Teach It to Someone Else
You do not know it until you can teach it to a nine-year-old.
1 week✏️ Writing🔢 Math🧭 Life Skills
What you need
- something you have just learned
- a willing learner
- paper
Nothing to buy and nothing to print — if you do not have one of these, swap it for whatever you do have.
The steps
Day 1
Pick the thing
Choose one thing you learned in the last month and understand well.
✍️ Write a few sentences
Day 2
Plan it
Plan fifteen minutes: how you will explain it, one example, one thing for them to try.
📋 Make a list
Day 3
Predict the confusion
Write down where you think they will get stuck.
✍️ Write a few sentences
Day 4
Teach it
Teach it. Notice where they actually got stuck.
📷 Take a photo
Day 5
What you changed
Write what you had to change mid-lesson, and whether your prediction was right.
✍️ Write a few sentences
Say this: “The gap between where you thought they would struggle and where they did is the whole lesson.”
How to score it
You score this, not us. Pick the description that actually matches what they did.
Explanation
- 1. Restated a definition
- 2. Explained in own words
- 3. Explained with an example
- 4. Explained with an example pitched at the learner
Responsiveness
- 1. Carried on regardless
- 2. Noticed confusion
- 3. Noticed and rephrased
- 4. Noticed, rephrased, and it worked
Reflection
- 1. No reflection
- 2. Said it went well
- 3. Named what changed
- 4. Named what changed and what it showed about their own understanding
With more than one child
The obvious learner is a sibling. Both get credit — one for teaching, one for the work they produced.
What goes in the portfolio
A lesson plan, whatever the learner produced, and a paragraph on what you had to change mid-lesson.