Summer break provides the perfect opportunity for rest, relaxation, and reflection. In addition to spending more quality time with family and friends, I consistently engage in my own professional development by finding books, webinars, or conferences which will help me better prepare my students for life beyond high school.
I mentioned in this post that one such book was Trevor Mackenzie’s Dive Into Inquiry which offered great ideas for scaffolding Genius Hour to ensure that all learners are equipped to succeed during free inquiry projects.
I’ll be starting my third year with Genius Hour (a.k.a. Inquiry Based Learning) and today’s post is merely a quick poll to determine how many of you will be joining me on this journey as we foster student curiosity and discovery in the classroom.
Thank you in advance for participating!
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I love inquiry-based learning, especially when you get to sit back and listen to the conversations students begin having after these types of lessons have been routine. I find Socratic Seminars to be such wonderful outlets for this type of learning, especially if the concepts are new to learners. I have given guiding questions and required at least 2-3 level 2 and 3 questions for discussion days, but often, students brings more and/or begin to ask more as discussions evolve.
Great to hear, Angela! From your reply, it appears we are both fans of leveled questions during Socratic Seminars to ensure students are diving deeply into the text using evidence. Thanks for your comment!
It’s probably because I work in academia in a library, but I did not know what Genius Hour or Inquiry Based Learning really was. So I Googled it and I can see that it is similar to project based learning but on a smaller scale. It involves active learning, which I have become quite a fan of in my information literacy classes.
I would hope that everyone’s answer to your poll would be yes. We should all want to strive to be better in the classroom. We should want to improve our teaching and experiment with new ways of imparting our students with the information that they need to become successful after they leave our classrooms. That’s one of my main goals with my first year seminar and I hope I accomplish that again this year. Hope you have a successful year!
I’ve read several articles where librarians ran Genius Hour during study halls and after school. PBL and Genius Hour each fall under experiential learning and can produce deeper learning by way of creative problem solving and complex thinking as students craft products of benefit to others. Thanks for your comment, Kelly!
I have never heard of this, which is why I replied maybe, but I am intrigued as to what it is! Thanks for the brain food and I will be doing some research to explore what Genius Hour is!
Once you start researching it more, Ryann, you’ll end up loving what you find. Kevin Brookhouser and A.J. Juliani are “go to” experts who have a variety of resources to share. Thanks for your comment!
Naomi, I think it’s great that you’re taking the leap toward inquiry based learning. I personally haven’t engaged in that type of learning in my classroom, but from what I’ve learned it’s a great way to engage students. It seems like it will be more work, maybe just from my way of thinking when applied to teaching in the computer lab, so my compliments to you!
You’ll have to check out Vicki Davis of “Cool Cat Teacher” fame, Becky. She runs the computer lab at her school and has amazing ideas for IBL/Genius Hour projects. Thanks for your comment!
I, like Ryann, don’t know what Genius hour is, but I am so curious to learn more after your post! Thank you so much for sharing! From what I’m reading, it seems like it involves inquiry based learning, which I am interested in using next year in my science classroom!
Genius Hour is truly a powerful teaching tool, Kristin, due to its student-centered focus, the natural integration of your course content (and others as well!), and the opportunity for your students to design a product to benefit others. Thanks for your comment!