I want to start by saying it was an honor when I was asked to participate in the NJAMLE conference in July and then asked to post this for you all. I am so excited to become a part of this wonderful community of educators and administrators! I absolutely love collaborating and learning and working together to grow in our practice, best supporting our students and each other. I was introduced to Genius Hour by a wonderful teacher that I’ve worked with, her passion for this project and the positive impact it had on her student’s learning inspired me to bring it into my classroom. Today I am going to share with you tips, benefits and the obstacles of genius hour and I hope it will inspire you to bring this back to your students.
Genius Hour aka 20% Time aka Passion Projects are student driven, inquiry-based projects that are more about the process of student learning and design than the final product. Students are provided time in class to work on a passion they have. They research, build, think, create, analyze...the list goes on and on. This project idea stems from the Google and 3M companies. In 1948 3M launched their 15% time to employees. Employees were given 15% time and as a result many different creations came alive, including the post-it note. Google has followed suit with 20% time which has resulted in the creation of Gmail, Google Earth, and Gmail Labs.
Genius Hour brings this concept of driving your own learning through passion into the classroom. Students receive 20% of time, an hour a week, or biweekly depending upon your schedule to follow, explore and bring to life the passions they have.
As educators we need to prepare our students for a future in careers that may not even exist yet. How do we do that? We prepare them with the skills that they will need to keep up with the forever changing world around them. We need to teach our students to be problem solvers, researchers, risk takers, designers, and creators...to name a few.
Forbes released an article listing the 10 Skills Businesses are looking for in their employees and I think that this research speaks for itself in support of design thinking, problem- solving and collaborative work in the classroom.
Genius Hour empowers students to learn about whatever it is they want and approach it in a way that it 100% personalized to their learning style and process. Students will be taking risks and pursuing their passions, and having time to be creative! Giving students the freedom to pursue their passions and bring their dreams to life, challenges them to be independent decision makers. Students will be analyzing complex text and writing higher level questions that they will need to research and find answers to, making for a rigorous yet supportive learning environment that personalizes learning.
In education we should be moving away from the stand and deliver method as it is. During Genius Hour, as the teacher you are taking a step back and working as a coach and motivator for your students. Often times when a student doesn’t know how to do something we want to help them, but end up doing it for them. We need to support them and build up their confidence, letting them know they can do anything! They have the world at their fingertips, literally with Chromebooks, phones and the internet. Don’t know how to do something? Google it. This may seem thoughtless but it actually open doors, and these are the problem solving skills that students need for their futures.
You need to trust your students and check in with them consistently to assure they are staying on track with their projects. It may seem like they are making minimal progress, when really they are making large strides. The way to monitor this is through conferencing, small groups and outlets such as Blogger, which we will get to later. It is also important to have your student holding each other accountable, this can be done using something such at Padlet.
This is more of a personal choice. It is important that student are assessing themselves and holding each other accountable. They need to have accountability for their work and efforts. Genius Hour is more about the process as I mentioned before than it is the finished product. With that I will explain how I grade my students and how I have seen other teacher grade students.
Each week my students are given a checklist, one of their requirements is to connect with at least two peers and comment on their blogs and do a blog post of their own. We have a digital bulletin board on Padlet. Here each student posts their name, a link to their blog and a picture related to their project. This puts all of their links in one places, making it easier for me to access their blogs, for them to check on each other and for me to share their work with other classes. Here is an example of a Genius Hour Digital Bulletin Board.
What I do is I grade the student’s blogs. If there are grammatical mistake I have them correct them before I grade it. It is also a good conferencing piece to help students on their writing growth. I grade on effort and completion. If students complete the post according to our writing standards in class, have proofread, and submitted it on time they get full credit, I usually do 10 points. The final project I have the students create their own rubric for. I give them particular subjects that need to be included such as grammar, punctuation, spelling and creativity. They then set standards for themselves on the rubric, we conference about it a go from there based on the student’s needs.
Google forms in another way I have seen teachers grade their students. They have the students complete a reflection form at the end of each session and that is how they are grades. These are just a few ideas and if you have some of your own I would love for you to share them below! I am always looking for new ideas and the best educators are the ones that share a collaborate! ALways growing and learning together!
Explain to your students what Genius Hour is, the expectations you have, and send a letter home to parents as well. There are a lot of wonderful videos out there that you can show your students. I like to show this video, I feel it really captures what it is and the possibilities that it holds for them.
Have students jot down random ideas of things they enjoy seeing, doing, smelling….tap into all of those senses! There are also interest surveyors out there that you can have your students take. I don’t like to show then any examples until they have done the brainstorm. I hold on that because I don’t want to influence them too much I want their genuine, raw ideas out on the paper so they can build off of those.
Students conduct basic research on the topics that interest them and develop a more focused path and goal. For example, a student may want to do baking, but baking is so broad, as they inquire they will find they can focus on international desserts, piping, making flowers, creating buttercream. This is where you will be coaching your students using essential questions to guide their process and research, helping them find that specific path. They can even start with one focus such as creating the perfect buttercream and then when they are done start an entirely new project focusing on learning how to pipe, using the buttercream they made. This can take 1-3 session depending upon your students.
Students need to create driving questions. I have them create five. This can take 2-3 session. We need to teach our students how to create strong question as it is, what a great way to personalize it and integrate the lesson into Genius Hour. I used Bloom’s and Costas to do this. I have found this packet by AVID to be highly effective for class and small group discussion as well as Genius Hour. The driving questions are my students first blog post, they post their questions or they can record them doing a Vlog- video blog posting. If your students are familiar with QAR- question and answer relationships, it is important to note to your students that these driving questions should not be right there questions. They are questions that will take deep and thorough research, in addition to trial and error to find the answers. There may not even be a specific answer, remember this is inquiry and about the process.
TIP: This tends to be one of the most challenging parts for students. Writing those strong questions for them to use as driving questions. These question may also develop, change and grow over time. Consistent small group meetings and conferencing will help your students through this. Remember don’t write the question for them, ask them guides questions to help them get there, this can be tough but you can do it!
I require students to do a pitch, some call it “elevator pitch”. They have a strict 60 seconds to sell their idea to me and the class. They need to have a visual of some sort and cannot read off of it.
Examples
After pitch Students submit a formal approval form that they sign, I sign, and their parent signs.
Identifying if this is a topic they can really RUN with, depending on the length of your project-NOTE: Project does not need to be completed at the end, this is about the design thinking process.
There will always be a few students who begin their research, after their initial inquiry and pitch and decide to change their projects and it is ok. Use your discretion though, maybe they are feeling discouraged because it is hard, have them push forward and continue researching. You may also see that maybe some projects will come to a dead end quickly and in that case I would let them change or redirect their project. In some cases they don’t need to change their projects completely, more often than not the student can just refocus their idea, same theme but different path. Don’t let them give up easily! Encourage perseverance! There are so many things that can be learned and taught through Genius Hour.
Have students find a mentor, someone they can go to for support during their project. Use people in the building and in your circles to help them with this. For example, a student of mine wanted to learn sign language and our media specialist had a friend at a local library who actually taught sign language. We put our student in touch with this person and she was able to take lessons after school and email back and forth with her.
Once students have conducted enough research (some may take longer than others) they can begin to create and design! Some students may be designing videogames, others YouTube Channels, or learning sign language and creating a presentation of some sort to teach others. The possibilities are endless. Each student will have a different vision for their projects.
Routine and consistency is quite possibly the most important part of this all. As the teacher we need to establish a routine and standard for what Genius Hour will look like in our classroom.
I share a checklist with my students and blog posting schedule, these are both working documents and broken up by session. The students come in each session and the first thing they do is open the blog posting schedule and checklist that I have shared with them.
- The blog posting schedule has each post and the focus posting for the day.
- For example: “Post 3: Reflect on where you are in your research and set three goals/things you would like to accomplish during next week’s session”.
- Share a checklist to help students stay on task each week
- This is a working document and can change and a session check list may look like this:
- Continue researching
- Prepare your pitch
- Blog Post #2-What you have discovered so far in your research.
- Create and post Vlog with driving question.
- Connect with 2 peers
1e: Designing Coherent Instruction
Highly Effective Critical Attributes:
- Activities permit student choice.
- Learning experiences connect to other disciplines.
- The teacher provides a variety of appropriately challenging resources that are differentiated for students in the class.
- Lesson plans differentiate for individual student needs.
2a: Creating an Environment of Respect and Rapport
Highly Effective Critical Attributes:
- The teacher demonstrates knowledge and caring about individual students’ lives beyond the class and school.
- There is no disrespectful behavior among students.
- When necessary, students respectfully correct one another.
- Students participate without fear of put-downs or ridicule from either the teacher or other students.
- The teacher respects and encourages students’ efforts.
3b: Using Questioning and Discussion Techniques
- Students initiate higher-order questions.
- The teacher builds on and uses student responses to questions in order to deepen student understanding.
- Students extend the discussion, enriching it.
- Students invite comments from their classmates during a discussion and challenge one another’s thinking.
- Virtually all students are engaged in the discussion
3c: Engaging Students in Learning
- Virtually all students are intellectually engaged in the lesson.
- Lesson activities require high- level student thinking and explanations of their thinking.
- Students take initiative to improve the lesson
- Students have an opportunity for reflection and closure on the lesson to consolidate their understanding.
3d: Using Assessment in Instruction
- Students understand high-quality work and helped established evaluation criteria
- Students monitor their own understanding
- High-quality feedback comes from many sources, including students; it is specific and focused on improvement.
Continue the conversation below! Please feel free to reach out with any questions or to book further professional development.
LearnNationConsulting@gmail.com
-Christina
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