I referenced my latest adventure, Genius Hour, in my last blog post. I find myself talking about the Genius Hour over, and over, and over- to my husband, my mom, my colleagues, the cashier at Wegmans, basically, anyone who will listen. And so I decided to leave some info on the project here addressing some of the questions my husband, mom, colleagues, and Sara from Wegmans asked me. If you’re looking for something cool, exciting, incredibly uncomfortable and authentic to do with your kiddos, this is the thing.

How did the Genius Hour happen? 

My teammates and I were looking to create an assessment for a unit on Social Bias, where students read the novel Out of My Mind, by the lovely Sharon Draper. We had 6 Essential Questions that we knew we wanted kids to mull over throughout the unit:

• How can we show respect?
• How do we overcome challenges?
• Why should we accept differences?
• How can appearances be deceiving?
• What impact does our behavior towards others truly have?
• How important is the ability to communicate?

I had recently read this article and we just started brainstorming all of the possibilities. At one point we started to ask ourselves, Could we hold a Genius Hour around these questions? Could our kids be geniuses on these topics?  With only one way to find out, we went forward.

How did you plan the Genius Hour?

Carefully, with copious amounts of chocolate and caffeine. I work with 3 talented teachers, and we are all different. It was hard to strike the balance of what we all wanted and what we thought the Genius Hour should be for all 117 of our 7th graders. Plus, we had never done it before. Plus, I get overexcited. Like REAL EASILY I get overexcited. One minute we´re talking Genius Hour, then next I´m believing that our 7th graders will solve the water shortage crisis in African countries, save orphans from Eastern Europe and calm the most volatile flashpoint locations in the world.
The easiest way to explain how we started is to say we started at the end, really. We created a rubric inspired by Writing Pathways, by Lucy Calkins, zeroing in on the Grade 7 Information Writing Rubric and Writing Behaviors (which is inspired by the Writing Process). The components we assessed were Expertise, Craft, Organization, Punctuation/Sentence Structure, and Work Behaviors. The rubric really guided our work and our teaching points. The teaching points were a blend from The Writing Strategies Book by Jennifer Seravallo, a couple of lesson we wanted to reteach from an earlier Information Writing Unit (Writing about Reading, Unit 2, Writing Units of Study), suggestions from the article referenced above, and data from our students. As the work drew to a close, our students’ work drove our decision-making for whole group lessons. We decided that Tuesdays and Thursdays would be Genius Hour Days, instructional time devoted to lessons, research, time, creation.

How did students know what to do?

When we began this project, we gave kids a choice of their final product. We spent a lesson devoted to showcasing different mediums where they could share their work and had them choose from a menu. Once they knew what their final product would be and what question they had to answer, with the rubric in hand most were self-sufficient.

So…you just let the kids ¨go¨? They could do whatever they wanted?

Pretty much. JUST KIDDING!!

I think one of the misconceptions of Genius Hour is that you let kids choose their own pathway, a teacher lets them do whatever they want,  create what they want, and your classroom becomes the nucleus of unicorns and rainbows.

We did let kids choose their own pathway, with guidance.  

We did let them research and answer whatever question they wanted, with conferencing.

We did let them create whatever product they wanted to, with small group instruction on how to create, and what it should include. 

There was a lot of daily discussion among my team of teachers, with our conference notes. We are lucky enough to have 10th period planning every day, and that time is sacred. During the Genius Hour month, it was a cross between show and tell (¨I have to tell what Zoey came up with!¨) and horse trading (¨Will someone please take Eric tomorrow? I´m not being successful with him. I will take Aiden instead?¨).  It was definitely exhausting because we had 117 kids completing 117 different projects. Some of our students needed pre-selected text to use, because letting them loose on the internet to research…was not working. We were not experts on the topics, or on the products we gave them a menu on, but our novice helped our teaching.

We decided early on that to connect to the novel we read, we wanted them to include a scene from Out of My Mind as support to answer their question.

Exhausting. Messy. Totally worth it.

What did they come up with? 

One student created a Google Slide on How to Overcome Obstacles? Namely, PTSD, because he has PTSD.

One student created an Animoto on How to Show Respect? He focused on how important it is for adults to model respect in the community.

One student created a TED Talk on How Important is the Ability to Communicate? and interviewed one of our school counselors.

One student created a PowToon on How to Show Respect? He is a BoyScout, and used his experiences and values.

The awesome thing about their projects is that we were able to celebrate them holding a Genius Hour Celebration. We invited all adults in the building, and we held in in Social Studies classes where the English Classes would visit. This way different kids would be able to see each other´s products.

This sounds interesting. But I´m not sure I can do this with the restraints of my curriculum.

I believe you. But I also think you can modify and adapt to fit your curriculum.

In my very first blog post, I wrote about how as teachers, we need to ¨spring clean¨. We cannot try new things and keep the old things. Take one unit, just one unit that you´re not in love with. Maybe you could hold a Baby Genius Hour, where you have the kids research ¨Is War Necessary?¨ during your World War II Unit. Give them one week, and give them the resources or text you would normally use. BUT, swap out old lessons for the Genius Hour. I would never suggest a cookie cutter, and do exactly what we do for your teaching. But take a part of it, and grow forward.

Give yourself creative power.

That, my friends, is genius.