My TAG students are embarking on their independent study project again this year. Last year was my first year in a long time to do an ISP. Last year I called it Genius Hour and modeled it after Google’s version that they use with their employees (although it appears that 20% Time for Google employees may be a thing of the past) and what other educators have shared on the internet. However, every time I wrote “Genius Hour” on the agenda board, I felt a twinge of internal conflict: what message did this send to my non-TAG students? The students in my TAG class have been identified as talented and gifted in the area of Language Arts, but that doesn’t mean that I think my other students are incapable of having genius ideas.
So this year when the project began, I switched the nomenclature from “Genius Hour” to “20% Time”: same project, different attitude. My TAG students are researching a variety of self-selected topics ranging from robotics to pollution to animals to historical figures to diseases.
I’m also experimenting with a new grading system for the project. Each step is graded on a three-point scale.
3 = Excellent
2 = Good; lacks detail; incomplete sentences; may be resubmitted
1 = Not ready for assessment; MUST resubmit
I explain to my students that when they score less than 3, they can and should revise and resubmit! Everyone is eligible to score a 3 on every step! They love it: I’ve never had so many students want to revise work on their own. It’s a lot of work on the teacher side, but I think it’s well worth it to promote the growth mindset.
#ChoiceWords #TAG #Agenda #GrowthMindset #20%Time #GrishamELA
No comments:
Post a Comment