How a Genius Hour Can Give New Meaning to Student Agency

When I instituted “Genius Hour,” sometimes called “20 Time,” I asked my high school students to try something entirely new. Instead of giving everyone the same assignment with the same directions and roughly the same product, I set aside time for students to pursue a project that genuinely interested them.

There’s a well-established term for this: student agency. Tell a classroom of students that they’re going to have more control over what they learn, how they learn it, and what they create, and you’ll get their attention (and buy-in) pretty quickly. The harder sell is everyone else.

I often fielded questions from parents and administrators like, “You mean they’re just going to work on whatever they want for one class period per week?” Not exactly. During Genius Hour, students had freedom, but that freedom existed with a distinct framework.

Students first identified something they were genuinely interested in exploring. They developed questions centered on that interest. They determined what they wanted to learn, how they wanted to learn it, and how they were going to showcase their learnings both during and at the end of the project. In other words, they needed to come up with a documentation plan.

And, as I reminded stakeholders, I didn’t hand over 100 percent of my class time. Just 20 percent. (This is why this approach is sometimes referred to as “20 Time.”) I carved out a small portion of the week and entrusted students to make academic decisions. They, in turn, showed how effective Genius Hour could be.

The Genius Hour Steps

There were five steps that made up the Genius Hour project.

Choose a topic: Each student was tasked with looking into something they always wanted to learn more about or understand better. I told students their topic needed to be explored in the classroom, though they could continue their research at home if they wished. While I had final say over their topics, I didn’t overrule anyone. Many of the topics were action-oriented.

Choose a day: I initially chose Fridays for Genius Hour, because it was easier to plan the week on a Monday through Thursday basis. But after the first semester, I offered students the opportunity to switch the Genius Hour day. They decided to stick with Fridays.

Choose a mentor: I required students to connect with an expert on their topic, because I knew it was impossible to problem-solve and mentor 90-plus students on my own. Many students connected with family, friends, and local community members, all of whom helped guide them through the process—especially when they got stuck. For students who chose writing-based projects, I served as their designated mentor.

Write a blog post: During the first semester, students wrote a weekly post describing their thoughts and their progress. During the second semester, they contributed posts every other week. I asked them to reflect on what they were learning and told them their posts were public. I wanted their families (and administrators) to read about their burgeoning interests. The posts were credit/no credit and could be completed on Fridays or as homework. I didn’t focus too much on the quality of the writing, though if I noticed an especially low-effort post, I’d pull the student aside and chat with them about it.

Share what you learned: At the end of the project, students gave a TED Talk–style presentation to the class. For a few years, we actually held TEDx events at our school so students could present their learnings onstage to an even wider audience. That part wasn’t a requirement, though; speaking in front of the class more than sufficed. The presentations were assessed with a rubric and couldn’t be longer than 10 minutes.

Genius Hour Examples

One student decided to train for a marathon, despite not being a runner up to that point in her life. She’d never even run a 5k! During Genius Hour, she meticulously researched how to properly train for a difficult athletic event. She also commented on her classmates’ posts, logged her meals and stats from her runs, and, sometimes, did light stretching after a morning run.

As her training progressed, her runner friends rallied around her. Her efforts and research inspired others, myself included. When she ultimately ran a full marathon, a group of us joined her: We each ran a leg of the marathon alongside her until she crossed the finish line. It was such an amazing event that I caught the running bug too. A year later, I ran the Detroit half-marathon.

Other Genius Hour examples included:

• Constructing a book of poetry. The student spent their Fridays writing and reading other authors for inspiration.
• Becoming a music critic. The student built a website that highlighted their reviews. They listened to lots of music, researched new artists, and published their thoughts.
• Learning how to play the guitar. They watched guitar instruction videos and eventually practiced in the back of the classroom.
• Trying new and scary things. For example, sitting with a new group of students at lunch, learning how to do cartwheels, and holding a snake and a mouse at a pet store.
• Pledging to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. Yes, this really happened. They dedicated their class time to learning about the arduous climb, planning fundraisers, and writing their blog posts. They hit their fundraising goal and were able to join a mission group that went to Mount Kilimanjaro. We scheduled them to speak first at our TEDx event because they had to catch a flight the same afternoon.

Why Genius Hour Is So Effective

The key to Genius Hour was making learning visible. This is especially important because student-directed learning can look messy. If an administrator walked into my classroom without any context, they might see a student researching how to make a boat from scratch, a student investigating the proper meal prep routine for a marathon, and a student figuring out how to host a fundraiser at our school. There was lots going on at once.

That’s where the weekly blog posts came in handy. Parents and administrators received insights into what was going on for each project. Transparency was built in; outsiders could see how students were evaluating sources, dealing with logistical issues, making revisions, and arriving at a final presentation.

I also made it very clear to everyone, including students, that Genius Hour wasn’t separate from the rest of our learning. I was careful with my framing. “I want to give students time to work on whatever they are passionate about” wasn’t enough. Instead, I frequently discussed the skills that students were developing. What school leader doesn’t want to hear about students developing independence? What parent doesn’t want to hear about how their child is solving complex problems as part of a larger project? What teacher doesn’t want students to grow and ask better questions?

Genius Hour really did connect back to the rest of our curriculum. My state standards had clear benchmarks for reading, writing, and research; Genius Hour was built on students’ doing research, reading plenty of texts in digital and physical forms, writing posts, and bringing everything together with a speech. They did this while still covering district curriculum Monday through Thursday. And every Friday, they got to return to a topic that kept them invigorated all year long.