I recently started using the book The Secrets of Facilitation, it's packed with wonderful ideas. The one I used yesterday was 'checkpoints' (with encouraging results).
Checkpoints are structured stops throughout the session, designed to bring order to the potential complexity of the conversations.
The three checkpoint concepts are review (review quickly what has been accomplished), preview (describe briefly what the group is about to do), and big view (describe how the previous two points fit into the larger objective of the meeting or the project).
This is becoming one of the most valuable books in my collection.