Students Teaching Students

Much learning happened as our 3rd and 4th graders embarked on studying different authors. Over the month-long unit they learned how to take notes about each author’s personal and professional life while reading biographical information online. They made timelines to show the intersection of their authors’ personal and professional lives. They wrote and edited their author study essays, using outlines they had made to keep their essays organized, and paragraph checklists to self edit before meeting with a teacher.

However, the most learning happened when they prepared for and held an author study fair for visitors and the rest of the school. The greatest learning, after all, happens when you’re teaching someone else! Besides, they had fun dressing up as characters from their authors’ books or emulating the authors themselves.