Introduction to Genius Hour: Purolator "One-Hour Delivery" Project

We are starting a novel study next week on the book Shattered. I am planning to also try out the Genius Hour concept with a baby step.

On Saturday, I spent 3-hours learning about Genius Hour with Elementary and Secondary School colleagues.  We watched Daniel Pink's TedTalk about Motivation and explored a multitude of resources available on-line and off that support teachers' who want to incorporate Genius Hour into their learning environment. Several colleagues shared their early experiences with Genius Hour in their classrooms.  They shared some of their students' projects and definitely expressed enthusiasm.

I also heard about the ROWE business model (Results-Only Work Environment) and Fed-Ex Days (give people 24 hours to work on whatever they want — so long as it’s not part of their regular jobs and provided that they show what they’ve created to their colleagues when the 24 hours elapse).

I loved the ideas in theory, in principle. But I doubted their efficacy with most of my high school students.

My students are honest.

Me: If you had time to learn about anything, what would you do with it?
Student 1: Sleep.
Me: What are you interested in?
Student 1: Nothing.
Me: Anyone else?
Student 2: ...

So I try to assign meaningful work hoping to engage all students and excite them about learning.

I think I am a coward. I am afraid to relinquish control... I am afraid that it will fail... that it will be a huge waste of learning time... that students will do nothing... that I won't be able to keep up... that it will be disappointing... that Genius Hour is just another fad.

So this week I want to confront my fear and try a baby-step.  I want my students to build their background knowledge before beginning the novel Shattered. Last semester, I gave the students a chart of topics related to the novel and asked them to find out something about each of them.  We then presented these and students added to their own charts.

This week, I am going to give them a book, have some computers and tablets available, and challenge students to build their background in preparation for reading the novel. Students will be allowed to choose their time, task, team, and techniques. They can use anything to show their learning (i.e. chart paper, whiteboards, paper, video, photos, etc.), but they only have an hour to "deliver."

I have no idea about what the outcome will be. I expect my students will take longer to get on task because they are not used to the autonomy, but when they do eventually find their way, they will learn more.

Baby Steps for all of us...

Why do we have to do English in Math class?

I agree: high school math teachers, science teachers, geography teachers DO have their hands full in covering their own curriculum and trying to engage learners with subject materials. I also agree that students visibly cringe when "literacy" is mentioned. "Why do we have to do English in ___________ class?"

Nonetheless, students must be explicitly taught literacy strategies and practice these in all curriculum areas. As literacy leader, I wave the flag, offer to support, co-teach, co-plan, model, and assess with my colleagues in geography, history, math, science, art, tech, business, music, etc. But it is not often they take me up on my offers. I end up feeling like I am a nuisance and an imposition.

I am not sure why. There is likely a combination of factors: time constraints, fixed plans, and discomfort.  Maybe on some level there is still a notion that the teaching of communication skills is the domain of English Language Arts classes.  Largely, I think my colleagues are not convinced of any tangible benefits of teaching literacy within their subject area.  Theoretically they nod their heads that "of course course literacy is important."  But concretely will students be able to better learn each subject if we devote precious time to practicing reading and writing?

So often, in Literacy PD, I end up answering questions about "what's on the standardized test?" so that subject teachers can feel like they are doing their part and spending "extra" time on these discrete skills or ideas.

So  "what's on the standardized test"? Here is are examples of questions from the Released Items of the 2014 OSSLT that many students simply guess on:

---

---

Now do these questions fall under the domain of geography or math or English?  All the questions require students to interpret graphical data and draw conclusions based on that data.  I have watch students stare at these graphs and questions and ultimately just guess.  Eenie, meenie, miney, mo...

Me: Why did you guess?

Student 1: I didn't know where to start.
Student 2: They all look right.
Student 3: It's confusing.
Student 4: I didn't want to leave it blank.

The issue here is not subject specific.  What we need to talk about is the elephant in the room: What are the challenges that students encounter when learning and how can we support them?  When I do work with colleagues in various subject areas, I am more focused on thinking skills and learning strategies than on reading and writing.  Students need all of us to teach them how to learn. Information literacy is part of the skills set, but so are memory, mindset, determination, focus, organization, and creativity. This skill-set is much more important in the long-term than the details in our content areas.