Student as Teacher: Learning Technique

The learning tactic I am trying today with my grade nine son is one that I first heard Dr. Phil McGraw suggest (in the context of little kids learning to toilet train) and more recently mentioned by Cal Newport in the book How to Be a High School Superstar. It is to have the person who is trying to learn it, teach it. (Dr. Phil said to have kids teach their doll pee in a potty then they will start doing so themselves. I tried it with my younger son and the tactic didn't work as he just was not ready. Whatever.)




Thus today I will have my ninth grader create a presentation to teach all the rules of powers and roots. It seems that all the rules are jumbled up in his head. Reading the text and doing problems has not gotten him to the level of mastery as defined by the computer program that he does along with an online math class (Art of Problem Solving). What has not worked well enough either is me explaining the rules and working problems alongside him.



I think the math class he is taking and this text are unique and I'm not sure it is in a good way. In chapter one Algebra I they are teaching topics that are covered at the 50% and 75% point in Khan Academy's Algebra I. I have two public school texts on hand here that do not have any of this level of difficulty in the entire course. In Saxon the easier stuff is lesson 118 of 120! I still can't find equivalent complex problems anywhere in Saxon.




Yes it is true that my son is in week six of a class and is stuck on content covered in chapter one, from week one, in Art of Problem Solving. We are both angry about this and so far we have not wanted this class or text to defeat us and we refuse to quit. I think my tenacity is fueling my son but honestly he has not asked to quit the class (maybe he knows from our past experience with various other endeavors that I would never let him). It has been made clear to my sons by both my husband and I that we are not quitters and we do not take the easy way out. We are responsible and loyal and we stick with things to the end. If in the end we decide something was not worth it or was more negative than positive we choose to not renew for the next session.




So today I will force him to review the text and other materials that explain the rules and he will have to create a Power Point presentation with the rules and examples. I think the time is right for him to re-read the content in the text with fresh, rested eyes and we'll see if anything suddenly clicks.

(I considered the use of the whiteboard but it is messy and smelly and temporary, and its space is limited.)

We'll see how this goes.