Overview
This unit was one of the first ones I worked on that was meant to experiment with a more truncated length. As it turned out, it served more as an extended Performance Based Assessment, even while it borrows elements from traditional Project Based Learning. It seemed to me that the only way to be able to totally teach using PBL would be to create units that varied in length to fit into the requirements of the district and school. After all, one canât keep moving along a pacing guide that doesnât permit for the occasional test or assembly or drill. I needed a few units that were shorter modules of learning that still had the elements of any deep PBL unit. This doesnât have them all, but it hits on the following:
- â subject matter integration
- â role-playing
- â authentic assessment
- â blended learning
- â outside expert.
The Genius Unit addressed this need. It also focused on brain research, something I wanted my students to begin to think about more earnestly.
The basic premise is that the students are role-playing as medical professionals. They have a young client/patient they have been seeing who is showing signs of being a genius. The students are given daily resources that represent everything from magazine articles to blog posts to the Mensa test in order to define genius, study the strengths and weaknesses of labeling, and learn more about the process of identifying a true genius. The students will be asked to take notes in various ways and modalities ranging from traditional dual-entry journals to creating their own assessments. In the end, as the culmination of the unit, the fledgling doctors must write a formal scientific lab report using what they learn in their resources and research in order to advise the patientâs parent of possible next steps.
Step-by-Step Lessons
For units of this length, I donât necessarily provide a formal checklist, but I do give students an overview of the week(s) so that they can manage their time. I will provide them an agenda that would look something like this:
January 6â17
MONDAY
Practicing for the Performance Based Assessment
Quickwrite: What is genius?
Think Different ad
Forming new table groups
TUESDAY
Jigsaw genius resources
Reading articles/sharing out
WEDNESDAY
Shakespeareâs contributions to our language
THURSDAY
Taking the Mensa test
FRIDAY
DUE BY BEGINNING OF CLASS: Blog Post Jigsaw Activity
Compiling weekâs notes
MONDAY
OFF
TUESDAY
Jigsaw genius resources
Reading articles/sharing out
WEDNESDAY
Viewing model lab reports
THURSDAY
Taking the Mensa test
FRIDAY
DUE BY BEGINNING OF CLASS: Blog Post Jigsaw Activity
Compiling weekâs notes
MONDAY
DUE: Final Draft of Genius Blog Post
Changing your IQ activity
Learning about specific geniuses
TUESDAY
Quickwrite on Steve Jobs quotes
Interviewing a subject matter expert
DUE BY END OF CLASS: IQ Quiz
WEDNESDAY
Writing with numeracy
Brainstorming, organizing, and pre-writing
THURSDAY
DUE: Take the Quizzes
Argument essay using resources
FRIDAY
Argument essay using resources
DUE BY END OF CLASS: Scientific Lab Report
Let me walk you through it step by step.
1 Quickwrite: What Is Genius? This initial quickwrite will be a jumping-off point for discussion about how one perceives intelligence. By the end of the unit, weâll loop back to this quickwrite to see if perceptions and definitions have changed once research has been conducted. This could be done as a blog post. Kidblog.org is a great resource for setting up simple blog accounts for students even if your school hasnât bought into a huge LMS system.
Blogging and quickwriting address the requirement that all students must be writing in every classroom. For instance, we know that in the math standards, students must justify and explain via writing. This can feel very inorganic unless writing is more deeply integrated into the curriculum. If a student is being asked to hit the following standard, for instance âŚ
Understand solving equations as a process of reasoning and explain the reasoning.
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.HSA.REI.A.1
Explain each step in solving a simple equation as following from the equality of numbers asserted at the previous step, starting from the assumption that the original equation has a solution. Construct a viable argument to justify a solution method.
⌠that requirement to âexplainâ would be much easier for students who have already been writing through a more scientific lens than for those who are only asked to âexplainâ when being assessed. Encourage all forms of writing and the assessment writing will be easier to construct.
2 Think Different Ad: This ad serves as an entry-level event: a launching pad for the learning to come that sets the tone of the unit overall. This one is narrated by Richard Dreyfuss, but there is another one narrated by Steve Jobs himself: www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmwXdGm89Tk
This video not only aides as a discussion starter, but serves as a guide for further research that can help a student as he or she progresses through this unit. You can have students research each of the âgeniusesâ shown in the video or put students in groups to share the task of discovering the contributions each subject gave to his or her society.
3 Jigsaw #1: This unit scaffolds the learning from multiple resources by using the traditional jigsaw activity as a means to learn more thorough collaboration. In a traditional jigsaw, a small group of students might chunk an article so that each student becomes an expert at, say, one paragraph or one column or one page. They then share out what theyâve learned with the other students who, in turn, also share out the section assigned to them.
In these activities, students are divided into groups of four, and each student must become an expert at a different resource. Then, using Google Drive, the students must summarize their resource and share their notes with the students in their table group. See the following for the full assignment:
Jigsaw #1
In your table group, divide up the following resources. Each person should read the article assigned to them and become an expert on its contents. Then, using a Google Document, write a summary of your article, including the title of the article, website/periodical, and author. Identify the main point and include at least 2 important quotes. You must also end your document with 3â5 questions inspired by your assigned article. You can use both proper paragraph structure and more interesting text formats in order to convey the information in your article to your table fellows. Please use proper APA or MLA bibliographic formatting to cite your article at the bottom of your page.
Share your document with those at your table and with your teacher. Give us all the ability to comment.
Here are your resources:
- Person #1. Time, Is Genius Born or Can It Be Learned? http://content.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1879593,00.html
- Person #2. Creativity Post, How Geniuses Think www.creativitypost.com/create/how_geniuses_think
- Person #3. BBC, Tell-Tale Signs of a Genius Child www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-1770V2465
- Person #4. Psychology Today, The Downside of Genius www.psychologytoday.com/blog/innovation-generation/201307/the-downside-genius
A student sample of this activity can be found at the end of this chapter.
4 Student-Created Assessments: In my last book, âTween Crayons and Curfews: Tips for Middle School Teachers, I wrote about the power of students showing their comprehension, not by taking tests, but by developing...
