This was my first time TAing. I wanted my first lecture to be a tour de force. It was an important subject that they needed to know for every subsequent lab. In TA training, we learned that we as learners have three different learning styles: learn by doing, learn by reading, and learn by hearing/seeing. I thought I would introduce the students to their new environment and to the idea of programming by engaging all three learning styles. To accommodate the learn-by-reading crowd, I spent some time writing up a detailed step-by-step worksheet of what was about to be done in class. In class, I went over the worksheet step by step and forced everyone to act along. This worked mostly, but when someone had a problem, it would slow people down. By stopping after each step and making sure everyone was on the same page, however, it was not hard to fix small problems. At the end of the lecture, it seemed that most students had a firm grasp of how to use the environment and how to write a basic program.
During later labs, students would come in having registered late. Since the first lab was such a prerequisite, they needed to start there. Fortunately, I was able to refer them to my worksheet, and most were able to follow it. Those that had trouble could come in during lab.
For the second lab, I also wrote up a worksheet, but this time I remember people moved through it more at their own pace (or I might have stepped through it again). Also some who had missed the first lab worked on the first worksheet.
During a later part of the lab, when I had stopped writing worksheets, students actually asked for them as it seemed to help. In addition, I got email from students that were not even in my lab that were using the worksheet. Generally, people were very happy with the worksheet, and it seemed to solve some administrative problems, like what to tell those that registered late.C.1
Notice that the goals for the first day are relatively ambitious, using a Makefile and emacs all in the first day. But, all my students were able to do it.
Throughout the term, I would give the students examples in live lectures on the whiteboard. These examples would illustrate some of the concepts and methods to used learned in the assignment. In hindsight, I think more students would learn from such examples if they were formulated in a step-by-step worksheet as well.