I Teach, You Teach

I Teach, You Teach is a collaborative classroom activity that empowers students to become the teachers. Inspired by Frank Oppenheimer’s belief that “The best way to learn is to teach,” this strategy deepens understanding by having students take ownership of learning and instruction. In this activity, each student (or group) is assigned a concept to study or a video to watch. They then create a short presentation to explain what they learned, design an engaging activity to help classmates grasp the topic, and develop an assignment—complete with an answer key—to assess understanding. This approach encourages students to think critically about how to teach information clearly, creatively, and accurately. Teachers can assess performance using a rubric that measures depth of understanding, communication skills, creativity of the learning activity, quality of the assignment, and the accuracy of the key. By transforming learners into teachers, I Teach, You Teach promotes mastery, confidence, and collaboration in any K–12 classroom.