Pompeii and Penguins

The ultimate form of measuring understanding is to see if the student can communicate the skill or content to another. Jesus sent out his disciples to test them to see if they were able to do as He did.

Today the boys taught each other. We have been studying Rome, so the older two chose a subject in Roman history to teach us about, the Colosseum and Pompeii. Josiah has been doing habitats and chose penguins in Antarctica. They have been studying their separate subjects on their own for three weeks. They read books, looked up information, and took notes. They compiled it all together and today presented it to each other and me.

I love doing this. It shows not only the comprehension of the content but the skill of communicating. They have to communicate in a way that would keep others engaged, one of them did a demonstration of Pompeii by doing a baking soda and vinegar volcano explosion over the train table town. It also gives them ownership of their learning. Owning something inspires better work. They were so excited they set up a ‘teacher’ table. They collected sticks to use as pointers. Noah was so in the professor mood that he dressed up in a suit to teach us.

They all were to ask questions to clarify and then report back something they had learned from their brother’s teaching. We are learning in our relational skills to ask questions and restate what someone has said to make sure we have listened well. One of the neat things about this was that Thaddeus, three years old, wanted a chance to teach. He came up and told us all about penguins just from hearing his brother’s presentation.

The real test of learning is whether you can use the information. The real goal of education is to inspire ownership of learning so that it becomes life-long.