Genius Hour - Foundational 10 Lesson for Personalized Learning in Middle School

This bundle of lessons provides teachers the resources to develop a Genius Hour Program in their classrooms or at their schools. We made many mistakes in our implementation so we developed these lessons to help others be successful and not have to suffer through the same mistakes we made.

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The concept of personalized learning and passion driven education has been growing in many educational systems around the nation. The overall concept has been developed off of the Genius Hour model proposed by Google. Students are given the opportunity learn skills and topics they are personally interested in such as website development or learning how to play an instrument.

One of the issues with developing these types of programs is that the background knowledge and skill-set necessary to guide students to explore their passions are often not in place. Therefore, we have created a two part unit which teaches students the pre-requisite skills, basic concepts and background understandings to engage in a Genius Hour program.

This Genius Hour Bundle of Lessons helps lay the foundation and background knowledge to allow students and teachers to develop a Genius Hour Program at their schools. Students will learn about passion, careers, innovation, and entrepreneurship.

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This unit is designed as a starting point for Genius Hour. Before students can pursue their interests, provide them with an understanding about where passions are developed, how they can become innovators and possibly be paving the way for a career that doesn't even exist at this point.

These 10 Lessons to be talk as a unit or independently. It can be implemented for grades 4-8 with modifications if necessary.

Learning Standards:

The lessons provided cover a wide range of Common Core Standards but also focus on teaching students necessary skills to be 21 Century Learners such as:
• Communication
• Collaboration
• Critical Thinking
• Creativity
• Research and Exploration


Lesson Topics:
• Introduction: Purpose of Genius Hour
• STEM Challenge
• Failures lead to success
• What it means to be a 21st Century Learner
• What is imagination?
• How are items made?
• Teenagers who are changing the world
• Trendy careers
• Innovations
• Entrepreneurs


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Students will be exposed to various individuals who have demonstrated a passion in pursuit of a career, innovation or impact on the world. Students will watch a variety of video clips (youtube link are included), work in cooperative structures to enhance their understanding of the concepts.

Examples of Activities and Lessons:
• TED Talks
• Career Videos
• Turn N’ Talks
• Roundtable
• Showdowns
• Argument Writing
• Gallery Walks
• Glow and Grows
• Class Discussions
• Personal Reflections and Journal Writing

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If you enjoy this product, please leave us a comment or review so we can work to make our lessons and resources better and more useful.

Also, these are some of our more popular projects, lessons, and units for you to consider:

Genius Hour Resources and Lessons - Part2



Thanks and enjoy!