Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Let Students Teach the Class

Adapted from Alan November (pp.188-193), Curriculum 21 (ASCD, 2010) by Heidi Hayes Jacobs.

In one class, a teacher, Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano, did just that by having her students create math tutorials. The concept that one learns by doing was directly applied. Check out her teacher's blog, "Is It Worth It? Student Created Tutorials?" Here she explains how she used this approach, and includes her student-produced videos.

Would you consider creating such video tutorials in your own classroom? If so, for what concepts would you want students to do so? How would you organize the project? How would you assess student work? If you would not have students create video tutorials, why not? What was your response to the tutorials that the 4th graders in Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano's class produced?

7 comments:

Tim said...

I think this a great idea. I like how it allows students to make videos for future students to use. It also allows for students to become experts in the material that they are presenting. This is a new creative approach for students to present to the class, allowing them to use technology and work cooperatively with other students.

Tami said...

I think the idea of if you can teach it you know it holds true for any student at any grade. This idea of having student create tutorials for current and future students really takes the idea above and places into practice. I think that for science, using student tutorials is a great idea because of the concepts that are taught. Science is like learning a new lanuage that some students get very easily from the way the teacher is explaining to where students ask other student for help reexplaining what the teacher just said. I think that student tutorials could be used within any unit of study within biology.

Kelly said...

I really liked this idea. I often have my students help eachother out when we are doing something and some students are not understanding. Sometimes the students understand what their peers are telling them then what the teacher is saying. I think this would be an interesting way to assess students. Each video had the basic concepts, but their tutorials were so different. This would probably get the struggling learners actively engaged and give the bad test takers a chance to show their stuff. The tutorials could be used in any subject area, not just math. This is definetely something I would consider doing in my classroom next year.

RyanCleary said...

I agree with the ideas others have shared here. This is a fantastic idea that gives students an opportunity to share their understanding with others. I think that this is extremely beneficial for students because it shows evidence of a deeper understanding. Students must have truly mastered a topic to be able to explain it to someone else by creating a video. Also, this is a very novel and memorable experience. It is something that students will remember for a long time and the excitement of the project will allow the student to associate the learning to a lot of schema that they will be able to access in the future.

Dan said...

Having students create a lesson tutorial would be a wonderful idea ... except for me to deviate from the curriculum I must give supporting field-tested evidence that supports my endevour. It would also require that the other teachers in my subject area agree to do the same in-class project. The only evidence that I saw for the effectiveness of this project is the "I feel" comments. The comments were powerful and made much sense to a classroom teacher, but might not pass muster with the administration.

Jennifer F. said...

I think this was such a wonderful idea. The first line of the article says it all...."if you can teach it, you know it" So true! If your students can take the time to verbally express what they are thinking then they are knowledgeable of the concept they are speaking about. Its a great way for the students to be creative in how they teach. It provides them with an understanding of why (especially in math) completing a step by step process arrives at the answer. The article also makes a note of how students may be more open to listening to a peer at time. This is a great way to incorporate collaborative work in the classroom. The students can bounce ideas on concepts off one another when creating. As a future teacher, I would be all for this in my classroom.

Ellis Math said...

What a great project! I having been researching this topic in hopes of having my 8th Grade Algebra 1 students complete something like this. Did you give them a grade on this project? If so, how did you assess them?

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