Two things can help students truly master a topic: discovering concepts on their own and teaching them to others. To help your students become masters, give them opportunities to discover and to teach.
Many students simply do not absorb, understand, or remember material that a teacher explains at the board in front of a class. If students are given opportunities to discover how to do something on their own (or better yet, in groups), and then to present their discoveries to the class, they will generally have a much deeper understanding of the concepts being studied. They will internalize the rules and the process.
Here are three lesson examples that compare the "traditional" teacher-centered approach and the more engaging student centered alternatives. The activities presented here can be adapted to nearly any topic you will be teaching.
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Surface Area and Volume |
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Basic Operations with Integers |
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Writing Algebraic Expressions |
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