After reading and investigating about genius hour, I wanted to try something similar with my students. But I wasn't sure how second graders would do with all that freedom! I had one student continually ask me if he could teach the class Chinese. He is very passionate about his culture, and he had recently learned he would be going to China this summer. So, I thought, what a great way to start our own genius hour! Every student could choose a topic of interest and come up with a way to "teach" the class about their interests.
It was March when we started, and I came across the article 6 Simple Strategies to Help Find Your Passion by AJ Juliani. I loved his idea of printing out a blank March Madness bracket and starting from there. Of course, we made ours with less choices! We started only on the left side with topics of interest. I modeled for the students with my own bracket. I asked them, "What do you love?" "What do you like to do on your free time?" "What are you really good at doing?" "If your parents said you had a choice to do anything on a weekend, what would that be?" "What are your favorite parts of your school day?" It helped for us to stop and share along the way to help bring out ideas.
The next day we focused only on the right side of the bracket. On this side, we wrote about our curiosities. I asked the students, "What have you heard about or seen that you might want to learn more about?" "What are some topics that you would love to learn about?" "What things are you curious about and really want to learn more?" Again, I modeled, and students were able to collaborate and share.
On the third day, we were ready to choose winners from our individual brackets! After we each had our top "winners", I asked students which interest/curiosity they would choose to explore more about if they were given the opportunity? See some of our brackets below.
After reading What is Genius Hour?, I loved the idea of creating an overarching inquiry-based question that would guide each student as they explored and investigated throughout our work sessions. I gave the students time to think, but then we shared as a class as I typed their questions onto a Word document. We helped give each other feedback and make the question "big" enough to explore. This part was probably the trickiest, but one of the most important pieces! (see some examples below)
I found myself continually talking about passions, and how we need to find what we love and learn/explore more about it. I explained to my students how I get inspired thorough writing in my writer's notebook, reading books and blogs, and noticing what's going on around me. The students were so excited to start their passion project!
I asked my media specialist for help. I am so glad I did! Having someone else to support, help scaffold, answer questions, pull resources, and walk students through this process was extremely beneficial. We decided to focus first on the end product for the presentation, so both the students (and us as teachers) would have an end in mind as we worked through the process. I scheduled three one and a half hour work sessions in our library (one per week). Our first session was a brainstorming of final product choices. We thought it was important for students to have input, and we knew they would come up with ideas that we wouldn't have thought of doing. It also made sense for students to think about what final product would make the most sense with their overarching question.
We then checked out books, read, and gathered other resources we might need (or a list of what we would to get) for our second work session. As students did this, I rotated around with all of my students questions in hand, and I asked them which final presentation choice they would like to work towards. I listed these next to their question so I could easily reference as needed. After a trip to Target and the public library, we were ready for our second work session!
Having direction was very helpful. I have talked with other teachers who have tried genius hour, 20% time, or whatever you choose to call it, and it hasn't been a success. I think that knowing that they were going to teach the class, setting and communicating time limits, and having an end product in mind was very helpful. Also having space to spread out and work and technology such as laptops and ipads available for research and documentation of learning was essential.
In reflection, I wish I had done this earlier in the year, because I feel like I REALLY got to know my students. This experience taught me more about who they are and how they learn than any survey, discussion, or parent questionnaire ever could.
After three work sessions in the library with some students having to wrap up in the classroom during reading or writing workshop, we were ready to present! Here are some pictures from our presentations. Please feel free to use their questions and presentation ideas as a springboard for starting passion projects in your classroom!
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| This student built a model of a helicopter from Legos. He then research the parts of a helicopter and taught the class about each part and how it works. |
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| This student loves swimming. She researched and made a slide show about the history of swimming, swimming today, and even included a slide about what she thinks the future of swimming will be like! |
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| This student loves to dance. She decided to choreograph her own dance to the song Happy through Google Docs. She wrote each step she would perform next to the lyrics of the song. |
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| This student made a Chinese dragon. He then wrote his own script from the dragon's perspective so he could teach the class about the Chinese New Year. |
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| This student made a trifold board to teach the class about how to take care of a hamster. She brought in her pet hamster to share with the class as well! |
Student Led Passion Projects
Rubric of Creativity
Genius Hour Manifesto
Genius Hour Wiki
Genius Hour Live Binder
Carrie Higginbotham
