Students Teaching Students

Many students in Northwest ISD have the opportunity to take part in accelerated math courses. In some case this may mean the student is taking a course one grade level higher than the one they are actually enrolled in. For Steven, a fifth grader at Lakeview Elementary, it actually means more. As a third grader he took fifth grade math. As a fourth grader he took sixth grade Pre-AP Math. His knowledge and passion for math have been evident for a few years now. He is currently taking seventh grade Pre-AP/GT Math, receiving his daily instruction from Mrs. Horeftis at Medlin Middle School. 

Being aware of his giftedness in math, Steven was self motivated to support his peers as they work through their math curriculum. Creating instructional videos to reinforce concepts being taught in fifth grade seemed like the perfect solution. He was certainly up for all the challenges that he might face along the way. With the support of his teacher, Mrs. Bingham and his GATES teacher, Mrs. Andrews, a plan was established and Steven got straight to work. 

Currently, a handful of instructional videos have been created by Steven. He uses an app called Doceri that allows him the ability to introduce or review a concept all while annotating the screen to show work and explain his thinking. Creating instructional videos for your peers takes a lot of problem solving and preparation. It’s important to know exactly what you want to say and how you’ll say it, so others can learn from you. Steven expressed how challenging that could be at times by stating, “The most challenging part was making sure I didn't stumble or say the wrong words when I was recording. That was difficult because I had to know exactly what I was going to say and if I messed up a few times, it might take me thirty minutes to make a one minute video.”

As it is commonly heard, we know we fully understand something when we can effectively teach others. And teaching others, especially your peers, is so empowering for young learners. When asked what he has enjoyed most about this process, Steven said, “I like being the “teacher” when I created the videos. The best part about being the teacher is that you can use a lot of resources to help student learn quicker and understand it better”.

Once the video has been created, it’s uploaded to YouTube, it will be assigned to students via EdPuzzle. EdPuzzle allows videos from YouTube to become a formative assessment that is fully interactive. The teacher, or Steven in this case, can designate stopping points throughout the video to check for understanding and measure engagement. These stopping points can be a quick multiple choice question or a short answer typed response.

Steven and his classmate, Haley, will be presenting this project at Expo 2018. Together they will share about the impact these instructional videos have had in the classroom. As the year progresses, it is Mrs. Bingham’s hope that the videos will become a station students can rotate through when they are needing support