Genius Hour

Genius Hour in the classroom may sound a bit scary to some. Sometimes letting go and having the students guide the learning can be a daunting thought.  Today, I will talk about just that…letting go a bit and seeing what happens when you incorporate genius hour in your classroom.  Thank you for joining me this week. I hope you find something useful to help you in your classroom.

What is Genius Hour?

Talk about writing motivation!  When you incorporate Genius Hour or Passion Projects into your classroom, students love to write about things they are interested in.  So what is Genius Hour?  Genius Hour is a time that you have set up to allow children to explore their own passions. These are usually things that they don’t get to learn about in school because teachers have so much curriculum to get through.  The beauty of Genius Hour though, is that often what students choose to work on and learn about has many spillover effects into the curriculum that is already being taught. Not only that,  students practice their self-awareness and cooperation skills. Want to give it a try or learn more?  Read on!

The Purpose and Methods of Genius Hour?

Genius Hour is a way to have students get excited about learning and “dig deeper” using techniques taught by the teacher on wondering, observation, cooperative learning and using inquiry questions.

It starts with some wondering about things.  This is usually done in partnership or alone and then in a think-pair-share format. Last year, I had students bring their wonderings home and discuss them with their parents.

What Does Genius Hour Look Like in the Classroom?

It is not quiet.

It is not neat and tidy.

Kids are not necessarily in their desks.

It is not organized so that all kids are doing the same thing.

There is no lesson plan.

24+ students are all doing different things.

So, how is the typical overly-organized, neat and tidy, lesson-planning, dot-your-i’s and cross-your-t’s, bin-loving, anchor-chart-making teacher supposed to pull off Genius Hour and still remain sane and know that students are learning?

Genius Hour is often held for an hour each week (often on a Friday).  This allows the teacher to feel that they have covered all mandated curriculum during the week. This allows the students the opportunity to work on something they are passionate about and then go home for the weekend to discuss it with their families to generate even more ideas. The teacher’s job is to facilitate the learning that is taking place as Genius Hour is on.  They can provide technology if available, and teach students how to ask questions that allow them to add rigor to their own learning.  I will often add a component to the students’ inquiry questions that have them practice the skills that they need more work on in class.  For example, if they need to work on Math more, I will have them try to link Math to their Genius Hour project.

The teacher is the guide that students turn to when they hit a roadblock.  They have so much background knowledge on such a wide variety of topics, that they can point the student in the right direction or at the very least, give them another question to find the answer to.  The teacher is also there to model learning.  “I don’t know, let’s find out,” is my favorite thing to say during Genius Hour. Depending on your grade level, you will have to decide how you are going to manage Genius Hour in terms of where you will store the things they are working on.  Last year, I had Passion folders and Passion Pockets made out of poster board, decorated and folded and we stored them on a shelf.  Whatever you decide to do, management of their learning is a priority so that everyone is independent and you don’t lose your mind with “things” all over the place.  It’s really not that onerous once you have established a space.

So now you might have a better idea of your role in Genius Hour.  What about the students?

The students are the masters of their own ideas.  You might find that students will change their ideas or inquiries as the process goes on.  I think that is okay although I try not to let them keep changing as it becomes unfocussed and may cause the student to be frustrated.  I often will take their original topic and find a new twist to it that really appeals to them and the idea is still their own.

It’s important that students have time to fully explore topics, avenues and aspects of their topics before they move on. It’s important that they have a chance to talk about, explain, and elaborate on their ideas with others. I used a “wonder” page last year which you can find in my TPT store here which was quite effective to help students identify their wonderings and plan out what they wanted to do next.

This year, I wanted students to be able to see their genius hour work as more of a work in progress that is continuous and on-going.  For that reason, I have created an Interactive Genius Hour Notebook. How much easier and fun can it get?  Students can incorporate their learning and their progress and reflections all in one tidy notebook!  There is room for continued inquiry questions and this will be the vehicle in which students represent their learning and more importantly, their growth in thinking over time. You can take a look at more by clicking on the picture.