Student Tutorials
This year, while working with a group 6th graders in a Science class, I was trying to help a student with special needs understand a concept. After explaining the concept to the student at least two times, the student was unable to understand the material. That is when his buddy stepped in and said "Ok, John (pseudonym), look at me and listen . . ." His friend was able to slowly explain the situation to him in a language that he was able to understand and, in a way, that John was receptive to and in the end his buddy felt good for helping. I learned two things that day, students can teach students (sometimes better than teachers) and students like helping other students learn.
First, I learned that students can be more receptive and able to learn from their peers because they are less removed from learning the content that teachers are. Think how it has been since you have learned how to multiply fractions, describe the difference between a noun and a verb, learned the causes of WWII. It's been awhile, and to many teachers we just view them as simple practices that are easy to learn (ok maybe we still have a hard time doing anything with fractions!). But, the reason for this is, we don't remember what made a certain concept click in our brain, students who have just learned a concept do.
Second, students like helping students learn. The students in my school are relatively close, they care about one another and like to see the others succeed. So, when they see a student struggle, they love to help. My guess is partly because it makes them feel good that they have done something meaningful and partly because they like that they get to interact with others students.
As educators, we need to embrace this idea in a way that allows students to take what they have recently learned and help other students. This can be done through student created tutorials. By creating tutorials, students are able to research a topic, restate what they have learned (which will ingrain their learning even more), and able to do so in a way that makes them excited. What is even better is, by creating tutorials, students who miss a day will be able to have a place to go to catch up on the learning that took place. Imagine not having 10 students coming to you asking you to re-teach an entire lesson because they were ill, but go to a website that can teach them the concept that they missed, and that was created by their peers!
First, I learned that students can be more receptive and able to learn from their peers because they are less removed from learning the content that teachers are. Think how it has been since you have learned how to multiply fractions, describe the difference between a noun and a verb, learned the causes of WWII. It's been awhile, and to many teachers we just view them as simple practices that are easy to learn (ok maybe we still have a hard time doing anything with fractions!). But, the reason for this is, we don't remember what made a certain concept click in our brain, students who have just learned a concept do.
Second, students like helping students learn. The students in my school are relatively close, they care about one another and like to see the others succeed. So, when they see a student struggle, they love to help. My guess is partly because it makes them feel good that they have done something meaningful and partly because they like that they get to interact with others students.
As educators, we need to embrace this idea in a way that allows students to take what they have recently learned and help other students. This can be done through student created tutorials. By creating tutorials, students are able to research a topic, restate what they have learned (which will ingrain their learning even more), and able to do so in a way that makes them excited. What is even better is, by creating tutorials, students who miss a day will be able to have a place to go to catch up on the learning that took place. Imagine not having 10 students coming to you asking you to re-teach an entire lesson because they were ill, but go to a website that can teach them the concept that they missed, and that was created by their peers!
The cool thing is, these tutorials do not have to be long, they can be done in any content area, and they can be used as a formative assessment to see if your students are understanding the concepts being taught in class in a fun way. Below is an example of a simple math tutorial I made using three things:
(1) A Windows Touch Screen Computer
(2) A Bamboo Pen
(3) X-Box game bar (free on windows platforms).
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