Students Teach the Class

Description

Verb

Explain

Place in the Hybrid Sequence

  • Prepare for Class
  • ✔️In-Class
  • After Class

Template

Template and Example adapted from “Peer Lessons” in Active Learning by Mel Silberman

A student teaching by writing on a whiteboard

Taken October 30, 2019. Copyright Cal State LA.

Students can receive a presentation rubric, their group, and their topic before class.

  1. Students join a group, which receives from the faculty a topic, concept, or skill to teach others.
    • Topics could be “the structure of an effective paragraph.”
    • All the topics for a class session would be interrelated. For example, “how to make a claim and provide evidence.”
  2. Each group designs a way to present or teach its topic to the rest of the class. Groups can:
    • Provide visual aids
    • Develop a demonstration sketch
    • Use examples or analogies to make teaching points
    • Hold discussions, run quiz games, role play, or introduce a case study
    • Ask questions
  3. Each group teaches their short lesson (about 10 minutes)
  4. Students answer follow-up questions from peers.

Example

A faculty assigns a sociology class to develop classroom presentations on four major issues of aging.

  1. Students form four groups.
  2. Each group is assigned a major issue.
  3. Students choose the following formats for peer teaching
    • The aging process: A true/false quiz game on facts of aging
    • Physical Aspects of Aging: A simulation of aspects of aging
    • Stereotypes of Aging: A writing task where students write about society’s perception of the elderly
    • Loss of independence: a role play exercise involving an adult child discussing issues of transition with their parent.

Reference

Silberman, M. L. (1996). Active Learning: 101 Strategies to Teach Any Subject (1st edition). Prentice Hall.