Learning by Teaching

Hackley Perspectives: By Renee Pabst, Chair of Health Education, Hackley School

Hackley seventh and first grade buddies learning together.

How can we, as teachers, best transform classroom learning from “stuff you need to know for the test” to meaningful, internalized understanding that stays with our students for life? This question bears on every subject area we teach, certainly, but when I became Chair of Health Education at a K-12 independent school, it’s something I found myself thinking about constantly. In my previous role as Director of Health Education at the college level, I worked with older students who were that much more likely to understand this educational content as essential and practical to their personal well-being. How would we integrate the knowledge, belief, attitude, and skills that students in the primary, middle school and high school years would take with them beyond the classroom?

One day during my first year at Hackley, Ms. Mwakitawa’s first grade class asked to use the teaching kitchen in the Johnson Center. When I stopped by to see how things were going, I learned they were exploring the “MyPlate” curriculum as part of their Social Studies unit. Working with fruits, vegetables, dairy, and whole grains, the children were making snacks that reflected the lessons they had learned.

Students worked together to create pictures of a nutritionally balanced plate.

I knew that the seventh graders, as part of their nutrition unit, also studied “MyPlate” (as defined by the U.S.D.A.) and this presented a great opportunity. What if we challenged the seventh graders to learn this lesson and then prepare to teach it to the first graders? It seemed like a great chance to bridge the groups and an opportunity to reap some added benefits.

We know, for example, that there is little more exciting for young students than the mentoring they receive from older peers. Hearing the lessons about nutrition from students they look up to would be different than hearing the same information from a teacher.

As teachers, we also know that in order to teach something to someone else, you need to learn it very well yourself. Our seventh graders would need to learn the components of MyPlate and also internalize the importance of each component so they could effectively model it for the younger students. I thought this would ensure that the lessons would begin to take root in their own behaviors…this was my hope, any way! I also hoped they would gain communication and leadership skills, and the confidence gained from sharing their own mastery with others.

First graders and their seventh grade teachers presented their “plate” together.

We pulled together the cross-divisional teaching team — the first grade teachers, the seventh grade health teachers, and me — to discuss the possibilities. Each teacher prioritized the opportunity to collaborate and to build something greater than their separate curriculum could allow. We looked at the first grade curriculum, what they would learn and what knowledge and tools they would bring to the project. We then designed three lessons built around these goals, which the teachers reviewed and approved, and took those lessons to the seventh grade classes.

Over the course of the unit, the seventh graders would engage in their own in depth lesson on the MyPlate curriculum, learning what food groups they need to consume, what benefits each food group yields, and how this benefits their bodies. Then, in the next class, they would learn the lesson plan they would be teaching to the first grade, and practice presenting it.

Helping ensure a balanced plate in the Dining Hall.

It was fun watching the kids. They were so excited about teaching this to the younger students that we had more volunteer teachers than we had subjects to teach! They were also nervous; they wanted to know, would the first graders ask questions they couldn’t answer? Would they pay attention? The very questions, of course, all teachers ask themselves. But they also took this very seriously because they knew how important it was for the first graders to learn about this, and they didn’t want to let them down. They wanted to be good teachers.

The seventh graders thought through how best to respond to wrong answers without discouraging the students, and how to come up with innovative ways to encourage participation from even the quiet students, and ensure that students sustained attention. Overall, they needed to consider how to get beyond just teaching the material in order to connect with the social and emotional aspects of education. As they prepared and the more they practiced and thought, the more they realized how hard it is to be a teacher.

Their own learning was put to the test when it came time to model these lessons at lunch with the first graders. They needed to eat the recommended foods themselves — or lose all credibility with their young pupils. As one student noted as they led the younger children in the “Two Bite Club,” testing out healthy options from each food group, “I think about how I’m telling the first graders to do this while I should also focus on doing so myself!” At the very least, they knew, they had to exert self-control to not grimace with distaste, and risk undermining the whole lesson.

Buddy Lunch in the Upper School dining hall.

The seventh graders, returning to their own dining hall and the opportunity to choose their lunch, now reflect that they are more conscious of their own nutrition. One observed, “Teaching the first graders got me thinking about how I should probably try new foods more often. I tend to stick to things that I have already eaten, and I don’t love trying new foods, so that is something that I would like to improve.” Another said, “One thing I learned about myself while working with the first graders is that I did not know how unhealthy my breakfast was,” while another observed, “It was different telling somebody what they should eat when I am the one who usually is told to eat healthy foods.” Surely, there are a few grateful parents among our seventh grade families after this exercise.

My goal with this unit was to firmly establish a good understanding of proper nutritional choices among our seventh graders, but the added surprise was seeing how much positive impact this lesson delivered in terms of social and emotional education. Students learned to be flexible in communication and to frame information in ways that were engaging and understandable to first graders. They learned to engage with their first graders in a way that made them feel comfortable and allowed space for questions and conversation. They grew in self-assurance and confidence as they realized that they have something important to offer. Knowing a subject well enough to teach it to someone else is empowering. They also learned to be patient as they worked with their young students. At the same time, they were amazed to find how smart our first graders are, how much they knew and how much they were able to learn. One observed, that “I learned how to be persuasive while getting my first grader to try some of the different foods.” Another said, “I think it was challenging to tell them that broccoli was better than Skittles. But I did find a way to say that in a fun way instead of just saying it straightforward.”

We found that the first graders also rose to the challenges differently than they did for their regular teachers, so eager were they to do well for their special visitors. They delivered their best behavior and their very best effort for their older buddies. Later in the year, they returned the teaching lesson to their seventh grade buddies when they traveled to a nearby farm, and then presented all they had seen that expanded on the MyPlate theme to their seventh grade friends. And then, everyone learned to make nutritional smoothies, and enjoyed them together!

How many more great lessons can we grow through together? What more opportunities can we create for peer to peer education, mindful as we are research shows that peer to peer education has even more impact on those doing the teaching than on those being taught?