I've just started TAing for the first time and, while I have one seminar group that are talkative and reasonably informed, I just had a seminar that dragged like hell. :-s It's a first year introductory class to a subject that they will not have studied previously and it's an elective (so includes students from other disciplines), but there was just a basic lack of any general knowledge that could be drawn upon AND the concepts we were discussing were misunderstood by wide margins. So, I'm intending to go back to the drawing board for next week's lesson plan - I'm even thinking of having a basic lesson plan (for the talkative and informed group) and a more well-structured lesson plan (for the painful group.)

Does anyone have any useful time-eaters that also make sure people get a grasp of the subject? I can't take a semester of slow seminars.

Oh I hate it when this happens. See if you can find a relevant paper/basic chapter they can all read. Give them 15 minutes to read it individually, 10 minutes to discuss together in small groups or pairs, and then time for feeding back to the class (this works better if you give each group a different paper to read, then you can ask them to tell the class what the paper was about). And voila, that'll use up a lot of time!

Thanks Star-Shaped for the advice. I'm just worried that following your suggestion will encourage them not to do the required reading because they'll expect to be getting enough info in class to survive through that seminar.

My module leader suggested getting the students to design presentations for the rest of the group and suggested having a roundup of newspaper coverage, but I dunno; they'll eat up time but seem to encourage laziness. I'm really looking for an idea that will, if not force them to talk in a open group-wide discussion, force them to do the readings and understand the concepts.

Are you using a textbook by any chance? If so check to see if there are any online resources. I've found using the 'have you understood this concept' end of chapter quizzes helps. What I've done is divided the big group into smaller groups and made them do the quiz and then each group has to report back their answers and reasoning for them to the full group. I find particularly in 'bad seminar groups' there are often a few people, who do know their stuff, but feel initimidated in the full group because they don't want to look like teacher's pet (first years still do think like schoolkids), but who will talk in the smaller groups.

Firstly, if it is not compulsory, this is not really a group yet, just a collection of individuals, so you need to get them working together. So, firstly get the members to introduce themselves, this will also give you an idea of their starting points. Then explain to them what your expectations are - for example if you intend to give them reading to do, explain how you will check that they have indeed read, and understood, whatever it is. Then I would do as has been suggested, give them something to read, get them into groups and ask them to produce a presentation about the reading. This could be the same info, when you could get them to critique the presentations, or on different readings, when you could ask the rest if they thought the presentation did justice to the subject. You can then suggest ways they could have improved their presentations. Follow this with the work you expect them to do by the next session, also get them into groups so they can present something to the class relate this to the reading that you expect them to do if you want (you could prepare a checklist for the groups). Tell them there will be some questions for them to answer concerning the reading(maybe one of these could be related to one of the references in the paper to encourage wider reading) and that there will be questions after each presentation is completed. Don't think of this as a way of getting through the time allotted, make it active and dynamic. You may find this group will be better in the long run, talkative groups may just be trying to take charge!