Think Like a Metaliterate Lifelong Learner:
Recognize that learners are also teachers and teach what you know or learn in collaborative settings. (A, B, C)
Read the learning objective in the box just above. What do you think about this idea? Can you think of times you taught friends something they didn’t know? Or have you learned something new from a friend? Everyone has varying levels of expertise. You may be a novice in one area, but quite an expert in another. Metaliterate learners recognize these varying levels, and are happy to teach what they know to others in a helpful, not superior, way.
Exercise
Choose a topic and think about how you would develop a strategy to teach this topic to someone (or many people, if you are doing it online).
- First, write out step by step instructions for how you would teach someone about this topic, or present your lesson in a different way, such as a video or website.
- Now reflect on the following questions:
- How would you accommodate different audiences?
- How does this lesson plan demonstrate what it means to be a good teacher?
- On what specific learner characteristics are you basing this plan?
- Teachers often use “rubrics” to clarify their own expectations to the learner (and themselves). What would you expect a learner to be able to demonstrate after this learning experience?
