hook. It doesn’t have to be very long, it just has to be interesting and connected to the learning goal. It can be a quick story, an interesting question, or maybe even a short picture book or picture. Keep it simple and engage your interviewer audience.

For example: If you’re teaching a lesson about about fractions, introduce the lesson by talking about pizza and how many slices make up the whole pizza. Make it fun and relatable.

2. Standards-Aligned Learning Goal

You need to create a learning goal that is aligned with the standard that you’re teaching. The learning goal also has to be measurable and objective, so use verbs like explain , describe , identify , and the like. Use the language from the content standard and make it a part of your learning goal too. This will show that you understand the standard that is being taught and how to use it in a learning goal.

For example: Let’s say you’re teaching CCSS.RL.3.3—Describe characters in a story (e.g., their traits, motivations, feelings) and explain how their actions contribute to the sequence of events. A learning goal might look like this: “We are learning how to describe a character’s traits, motivations, feelings, and actions.” A second learning goal for this standard could be “We are learning how to explain how the character’s actions contributed to the sequence of events.”

3. Modeling and Metacognition

Show the interview panel that you know how to teach a skill by modeling it during your lesson. While you’re modeling how to do the skill (like finding a common denominator or determining the main idea), also use metacognition . Think out loud about your thinking and demonstrate to the panel how you will think out loud with your future students.

For example: Let’s say you’re teaching about determining the main idea. You might think out loud by saying that you didn’t quite understand the main idea the first time you read the passage, so you have to read it again. Then literally read the passage again and think out loud about how you focused in on key details to determine the main idea.

4. Check for Understanding

Another element for teacher demo lessons is making sure you’re checking your students’ understanding . When you check for understanding during your lessons, you’re showing that you’re monitoring your students’ progress toward meeting the learning goal. It’s also an opportunity to show how you’ll adjust the pacing of your lesson if students aren’t understanding the skill you’re teaching.

For example: You can do this by simulating that your interview panel has whiteboards and asking them to show their answers on their boards. If you’re teaching a group of students, you can pass out whiteboards or use sheet protectors with a white paper inside. You can also check for understanding by walking around as students write answers down or by listening to student conversations during think-pair-share moments.

5. Differentiation

When you’re teaching your lesson, make sure you use differentiation . Adding this to your lesson will show the interviewers that you know how to scaffold for students who need support and also extend the learning for your students who need more challenge.

For example: You can ask varying levels of questions while you’re checking for understanding. Consider bringing different levels of independent practice and end the lesson by calling a small group over to reteach, after you’ve noticed the students who need more support. Some other examples of differentiating during your lesson could be using various leveled passages or math tasks during the lesson, or showing that you know how to adjust during the lesson if students aren’t getting the skill right away.

6. Depth of Knowledge Questions

One of the other important elements for teacher demo lessons is using depth of knowledge (DOK) questions. While you ask students questions during the lesson, use DOK questions to make sure students are being challenged. The DOK questions vary from Level 1 to Level 4, Level 4 being the most in-depth and thought-provoking. Incorporating this type of questioning into your lesson will show the interview panel that you will challenge your students with thoughtful questioning.

For example: Level 1 is recall , so ask literal questions that students can answer based on their book or other printables that are in front of them. Questions that are Level 2 are more concept-oriented, so ask questions that make students distinguish items or determine cause and effect. Level 3 is strategic thinking . Students might have to cite evidence or come up with an argument when answering these types of questions. Finally, Level 4 is extended thinking . These questions challenge students to design, make connections, or prove a concept.

7. Opportunities for Student Talk

Don’t be the only one who’s talking during the lesson. Invite students (or the interview panel) to turn and talk , think-pair-share, or use A/B partnering to share ideas during the lesson. Students might work together on a question during the check-for-understanding portion too.

For example: If you’re teaching a math lesson, have students pair up to work on one of the problems together.

8. Closure Questions

Always ask students at the end of the lesson what the learning goal was. Students should be able to tell you what they were working toward when the lesson is over. You can also ask students additional questions that connect to the learning goal. They can be “how” or “why” questions or questions based on DOK.

For example: Closure questions can be something like “Why is it important to _?” or “How do you _?” Consider asking students to fill out an exit ticket so they have one more opportunity to show what they learned in the lesson.

9. Matching Independent Practice

If you’re going to bring an independent practice task to pass out at the end of your lesson, it must align with the learning goal. Come prepared with various levels of independent practice and be creative in how you want the students to show what they’ve learned.

For example: If you’re teaching a math lesson, you can bring a handout of math problems, task cards, or an interactive activity that’s done online. If you’re teaching an ELA lesson, bring a reading passage, writing task, or literacy activity for students to demonstrate their understanding. Just make sure it relates back to your learning goal.

10. Personality

One of the most important elements for teacher demo lessons is to show your personality. Have fun, be yourself, and let your passion for teaching shine through!

For example: Smile, make silly jokes, make connections to your daily life, and give a glimpse of how you are as a human. Be relatable.

Here are 10 topic ideas for elementary demo lessons:

• Determining main idea
• Comparing fractions
• Citing evidence
• Rounding numbers
• Comparing/contrasting story elements
• Academic vocabulary
• Comparing decimals
• Finding the perimeter
• Describing characters
• Determining author’s point of view

Here are 10 topic ideas for secondary demo lessons:

• Annotating text
• Figurative language
• Story structure
• Poetry analysis
• Square roots
• Coordinating planes
• Factoring by grouping
• Percentages

For more new-teacher inspiration or ideas for a demo lesson, check out the 10 Best Books for New Teachers .

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