Student-Selected Research Projects
Course
Administrator and Teacher Support [7:01]
- Learn the importance of self-selected research projects
- Learn how administration can help guide you about the community culture
- Learn how teachers' involvement will help you understand individual students
Elizabeth, can I interrupt you for just one second? In the chat, we had several questions about what is genius hour, and I think snapshot version just for those who are not familiar with the use of the term. I know you mentioned sort of how it's distinguished from some similar concepts like PBL, but for those who are not familiar with genius hour, if you could just give them that one sentence, two sentence—quick history. So genius hour is a term that's been developed by I don't know who, I think it started in Google, that they were giving their people time to just work on a project of their choice. And so we've stolen this from them, in education. So like that kids could work on a project of their choice in school, you know, letting them see that their interests really matter. So and then there are the three things that you need to do, which is: like it must be a self-selected; you can't answer the question yes or no, or do a quick Google search on it, there needs to be a driving question to lead their research; and then the last thing is that you have to present to the world. So that's basically what a genius hour is. I think you can Google that if you want, but there's lots of stuff out there. When I first started genius hour work, there was lots of stuff on classroom genius hours in high school. And I worked it to the library because I felt like research was something that the library should be doing, right? And leading. And I did it with elementary kids. And so if they can do it, you can to!
OK, so now you might have your activities that you say, "Absolutely We must do this." So how are you going to work that into, so you can prioritize your time. Because if you truly let the students do their research on what it is that they want to do, that's going to take quite a bit of the school year or quite a bit of time. And you want to ensure that the TEKs, or essential knowledge and skills, are covered. So that also takes time to work in. You might want to re-evaluate what is absolutely essential and valuable to you. You know, I did book swaps at the end of the year and that is something that really you can do at the very end of the year, if you have time, right? I mean, we do want to promote reading, but we don't want it to derail what we're doing, which is letting the kids work on their projects and present.
You might want to add something to your mix, because I saw art in history and that just made me so excited because just today, I thought, why don't we get the art teacher in there? Because everything that a student is going to research has a place and time in history, right, so that makes social studies very logical. But also art is a reflection of the people and what they're feeling and what's passionate and motivating them at that moment. So you could even pull art into that. So, wow, that just the visuals that you could use in a presentation would just be amazing. So I refer to that in later.
So the question is, how does admin and faculty support self-selected projects? Well, because they work with students and parents more closely than probably the librarian typically does, they're going to know the campus culture in the community and what kind of parent support you're going to get. So if, you know, I would give one warning in advance that all these children are under the age of 18 and you might need to get permission to cover, like, controversial topics that these kids are probably very curious about. And so that's important. So that's why you'll want your admin to be on board, because they need to know what you're doing in the library, right, I don't want to catch any of them off guard. They don't like surprises from the library. So your teachers know what's going on with individual students lives, but with the warning, we want these teachers to have an empathetic eye towards these kids. So, you know, we don't want to judge them, you know, this is going on, you're not going to get any cooperation. No, we want a teacher to tell us, you know, wow, this is happening in this kid's life and we're going to work with them to make sure they're successful. So that's why you want them on board with you.
So what I'm proposing to you is not for you to demolish your whole program and throw everything that you've done out the window. No, we're just kind of remodeling things. We're just kind of, you know, rearranging it and making it more aesthetically pleasing and more utilitarian to you and your kids. So genius hour in the library means remodeling what you've already built in your program and we're not going to abandon everything that we've already worked for and believe in.
Getting your administration and teachers on board with self-selected projects, PBLs, or genius hour can be tricky, so why not start with something you're really good at? What are some projects that you will never give up and can those be turned into a self-selected project?
Think about your "I will never give this up" programs that you have developed over the years that students enjoy and get the most out of. Using page 2 of the Course Packet in the Resources above, start to think of ways that you can use those activities, lessons, skills in a self-selected project. How can it be used to support the larger goal of the administration? Once you can explain how a self-selected project supports everyone in the learning community, you have a better chance of everyone buying in. Once you've completed this activity, look at pages 3–4 of the Course Packet for attendees responses.
MLA Citation
Rush, Elizabeth Barrera. "Student-Selected Research Projects: Redesign Your Program." School Library Connection, August 2021, schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/2267001?learningModuleId=2267489&topicCenterId=2247903.
Entry ID: 2267531
Now that you have taken a look at the programs that you are not willing to part with and thought about how they would fit into a self-selected project, it's time to frame your argument for your administration.
It is time to look at the programs you just redeveloped in the first activity and think of them in terms of the classroom and not the library. Are you able to frame your argument to show how this program supports the interests of the school district? Does it work with the classroom curriculum? Using page 5 of the Course Packet in the Resources above, brainstorm ideas to help support each of these sections, so when you present the idea to your administration and teachers, you already have everything they need to know right in front of you.
MLA Citation
Rush, Elizabeth Barrera. "Student-Selected Research Projects: Framing Your Argument for Administration." School Library Connection, August 2021, schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/2267001?learningModuleId=2267489&topicCenterId=2247903.
Entry ID: 2267537
Additional Resources
About the Author
MLA Citation
Rush, Elizabeth Barrera. "Student-Selected Research Projects. Administrator and Teacher Support [7:01]." School Library Connection, ABC-CLIO, August 2021, schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/2267001?learningModuleId=2267489&topicCenterId=2247903.
https://schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/2267001?learningModuleId=2267489&topicCenterId=2247903
Entry ID: 2267001