Genius Hour in Middle School English / Language Arts Class
or what to do with an exploratory class
when you’re told to “just do whatever”
This topic comes up from time to time in our Face Book group for Middle School ELA Teachers. The concept of Genius Hour or some other unstructured “exploratory time” sounds exciting because of all the possibilities, but once that excitement wears off, how do you choose what direction to go in for your students?
What will your students be learning and doing each day during this seemingly loosey-goosey time?
And how much planning or preparation on your part will this entail?
I mean, you still have your “real” classes to prep for and to work on . . .
So that’s why I went back into my Middle School ELA Teachers Community FB Group, scoured through various emails I’ve both sent and received, and compiled this list of favorite projects, ideas, and resources that have surfaced over time to help you think about what YOU could do with a Genius Hour / Exploratory type setting:
Before we dive into the list of ideas for what to do with a Genius Hour / Exploratory Class, consider the following:
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How much time do you have with your students for the Genius Hour / Exploratory class? Once a week? Every day? Just a certain number of weeks before you get a new group of students? All year long?
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What kind of technology will your students have regular access to? Is Wi-fi part of it?
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How large (or small) is the class? Consider the amount of space you’ll have and whether you have the supplies and resources for your students.
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What time frame do you have to work with? One teacher who reached out to me has 45 minutes each day for her Exploratory students, but she only gets 12 weeks with them (and then a whole new set of students comes to her).
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As the teacher, do you thrive on structure and processes or do you work well with a little bit of chaos happening? In other words, where is your comfort zone when it comes to what your classroom will look like, sound like, and be like each day during this time?
If you’ve given those questions some thought, you’re ready to really consider the following ideas for your own Middle School Genius Hour / Exploratory Class.
So here they are, in no particular order, from the mouths of teachers who have LOVED their own implementation of this free-form, project-based learning:
1) Have students create a You Tube or other similar-style video on a topic or hobby they’re passionate about. They could do research, write a script and record each other or themselves. Then play them for the class. For a longer period of time, they could even create a You Tube channel and gradually add more videos on that same topic, teaching something or explaining further, going into more depth about it.
2) Consider teaching knitting for your elective, as well as sewing. Kids make pillows or simple scarves or even small blankets and get to keep whatever they make or you could have them choose an organization as a class to donate them to! The best part is that you don’t have to have any knowledge or experience with knitting or sewing. Learn along with them, and let them see you struggle and persevere and learn! Choose a series of YouTube videos to move through with the students. Ask for donations of yarn, knitting needles, fabric scraps, needles, thread, and scissors. It’s therapeutic, it serves a practical purpose, and there’s a sense of accomplishment that comes from learning the skill and from having an actual product in the end.
3) One teacher mentioned that her students create a weekly newsletter called “Toilet Talk” that gets hung in the bathroom stalls. You could have the boys in the class work on one for their bathroom while the girls work on one for their bathroom. Each Toilet Talk newsletter is started on Monday and posted in the stalls each Thursday (this could include a field trip to the copy room to print everything out and then time to tape them up in each stall while also removing the old ones). Students therefore only have 3 class days to create it. Fridays are used to plan out / research / etc. the next week’s Toilet Talk so students can hit the ground running on Monday.
4) Another teacher’s students love to study colleges. She chooses one college per week. She has her students used their 1:1 devices and research the following: location (city & state), public or private, number of undergraduates, tuition, room & board, mascot, three majors that the college is “known for”, three extra-curricular activities, and a write up at the end as to why they would/wouldn’t choose this college to attend. It’s worth 10-15 points and on Fridays they do a quick drawing (one from each class) where the teacher gives a “college related prize” (sticker, folder, etc. from a college.). It can be pricy at times, but the exposure to these schools is so fun fir them. If you plan ahead, you can also reach out to colleges and ask them to send marketing materials to you for your classroom, like pendants, pens, little notebooks, stickers, etc. The culminating activity is a college report PowerPoint or FlipGrid or other video on the college they want to attend. Also, if possible, you could even try to have a field trip to a local college for a tour.
5) Mythology (Greek, Norse, African, Asian, Native American, etc.) You might also consider similar ideas found in folk tales, classic children’s literature, or fairy tales from various countries and cultures around the world. Incorporate You Tube videos, movies, different versions of the same story, etc.
6) Genius Hour – Mrs. Kirr’s publicly-linked “LiveBinder” located here > >
https://www.livebinders.com/play/play?id=924593
She has an entire year’s worth of lesson plans spelled out for her own version of “Genius Hour” projects. She includes scripts for what she says and for how she introduces concepts to her students along with handouts, her printables, links to specific videos and other resources she uses. Thank you for allowing me to share this Live Binder here, Mrs. Kirr!! 🙂
What other ideas, resources, or projects would be good for a Genius Hour / Exploratory time with your students, and how do you find the time to plan things out?
It’s actually pretty fun to get to think creatively about how you want your Genius Hour / Exploratory time to function in your classroom. It’s even more fun to dive in when you have the time freedom, mental space, and energy to do so!
Imagine what amazing projects and discovery learning you could dive into if your “regular” lesson plans were already 100% done for you!
Imagine being able to enjoy the creative process of building and actually participating in your own Genius Hour with your students, knowing the warm up/bell ringers + mini-lessons + independent practice + differentiation + quizzes, exit tickets, and unit tests were DONE for your 6th, 7th, or 8th grade ELA class!
Grab my free lesson plans and resources HERE, HERE, and HERE to get some time back in your life for those amazing projects you’d rather be doing with your students (without taking away from your personal family time at home).
