In my never-ending quest to refine Genius Hour for my students and make it meaningful, I have created a few new digital resources that I intend to use this year with my 3rd-5th grade students. We will be using Google Classroom, so I decided to design some Google Slides presentations that the students can use for collecting research and keeping track of what needs to be completed. Here is the link to the folder of resources, which you can copy and edit to suit your needs.
My plan:
- Assign the Research Planner as a copy to each student. Reflections 1 and 2 are to be done at certain points as students progress through the Research Planner. The Research Planner also has links to some other helpful resources, and a great activity from Ian Byrd to help write good research questions. This slideshow is not their presentation – just a collection of notes.
- Assign the Exit Tickets presentation as one copy to be edited by the students in the classroom at the end of each Genius Hour.
- Include the Skype Interview and E-mail templates as assignments for students to complete when appropriate.
- Once students finish the Research Planner to my satisfaction, they will be allowed to continue to the Presentation Planner. This includes links to “What Would Steve Jobs Do?” and “The Worst Preso Ever,” both of which are great to show students before they design their presentations. It also includes links to two TED Talks given by students.
- After students successfully complete the Presentation Planner, they will be allowed to make their presentations, create interactive portions to follow up on the information given, and rehearse.
- Finally, they will present!
If you’ve followed my Genius Hour adventures at all, you know that this plan will not work as hoped. I am pretty sure that it will be an improvement over what I’ve done in the past, though.
Maybe…
Do your students do genius hour for a whole unit, or is it spread out over the year? I only see my students 50 min a week, so trying to figure out how I would do something like this.
I see mine for about 3.5-4 hours a week, so it is spread out over the year. In your case, I would prob do it as a unit.
Thank you. You make my ear so much better with your great ideas.
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Thank you so much for sharing your resources. You are a star!