***Note: The pronoun "we" will be used throughout this post because it includes the thoughts/reflections of six different teachers who are working together to provide Genius Hour to their 9th grade students.
Quick Review:
Last week we opened Genius Hour by choosing not to share specifics. Instead we held a brainstorming session with the goal of creating a list of potential topics. For session two this week, we decided to give our students a bit more information. We shared with the students that they would choose a topic to research and that they would present their learnings and products to the class at the end of the semester in a formal presentation. The idea of presenting in front of their peers caused some anxiety, but they still appeared interested in the overall project. We will provide more specific details about Genius Hour during next week's session.
Session Two:
For session two, we decided to discuss Genius Hour in terms of two different types of projects: "following a passion" or "solving a problem." We then watched several videos that weren't necessarily Genius Hour projects, but presented the idea of following an individual's passion or solving a problem. (See the link for Session Two below for clips that we chose to use.) Students really enjoyed the videos and we had great conversations about what they saw. We then did a Gradual Release of Responsibility lesson. We took a look at their brainstormings from Session One and chose some topics to discuss. First, the teacher took a topic and shared ideas about some projects that (s)he could do, we then discussed a different topic together as a class, we then gave each small group a different topic which they discussed and then shared out to the entire class. Finally, we asked each individual student to create their own personal list of 5 topics with potential projects to go with each one. (The Session Two link below will provide more specific information about how we walked through this lesson.)
Our Reflections:
Students have remained actively engaged during both sessions. The graffiti activity from Session One went extremely well and the students loved discussing the videos. Our biggest concern at this point is how to help students identify a topic that they will engage in independently. Students seem to choose topics that they know they should care about (bullying, suicide, etc.) rather than pick something that they are truly passionate about. Several seem confused with this sudden autonomy. They appear to be waiting on the teacher to "tell" them the correct answer. The big question is how do we get the students to really care about this and not simply feel like it is just another school project.
Next Steps:
We are considering two steps for our next session.
1. We will have students choose a single topic and create a mind map showing the different components that make up that idea. For example, if the topic is music, the components could be: types of music, production of music, creating own music, music business, etc. Hopefully, this will help them to also generate some project ideas to go along with the topic.
2. We will give a mini lesson on essential questions. Students will practice writing some essential questions using ideas created on their concept map.
Question:
What are some ways that you have been able to successfully have students "buy in" to the educational ideas that go beyond the traditional classroom?
Link to Session Two
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