A Good Final Project: Students Creating Videos to Teach Other Students

I am launching my Ted-Ed project #StudentsTeachingStudents, and I think it was pure luck that I had such an amazing group of students to work with this year. Each of my Algebra 2 Honors students created a short video of a concept of their choice that they learned in my class this year. They used Stop Motion, time lapse, iMovie, Explain Everything and Premier among other things. They edited and re-edited so that their videos could be watched by other students who would use their lessons to understand the topic at hand. They dropped their videos in the Ted-Ed “Create a Lesson” format, and came up with multiple choice and free response questions and included links that viewers could click on for enrichment or practice.

Here are a couple of examples.

Here's where to get these videos:

This YouTube channel, #StudentsTeachingStudents, hosts all of their videos. There are more to come. This will not be limited to just math, but right now, it's a start. 

This spreadsheet contains all of their Ted-Ed lessons, though some are still a work in progress.

This is a snapshot of what this student's particular Ted-Ed lesson looks like. Your students can watch the video, answer questions, and then find out more about the topic in the Dig Deeper section. You can customize the lesson how you would like, and you, as the teacher, can see their answers to the questions as well.

Dig Deeper example

Multiple Choice example - will tell you if you are correct.

Feel free to use these videos or lessons to help your students who were absent or who want enrichment or if you would like to flip your classroom. 

Also, if you would like to add to the library, no matter what your discipline is, please email me at lisa.winer@saintandrews.net.

Want to do this project with your students? Here are some resources:

• What Makes a Good Student Taught Lesson? I created this, but I must thank Rushton Hurley, of Next Vista For Learning, who happened to be running a contest just as my students were making the videos. He helped me a lot with copyright issues (students should only use creative commons music, etc.), citations, and he has a great eye for how to make a lesson better, i.e., hold a slide for a few seconds if it has a formula on it. 

• Form 1:  Students fill this out before they have finished their lesson. You may need to copy this and make it your own. I had students upload a picture of their outline, but I think you can only do that for your own Google group. It is KEY to getting students to commit to their outline and write it out - a script, if you will - so that they don't waste time shooting a video that you won't accept.

• Form#2 which guides them through the making of the Ted-Ed lesson 

• Grading Rubric - again thanks to Rushton for his guidelines, which helped me to format mine. 

Here is a little history on the project. 

A number of years ago, I went to the Anja S. Greer Conference on Mathematics and Technology at Philips Exeter Academy. This conference is phenomenal - I've been twice and would love to go back again. Alan November was a keynote speaker and spoke about students creating videos to help other students learn. It stuck with me in the back of my mind, but it seemed like a lot of work. I was right.

I am the faculty sponsor of a math club, and for a few years, I suggested that students create teaching videos instead of peer tutoring for community service. No one did.

Then last year, I saw an application for the Ted-Ed Innovative Educator (TIE), Cohort Three, and I decided to apply. I filled out everything very naturally, and then the question came...what project would you like to pursue if you became a TIE? In the back of my mind, I always envisioned students learning from other students. Even though it had been a few years and I hadn't done anything with my own students, I decided it was something I had really wanted to do, and the words flowed. 

I got the invite to be a TIE, and now I actually was nervous...this sounded so hard! But we had monthly video meetings and an amazing get-together, and over the course of about a year, the project evolved. I can't even tell you how every video call changed just one bit of what I wanted to do. And the Stop Motion workshop at Ted-Ed was mind-blowing...this never would have even been in my mind in the past. Almost one year and 12 one-hour conversations later,  here we are.  Special thanks to Sting and Lisa, from Ted-Ed, who helped me tremendously with my vision. 

It's not been easy for me nor for the kids. Students are used to turning in a project and being done, not being emailed half a dozen times to fix this or that. But I want their work to be accurate, and I want them to be proud.

I have a student who is fact-checking for me for community service. He told me that he wishes these videos were available to him when he was in my class - that they were so helpful. I've shown a couple of the videos to my classes and it's neat to see the students interested in the topic, knowing that their peers made it, and it's also great to see the sense of pride that comes across the student who made the video.

I'm really excited about this project, and I ask you to join me in having your students create videos for each other, and maybe even for the world.