How to engage a large class? Teaching strategies that have worked for you I am a PhD student and will be teaching my first class in the fall. I would like to have an engaging class. Meaning that I would rather not just stand at the front of the class and lecture the entire time. I have had some teaching experience with smaller class sizes (up to 20) but am not sure how to handle a larger class (enrolment of 80+).

For smaller classes, I have used: in class discussions, games, breaking out into small groups, student-led discussions/debates. I feel these would not work for a large class.

What are your tried and true methods and ideas for engaging a larger class?

My class is a 3rd year class, expected enrolment of 80, and I will have access to an iClicker.

Added notes based on comments:


The class I am teaching is Adult Development and Aging
Based in Canada
I will have one teaching assistant (TA), with about 70 hours
Clicker questions are nice. I use them. They break up the monologue, which is good. The change in mode "wakes the classroom up". They don't "take" much time. They give you feedback on whether something was clear or not. But the amount of active participation from the students is limited; just press A, B, or C. For harder question a lot of students choose not to participate (which is also a sign). 

An more intensive method I have used is to give students cards in different colors, and say all red students solve this question, all blue students that question, and all green students such question. After some time, they are asked to form groups of three, each a different color, and explain their answer to the rest. This is much more time intensive (it took about half the lecture), but the students are much more engaged. I was quite happy with the trade-off in that particular situation, but in many cases the cost of time would be just too big.