Using the 5Ws and H to teach

Do you ever have your older children teach a concept to the younger children? That happens on a regular basis here in our home. There are so many advantages to it but that’s for another post. I want to share how I use the principle of teaching as part of the learning process. It’s a good skill for us to develop and a valuable skill for our children to develop as they get older.

Whenever we attempt to teach we must know the information- we must internalise it before we can put it into our own words. Using the tools of narration and the 5W’s and a H are very helpful in learning and teaching. These tools are valuable and beneficial regardless of age, gender, strengths or weaknesses.

Teaching should be as interactive as possible. Lectures can tend to bore students as their minds need to be engaged in order to go through the learning process. I’m not interested in simply filling my lesson time with facts and figures. I want to share ideas, hear their thoughts and questions. Repetition has a place in learning but we need to move beyond that into understanding. Simply telling a story or concept in different words or using pictures or literary metaphors can greatly engage a student, which is why a n older child teaching the younger is so effective.

I’ve taught my older children (girls) to teach using our Kerugma 4 step process and 5 W’s and a H. Here’s how I have taught them:

Have a quick skim over the material and see if you can ask yourself some basic questions. Use the Observation Sheet as a prompt if needed. In one or two sentences introduce the topic, asking probing questions as a way to capture their interest.

Then it’s time to read or make the basic points. My family often laughs at me as I can tend to waffle, despite my claiming to be as concise as possible!

Then, I’ll try to ask questions that are relevant to the subject:

• Who is the main character? To whom is this passage referring?
• What is happening in this passage?
• What did the main character have to say about…?
• When does this event occur? When did the main character realise he…[insert relevant question]?
• Where did the event occur or when will it occur?
• Why  is this happening? Why do you think the main character said/did that?
• How did this (event) happen? How did it affect the community/situation, etc? How does it affect you?

After some facts (or ideas) have been established, we can then spend a minute or so on looking at possible application to our lives. This doesn’t just apply for Bible study, although anytime we look for practical application it should always be within the boundaries of God’s word- it should line up with the Bible.

Lesson finished!

There are so many ways in which to use the 5W’s and a H. It is also a logical way to think…so you can also include critical thinking as part of your lesson scheduling when using the Observation method. I have devised the prompt sheet for download which might help…but simply using the 5W’s and a H as a natural part of your lessons will come easily and naturally after awhile.

Do you use the 5W’s and a H format in your home? Have you or will you instruct your children how to teach using this method? If not, do you have another method that you use in your home. If so, I’d love to hear of it. Any comments or thoughts?

You can download/print the 5W’s & H (observation) sheet here…the IDEA bookmark from here…see more downloads here.

If you’re new to reading my site and have no idea what I’m talking about when I mentioned the learning process, you might like to see here or this post asking, How Do You Learn? Other posts you might enjoy are:

• Poetry using the observation sheets

• Using the 5Ws and a H