This week, we kicked off Genius Hour by reading But I Read It on the Internet by Toni Buzzeo and Reach for the Stars and Other Advice for Life's Journey by Serge Bloch. Both great books and highly recommended! Buzzeo's book laid the ground work for great discussion about researching on the internet. Very appropriate for 3rd grade and they were all very engaged! In the book, the awesome librarian shares a "Gizmo" with students - a website evaluation tool. This is something I want to create for Genius Hour research for my kids. Need to think about it and how I want it to look... Perhaps even a half sheet of laminated paper with a checklist to refer to?
After our inspirational reads, we moved on to internet searches. We practiced searching for a topic and citing our source. In Buzzeo's book, the librarian teaches kids to check out the "URL". Today's GH goal: find one fact on and write it on a piece of loose leaf paper. Underneath your fact, write the URL. We practiced shortening it up a bit and only writing until the first slash. This seemed to work well with the kids.
After we searched on our Chromebooks for a bit, we took a shot at our new reflection page. Two simple questions:
1. What is one thing that went GREAT today?
2. What is one thing that was challenging today?
Heartbreak of the day, right here folks...
We then excitedly got our new folders. I gave each student a plastic, 3 pronged folder to keep their GH work in each week. Passing out folders and practicing putting our papers in was pretty exciting stuff! I really liked the folders and I think they will definitely help keep these third graders much better organized.
Overall, today's Genius Hour session went much smoother. Every single child was engaged and excited. I feel like that makes it a success in and of itself.
I have recruited my dear friend and Library Media Specialists for next week's Genius Hour....(insert music and dun, dun, dun sound). We are going to collaborate this week and decide - explore databases? Practice internet research? Practice book research?
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