Peers Educating Peers Handbook

Created Feb. 7, 2024 by Leo Muellner

The following materials are included in this curriculum guide:

140414_PEP_Handbook_Interior36.jpg


  1. Teaching Project Description Student Handout
  2. Assignment List
  3. Overview of Lessons
  4. Project Rubrics—a blank rubric is included so that students can develop their own criteria for excellence.
  5. Essential Question Practice Lesson Materials
  6. Assignments #1 and #2 student handouts
  7. Blank Lesson Planning Template
  8. Sample Exemplary Lesson Plans 

Please note that with the exception of the Overview of Lessons, all materials are formatted to be student handouts.


Peers Educating Peers Teaching Project Assignment Description

For this project you will teach a lesson about a subject of your choice related to your city’s history, current events, society, or culture. The goal of your lesson will be to teach about our city in an exciting and thought provoking way that engages all learners. The lesson should help student think critically about both their home and the world we live in. 

Students will work in pairs to create two lessons (expeditionary and classroom based, depending upon school and location). With a few exceptions, each lesson must:

i. Be centered around a debatable essential question

ii. Be mostly student centered—keep lecturing/PowerPoint presentations to a minimum, students should be active

iii. Include an activity

iv. Give students the opportunity to examine multiple perspectives (there are a few situations where this may not apply)

v. Include opportunities for open-ended discussion

The project consists of three main components:

1. Topic Essay, due _______________________

You will write an essay answering your own essential question. 

2. Outdoor/Indoor Lesson Plans, first draft due _______________________

You will design two version of your lesson: one that can be taught in a classroom, and one that uses the city itself to teach—its streets, historic sites, museum, galleries, shops, subways, etc. To receive approval lesson must be:

    • Researchable
    • Provocative, interesting, and/or relevant to students’ lives and present day society
    • Be teachable both in and outside the classroom (within reason!)

3. Teaching Your Lesson: All lessons will be taught between ____________________________ either indoor or outdoor, weather and circumstances permitting. Teachers of the most successful lessons will be invited to teach their lessons a second time to visiting students from other schools and nations.


Peer Education Project Assignment List

#1 Lesson Idea Brainstorming Sheet DUE________________________________

Submit a list of at least three possible teaching topics. For each also include an essential question and possible teaching locations.

#2 Lesson Topic, locations, and essential question(s) DUE________________________________

Finalize your lesson topic and essential question, and narrow down your teaching locations. Please remember, great essential question(s) should be:

    • Clear and direct
    • Open-ended, not leading
    • Debatable, with no one right answers
    • Provocative
    • Timeless, relevant to multiple places and times, including the present

#3 Topic Research DUE________________________________

1. Find a minimum of six sources on your topic, including: 

a. Two print sources

b. Two database (including newspapers and periodicals) sources

c. Two trustworthy internet sources (see me if you’re not sure what counts as trustworthy!)

2. Be ready to show your notes on these sources, either by printing/copying them and showing annotation, or by taking a minimum of three full pages of notes.

3. Find and copy (or upload to your Google Drive and share) at least three images (photos, artwork, maps, videos, etc.) related to your topic

#4 Essay DUE________________________________

Write an essay answering your essential question. The essay will be five paragraphs for individuals and six for groups. The suggested format is:

    • Introduction
    • 3-4 paragraphs 
    • Conclusion

The essay must be typed and double-spaced, with one-inch margins and MLA format. 

#5 Indoor & Outdoor Lesson Plans First Drafts DUE________________________________

Use the lesson plan template to write lesson plans for both the in school and out of school versions. Please see sample lessons and rubric. Submit all materials that you will use in lesson along with your lesson plan.

#6 Indoor & Outdoor Lesson Plans Second Drafts DUE ________________________________

#7 Teaching Reflection DUE After You Teach: 

Please write a minimum of four paragraphs reflecting on your teaching experience. Address the following questions:

    • What went well in the lesson?
    • What would you do differently if you could teach it again?
    • What did you learn about the art of teaching from this process?
    • What did you learn about history from designing and teaching a lesson?


Teaching Project: Overview of Lessons

1. Project Introduction (1 Hour)

MATERIALS: project assignment, examples of student and professional documentaries, blank rubric

GOAL: Get students thinking about the qualities of a good lesson, and begin to establish a criteria for judging teaching.

  • DO NOW: What makes a good lesson? Students brainstorm a list of kinds of lessons they have experienced in their educational life. They then discuss what kinds of lessons they like and don’t like. They also discuss ways that they have learned outside of school. Often this is where the deepest learning takes place!
  • Hand out and review project description and assignment list
  • C2C: Students watch two videos of lessons taught by other students (this may be done individually or in pairs on C2C, or all together as a class). Students then post comment using the following prompts:
    • What did you like about lesson?
    • What didn’t work? What do you have questions about? How could it be improved?
  • After reading each other’s responses and/or discussing their observations as a class or in small groups, students work in groups to create rubric for assessing a lesson. 
  • Three or four groups of students should then share their rubrics with the whole class.


2. What makes a good question? (90 Minutes)

GOALS: Teach students to ask good questions, and choose an essential question to guide their lesson.

MATERIALS: Essential Question Lesson materials (see page 43-47)

  • Essential Question Practice
    • DO NOW: What makes a good question? Write down criteria
    • An EQ is the question that drives your research. You need an essential question for your lesson
    • Review criteria for essential questions:
      • Clear and direct
      • Open-ended, not leading
      • Debatable, with no one right answers
      • Provocative
      • Timeless, relevant to multiple places and times, including the present.
  • Practice assessing a couple of questions all together before students count off into groups of three. Each group will:
    • Sort out the stack of questions into excellent, okay, limited, and useless/misleading
    • For each question write down a few notes explaining why you put that question in that category 
      • Whenever possible edit a question to improve it.
  • Each group then looks over other groups’ choices, and prepares for the following:
    • Choose one or two questions to discuss that another group classified differently
    • Choose one or two questions to discuss that another group classified in the same way
    • Choose one or two questions that you edited and be ready to present your new and improved versions.
  • Whole class discussion of essential questions
  • Lesson planning groups now write essential questions for the lesson they will teach.


3. Preliminary Research of Topics (45-90 Minutes plus homework)

GOALS: Students finalize their topic and begin research. 

MATERIALS: Project Description and Assignment List, essay assignment, List of past and suggested topics, Assignment #1 topic brainstorming sheet.

  • Review teaching requirements and Assignment #1
  • Students begin researching possible teaching topics assisted by teacher. The teacher may share lists of previously taught and/or suggested topics, but students should be encouraged to create their won topics. To receive approval lesson must be:
    • Researchable
    • Provocative, interesting, and relevant to students’ lives and/or present day society
    • Teachable outside of the classroom using Expeditionary or Museum Learning methods (depending upon the weather and scheduling, the teacher may decide to just have students teach in school).
  • Students do preliminary online research to identify topics. 
  • Students hand in Assignment #1, a list of three possible topics with essential questions and teaching locations.

HOMEWORK: C2C: Students post their lesson ideas, essential questions, and teaching locations on C2C, and give feedback to other students on their ideas.

DUE: Assignment #1


4. In Depth Topic Research (2-3 classes plus homework)

GOALS: Students will develop a deeper understanding of the topic they are teaching, and find resources they can use to teach their lesson.

  • Students narrow down and deepen their topic research, using online and library resources.
  • Student begin writing their topic research essays

DUE: Assignments #2, #3, #4


4. Teaching Methods Review (45-60 Minutes plus homework)

GOALS: Familiarize students with the Student-Centered teaching methods they should use to teach their lesson

MATERIALS: Copies of the Student-Centered Teaching Methods section of this handbook

  • Hand out and review various lesson formats (see p. 15-30), read over and watch more videos of sample lessons and assess using PEP Teaching Rubric
  • Students begin planning their lessons
  • Homework: Scouting a teaching location. Over a weekend students should scout out and photograph possible teaching locations. They should then create a discussion on C2C, post their photos and explain how they would use that location to teach. Students should also comment on each other’s posts with praise and constructive criticism.

MATERIALS: Videos of student and/or teacher-taught lessons, sample lesson plans, blank lesson plan templates, copies of Model Lessons from PEP Handbook


5. Student-Centered, Expeditionary & Museum Learning Demonstration Lesson(s)

If this has not already been done before the project began (which is highly recommended!), it may be necessary at this time to take a break from the project to lead the class through some demonstration lessons in which student-centered, expeditionary, and museum learning lesson(s) are modeled and discussed. Make sure to leave time at the end of each lesson for students to debrief the lesson and think about how they could use each method to teach their topic.


6. Lesson Planning (2-4 lessons)

GOALS: Students will write their lesson plans with a lot of coaching from their PEP teacher.

MATERIALS: sample lesson plans, blank lesson plan templates, copies of Model Lessons from PEP Handbook

  • Students write their lesson plans. They submit their plans to the teacher for feedback, and exchange them with their classmates to do peer review.
  • Assemble their teaching materials, including readings, images, videos, worksheets, etc. 
  • Finalize their teaching location: During this time all students will need to go to their teaching location to make sure it works for their lesson. They need to determine whether the location is appropriate for teaching and consider such questions as:
    • Is the location easily accessible?
    • Is there enough room to teach?
    • Is there a place to sit down?
    • Can we hear each other?
    • Does the location add to or distract from the goals of the lesson?

Due: Assignments #5 and #6: First and second drafts of indoor and outdoor lesson plans and teaching materials


7. Student Teaching

The time has now come for the students to teach their lessons. Class time will vary depending upon the number of students and the length and location of each lesson. Depending upon lesson locations and potential audience, the teacher may want to use regularly scheduled classes or schedule special days for students to teach outside of class time. After each lesson the class will use the teaching rubric to assess the lesson. The class will then discuss how the lesson went, and share their constructive feedback with the student teacher(s) 

Due: Assignment #7 will be due the day after each group of students teach.


Student Handouts & Sample Lesson Plans

The file available for download below includes the following student handouts, formatted for printing and distributing to students:

  • Object Observation Chart
  • Teaching Project Assignment Description
  • Project Assignment List
  • Student Teaching Rubric
  • Blank Teaching Rubric
  • Essential Question Practice Labels
  • Essential Question Practice Cards
  • Essential Question Practice Student Directions
  • Assignment #1: PEP Lesson Ideas Brainstorming Sheet
  • Assignment #2: PEP Final Lesson Topic
  • Lesson Plan Template
  • Sample Lesson Plans
    • Architecture Scavenger Hunt
    • Transporation and Urban Planning Role Play
    • John Boyle O'Reilly Monument


Download: Part2_StudentHandouts.pdf



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