The Genius Nature of Genius Hour

 Genius Hour is not new to teachers. I first came across the concept when I was teaching in Taiwan from 2015-2017, where we had a set time every week for students to explore topics, passions and pursuits they were interested in. 

The website Teachthought defines Genius Hour as: 

"It should be driven by student curiosity and might use a clear driving question to guide inquiry. 

It should Involve Research or clear 'new learning'

The product, end result or other compelling artifact from the project can be shared/published."

Image from We Are Teachers

In the second last week of school I thought, "what better way than to celebrate learning and a culmination of learning than spending some time devoted to Genius Hour during Literacy class?!" Of course, proponents of genius hour will state that it shouldn't be just a once-a-year thing, and I agree, but at my school students are also exposed to / use skills related to inquiry all the time (it is an IB school), my students this year had a lot of ground to cover in terms of the development of basic skills, and realistically speaking, there's only so much time in a day. 

So, with less than a week left to research, share and present, we went about doing the best Genius Hour that we could. Together with the students we brainstormed broad categories based both on their interests, and the things we had seen at a school exhibition. Afterwards I modelled the process of Brainstorming, looking at each category and thinking out loud as to whether or not there was a topic or question related to that category that I had. I think modelled choosing a topic. 

Students then spent time brainstorming themselves. After they'd spent about 10 minutes brainstorming, I started circulating and asking them if they'd chosen a topic. Ideally, they would also have a question, but as they were in 2nd grade and this is their first-time doing Genius Hour, I accepted topics. Most students were able to think of a topic, if not a question. One student needed a little more help / redirection. 

After the Brainstorm process, once each of them had a topic, then I modelled looking for information on EPIC a website that every student had an account for. I modeled reading a book related to my topic, writing notes and writing down the title and author of the book. 

In subsequent days students researched in the library, with the ipads nearby. In that way if students couldn't find the materials, they needed on the ipad (or if they wanted additional materials) they could ask for a Librarian's assistance and find what they needed on the shelves. 

After they had completed all the research, they were told they were going to make a poster. They could choose A3 or A4 but they needed to include their topic, information, some type of visual, their name and the resources they used. 

Students worked diligently on their posters and then shared their posters with each other, followed by a visit from the Grade 3 students. Were the amount of time longer, it would have been interesting if they could have explored the idea of making different additional artifacts, but from start to finish we only had four hours for the whole project, so we did our best! 

In the end, I was really proud of students for how well they did on this project and all the growth they showed throughout the year. Students are also, often, so much more engaged when they have the opportunity to explore what specifically interests them! 

There are many ways to do genius hour, this is just one way, done in the final days of the 2023 school year. It's so interesting to see what interested them in the end: Helen Keller, animals of the Amazon, a Chinese war hero, javelin, the tallest building in the world, TESLA, Elon Musk and The Bermuda Triangle!