Want to Start Genius Hour in Your Classroom?

Here is a link to my basic lesson plan outline for Genius Hour. It would need to be adjusted for different grade levels and some could be extended for a few days.

Click Here

A blank plan sheet can be found here

FAQ:

What if I’m not an expert?

• Learn along with them! Warn them they will have to be very independent on this one because you don’t know much about it

How do I find the time? Especially when we have so much required content.

• Do what works in your schedule! If you can only do it once a month, that’s better than nothing!
• Look for down time - maybe you wrapped up a unit and have 4 days to try it, etc

What about early finishers?

• Either have them start a new project or keep exploring the one they chose - could create a new format for what they learned (blog, poster, etc)

Do they actually create or just research?

• They must create something to present or at least discuss. For example, they could be doing 20 Acts of Kindness, but need to be working on it each session so they could blog about their acts.

About how much time does it take?

• Depends on your grade level - for my kids it takes about 10 one hour session (5th grade), but could always take less or longer

How can I integrate it into the content?

• You may need to start it as a guided inquiry project, but try to move to open so that it is truly “Genius Hour”