This month’s Best Practice comes from our Director of Professional Development and former grades 4-8 G/T Teacher in West Hartford, CT, Jeannie Pascon

Are you ready to start Type III Investigations (aka:  Passion Project or Genius Hour) with your students? Start with Topic Shopping!  Hand this Topic Shopping Sheet out to students and as they walk through their day, they will METACOGNITIVELY consider and record any topic that they come across:  Yes, Maybe, No. Encourage and give time for Type I exploration through their personalized Renzulli Learning Enrichment Database, as well as magazines such as Time, Time for Kids, Cobblestone, Sport Illustrated, National Geographic, and anything at all that crosses their path during the day!

Once they have latched onto a general topic, they can use the Student Scavanger Hunt to begin collecting resources from Renzulli Learning and mark them as “Favorites” for easy access later.  They will read and interact with sources to build their background knowledge – their SCHEMA – in order to find their project focus.