Step-by-Step Directions for Creating Passion Projects in Our Classroom

Clicking on the links is an important part of understanding our process!

(1) Students create Essential Questions & get them approved by the teacher.

Here is a short clip showing how I work one-on-one with students to approve their Essential Questions.









(2) Submit Essential Questions on our Google Form.  They are now displayed on this Google Spreadsheet.



(3) Fill out K-W-H columns in K-W-H-L-A-Q Chart at right:

Image credit: http://langwitches.org/blog/2011/07/21/upgrade-your-kwl-chart-to-the-21st-century/

Click on the image above to see a bigger version. Credit: http://langwitches.org/blog/2011/07/21/upgrade-your-kwl-chart-to-the-21st-century/

Silvia Tolisano's great explanation of the additional letters in the K-W-H-L-A-Q Chart (Langwitches):











(4) Have students create a "Plan" (on our class Trello page) of the steps they need to complete in order to finish their project successfully. (Fair Use Policy: Students may use their teacher's Trello account, but may not set up their own.)







(5) Start researching, building, creating, etc.

(6) Fill out L-A-Q columns in K-W-H-L-A-Q Chart.

(7) Create a video showing your final product.

(8) Upload video to YouTube.

(9) Create a blog entry on the "Passion Projects" blog page.  Here are the directions for how to do that.

(10) View others' videos and type compliments.

(11) Start new round.

Click on the image above to see a bigger version. Credit: http://langwitches.org/blog/2011/07/21/upgrade-your-kwl-chart-to-the-21st-century/

Click on the image to enlarge it.

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IDEA (not currently in use): Throughout this whole process, students should make sure to move their name card to the appropriate category on our "Status of the Class" Trello page.

Click on the image to enlarge it.