East Grand Rapids — Amid a cacophony of questions, and with dozens of classmates vying for his attention, Breton Downs Elementary first-grader Harrison DeYoung managed to keep his cool as he walked his fellow students through the process of making paper snowflakes.
“Everybody ready?” Harrison asked as he prepared to start. And when the class failed to quiet down, he did what his teacher, Becky Kramer, would do, and gave a quick countdown: “Five, four, three, two, one!”
Then, with most of the students’ attention, he began.
“First make a square, then fold, then cut. And make sure you do really good creases,” Harrison said into a microphone, as he went through the motions himself under a camera that projected his progress onto the whiteboard.
“Then you fold it into a triangle,” he said. “Then — and this part’s gonna be hard — then you fold it in (thirds).”
“Does it have to be exact, Harrison?” asked Kramer.
“The snowflake might not come out as good” if it’s not, Harrison explained.
“Thanks, Teach!” said Kramer.
It was the tail end of Kramer’s month-long Teach the Teacher activity, during which first-graders are asked to teach mini lessons on topics of their choice to the rest of the class.
Harrison was learning that it’s no small task to stand up in front of a room full of students and lead a lesson. But it was a task to which Harrison, like his classmates, proved equal.
‘Letting (students) know, at a young age, that they can be leaders now is really important.’
— first-grade teacher Becky Kramer
Harrison guided classmates through the process of cutting patterns into the folded sheets of paper. Though it took some effort to field all the questions and keep everyone on track, by the end of the lesson, most students had a colorful paper snowflake to display in Kramer’s classroom.
“It’s snowing!” students shouted as they proudly taped their work to the walls.
Learning Leadership & Empathy
Teach the Teacher has been part of Kramer’s first-grade lesson plans for years. She’s found that the activity not only gives students a taste of leadership, it also helps them develop a bit of awareness about what educators go through.
“Letting them know, at a young age, that they can be leaders now is really important — giving them a chance to also be the teacher and know what they liked or what they didn’t like (about it),” Kramer said.
She said the experience stays with students; they remember what it felt like to be up in front of their peers, trying to keep everyone’s attention.
“It gives them that chance to see what it’s like to be the teacher, so that they’re a little bit, hopefully, more empathetic to me,” said Kramer.
The activity also ties into the first-grade curriculum.
“We just finished our writing unit of writing how-to books, like how to make a peanut butter sandwich. And we just started our all-about-something books,” Kramer said. “So the kids could pick either to teach how to do something or all about something.”
In addition to making paper snowflakes, her first-graders also presented on topics such as how to draw dogs and mermaids, how to make tassels out of thread, and how to do a few karate moves, among others.
Kramer said students are generally pretty pumped about participating. There are some who struggle to overcome their nerves, though, and those students have the option to make a video to show to the class, then answer questions afterward.
“Most of them are excited, but also nervous,” Kramer said. “But when it’s over, they all have had a good time.”
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