Bringing Genius Hour to Your School
Course
Rising to Our Standards [5:51]
- Learn how Genius Hour is a program framework that can facilitate the delivery of all the standards.
- Learn why students at any grade level will be able to utilize a research and inquiry process.
- Learn how Genius Hour serves the goals of librarians and teachers alike.
Remarkably, Genius Hour is a program framework that can facilitate the delivery of all the standards. All honoring the learner, the librarian, and the library as students are truly engaged in a continuous sustained research project that allows them to acquire and practice skills that they need to be 21st-century learners. The standards begin by addressing the need for learners to ask questions that are meaningful to them and have some foundation in the curriculum.
The very foundation of Genius Hour is that students have an intrinsically motivated driving question. One that they came up with either through a personal experience in the past or a newfound curiosity or they just have a desire to learn something new. They're primed with a need to know. The very foundation of Genius Hour is that students are intrinsically motivated with a driving question.
Students at any grade level will be able to utilize a research and inquiry process. They'll draw on knowledge that they've gained in school using things like science and social studies, math or language arts, or any combination of those, or skills acquired in business, government, technology again, or speech can be used to create convincing argument or to deliver a dynamic presentation of a topic.
Whatever is a personal interest to a kid can be easily tied to essential knowledge and skills. All the while students are drawing on their personal experience to launch a research project that will have information that's of real personal value to the child and even potentially to the child's family.
The standards also addressed an element of inclusiveness or diversity. As students begin to explore their self-selected topics in a Genius Hour program when they're introduced to an array of resources, they won't just encounter facts. They're likely to encounter different opinions or differing points of view. Research coming from a variety of resources can bring information from other people, or communities, or countries, even, and that'll give the student the opportunity to encounter viewpoints of other people with different lives and different outlooks on the world.
Gaining a global perspective on a personal topic is an outstanding way to develop young people with a strong sense of global citizenship and acceptance and awareness of diversity. Whether students participate in group project, or whether they will be responsible for their own individual projects, they should always be given the opportunity to work together during research. By working together, students can learn how to locate and utilize resources independently, or they can help each other to solve problems. Students can brainstorm topics, ask for feedback on ideas, or test their ability to communicate a set of instructions to their peers, or they can ask for constructive criticism on their work.
In a collaborative effort that comes from a Genius Hour, students can help each other to learn by learning the research process together. In the same way that students are learning, teachers and librarians during the research process can learn to collaborate and co-teach. The teacher-librarian partnership is a natural partnership. Why? Well, they're both interested and invested in the students' success and the strong desire to help their students have a meaningful research and learning experience can drive them to work together in cooperation. In the spirit of collaboration, a fabric of knowledge and experience is woven throughout the entire program by all the participants.
A Genius Hour program ensures the collection development plan that creates a collection that is truly valuable and relevant to its users. Databases, bound materials, all the things that you gather to meet the specific needs of your learners will probably become in demand by other learners, especially after their presentation. Using technology as a way to access information in a logical way. When students use any and all resources at their disposal for their own project idea, in the future they'll be able to know which is the right source of information to turn to when they have questions and they will be able to use those sources quickly and effectively.
No matter what topic students select, you'll see that a schoolwide passion project program is an ideal way of delivering critical knowledge and skills within the context of a high-quality library program. Genius Hour serves the goals of the librarian and classroom teachers alike, and above all, it meets the needs of the learners that it's serving.
Creating a library program involves so many steps and making sure that all of the necessary boxes are checked. In this lesson, Elizabeth talks about how a Genius Hour is a program framework that can facilitate delivery of all of the standards of the necessary elements for learners, librarians, and the library program to work together.
AASL Standards Framework for Learners https://standards.aasl.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/AASL-Standards-Framework-for-Learners-pamphlet.pdf
Review the AASL Standards Framework for Learners (found in the Resources above) and reflect on how you use those in your library programs already. Now choose 2-3 of the standards and think about ways that you can incorporate them into a Genius Hour program. Using page 2 of the Course Packet create some ideas for incorporating standards into your next library program!
MLA Citation
Editorial Team, SLC. "Bringing Genius Hour to Your School: Meeting the Standards." School Library Connection, September 2021, schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/2264394?learningModuleId=2264392&topicCenterId=2253166.
Entry ID: 2268106
Librarians are often tasked with creating programs for students to complete during their time with them. This time is often limited and the goal of the project may be lost. How can you collaborate with your teachers and begin to co-teach? What if you were to fine tune a library program to go along with the current curriculum focus? Or, what if a Genius Hour program teaches them the necessary research skills to complete their social studies research project?
When students get to use all the resources at their disposal for their own Genius Hour project idea, they are learning skills that they can use in all aspects of their education. Focusing on the research aspect of a Genius Hour, think about the fabric of knowledge that Elizabeth Rush refers to and how collaborating with your teachers can create a continuous flow of knowledge for your students. Using page 3 of the Course Packet found in the Resources above, what are some ideas for Genius Hour programs that would allow you to co-teach with your teachers? How will this program strengthen your teacher-librarian partnership?
MLA Citation
Editorial Team, SLC. "Bringing Genius Hour to Your School: Teacher-Librarian Partnership." School Library Connection, September 2021, schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/2264394?learningModuleId=2264392&topicCenterId=2253166.
Entry ID: 2264397
Additional Resources
About the Author
MLA Citation
Rush, Elizabeth Barrera. "Bringing Genius Hour to Your School. Rising to Our Standards [5:51]." School Library Connection, ABC-CLIO, September 2021, schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/2264394?learningModuleId=2264392&topicCenterId=2253166.
https://schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/2264394?learningModuleId=2264392&topicCenterId=2253166
Entry ID: 2264394