Your weekly source of learner-centered inspiration
January 25, 2024
Dear Educator,
When I was younger and struggling to learn concepts for a test my mom would always tell me, “Don’t worry. You will really learn it when you have to teach it.” Two things she knew way before I ever did were that: 1) I was going to be a teacher, and 2) the best way to learn something is to teach it.
She was right! As soon as I became a teacher, I learned more deeply about the content because I cared about teaching my students.
Last week our team visited SEEQS and Mālama Honua, two amazing public charter schools in Hawai’i. We all left very inspired and one of the Bright Spots that really resonated was a middle school student explaining the power of learning by teaching.
With Gratitude,
We want to hear from you! Share your Learner-Centered Bright Spot with us here.
BRIGHT SPOT OF THE WEEK
Learning by teaching
During our visit we were led by student ambassadors at SEEQS who shared about their school, what they were learning, and how Essential Questions of Sustainability (EQS) courses are a central part of their learning experience. In these courses they have choice in which questions they want to explore and they explained that the Essential Questions are “big guiding questions they are working to answer through field work, research, and projects”. They also emphasized, “there is not just one way to answer the question and the learning is not ever done.”
At the end of the semester, they have an exhibition to share what they are learning and they often use them to teach the community what they learned in their project. Given my own experience learning more from teaching, I asked our ambassador what she learned by teaching her community. She said, “I definitely had a much better understanding of what I was doing and really had to learn it so that I could teach others.”
Creating opportunities for students to learn, explore, and teach others is not only more engaging, it actually helps students learn more deeply.
How have you used teaching as a strategy to impact learning? Reply to this newsletter to share or tag me @katiemartinedu and #LCBrightSpots on social.
RESOURCE ROUNDUP
Get to know SEEQS and access learner-centered performance assessment resources.
1. SEEQS on the LCC Podcasts. ICYMI Buffy Cushman-Patz, who started SEEQS and is the Executive Director, shared all about the school model and making it a reality. Listen to episode 16.
2. Sharing best practices. Access a detailed model of how SEEQS runs their Essential Questions of Sustainability (EQS) courses.
