Teaching sequence

Please note: This lesson does not have suggested timeframes as the development and progression of a Passion Project may happen over an extended period of time or even occur in cycles. Work with your students at the pace you feel is best for them.

Tune In:

Bringing a passionate group together

Find Out:

Building a group passion project

Take Action:

The impact of group passion

Reflection

Tune In: Bringing a passionate group together

Step 1

To kick things off, we’ll need to have students start thinking about their passions and where these might overlap as shared passions. You may already have a group of students randomly assigned, or you may like to have students form a group.

When it comes to what constitutes a group of people, a good rule of thumb is 6. This is often considered a key number for good collaboration. Less than 6 or more than 6, you sometimes end up in archetypes of a lot of ‘contribution’ or ‘cooperation’ but not enough collaboration. We’ll cover more strategies to support collaboration in the Find Out section.

There are a range of ways you can help groups find some resonance. But remember, there doesn’t need to be unanimous agreement at the start.

You might like to do one or some of the following approaches with students to encourage some shared perspectives:

Who do you know ‘lives’ with passion? You can replace the word ‘lives’ with many active verbs such as sings, acts, writes, speaks, leads, plays, works, etc.
- How many of these people are famous or well-known?
- What if we only looked at our peers inside the school or the community?
- What qualities do they share?
What does passion look/sound/feel like? Describe it, draw it, or perform it.

Who is drawn to these descriptions?

‘Teamwork makes the dream work’ - What teams have been successful? These might be from sports, business, art, science, etc. Identify their common goal and what they might have navigated together.
PESTLE word association: Each student has a token or object. Create five categories on a board or large sheet of paper: Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal and Environmental. Students place their tokens on their preferred category - see what’s similar. Name the issues or topics inside each category to see if that helps students move their tokens to a new shared area of interest. You might return to this task later.

Step 2

Discuss the Passion Profile format with the student group. There is no need to complete it yet. Just explain that it is a simple way to identify areas of interest using different lenses on passions, strengths, and learning. The Profile can be edited anytime and reviewed regularly to see how it evolves. It can also form part of your learner profile and be useful outside school.

Look at the information About the Passion Profile from The Passion Toolkit for guidance on the different sections of the Profile.

The teacher’s role is to guide, coach and provide boundaries. If the group is passionate about space, the teacher might help narrow their focus, for example, to a specific planet, the physics of space, etc., and what they might need to expand their knowledge.

Step 3

Ensure that the group is a good fit in terms of passion and not only friendship! This is a good time to discuss what might put tension or stress on the group, often referred to as a ‘pre-mortem’ around what might go wrong. For scenarios or issues suggested by students, discuss the mitigating approach or ways of addressing it.

Atlassian has a great template students could use themselves, or you could run with them, depending on the age and stage of students.

Remind them that the focus is their shared passion. They all get energy and motivation from their passion, and the more they help each other focus on that, the stronger teamwork will be.

Find Out: Building a group passion project

Step 1

Introduce the opportunity for members of the group to each complete a Passion Profile to help narrow down a shared focus. After the Tune In steps, students should know what a passion is and what it means for others.

Share the Passion Profile (as an online questionnaire or in paper form) to complete it - here is the template for the ‘Passion Profile’ To help the group, you might like to try these activities:

Draw a large version of the 3 overlapping circles and note one Passion, one Strength and one Learning from each member together, and then encourage them to come up with at least three on their own.
Have the group move into pairs to discuss the patterns and differences they observe from the Passion Profiles
Facilitate a group discussion about similar and complementary strengths, passions or learning. This is a great way for students to get to know each other a bit better!
Revisit some of the Tune In activities to see if there is more resonance on a topic or potential project

Step 2

Depending on the time and effort allocated to work on a passion project, you and the group can work together to determine the type and scale of project they will undertake together. Also, consider the timeframes allocated, deadlines, other stakeholders, materials, or spaces required.

Below are four broad categories that provide a scaffold for the complexity of a project. These categories were developed Charles Fadel at the Center for Curriculum Redesign in Boston:

Investigations	Short activities that engage learners’ curiosity and help them to identify and focus on their areas of interest - a quick win for a group! - Approximately 1 hour or less duration
Explorations	Longer activities that help learners build essential skills and knowledge that allow them to advance their shared passion - Approximately 1-8 hours duration
Adventures	Collaborative action projects that apply learners’ skills and capabilities to their passion-focused topics, issues, and/or communities - Approximately 8-50 hours duration
Quests	Extended group passion projects, often guided by an expert mentor or coach, that go deep and wide into a group’s passion pursuits - Approximately 50+ hours duration.

Step 3

Discuss with the group how each element of their work might be distinct from each other. This can be a simple sheet or online form that students complete to track their work as an individual alongside their group’s work.

This also opens up the opportunity to co-design a timeline and milestones around the project. This can always be renegotiated as things progress, but it ensures a sense of continuity.

Consider using a template such as this for their individual roles:

Name
Area of interest
Project goal
Week 1 work focus
Week 2 goals/outcomes achieved
Contribution to supporting group members in week 1
Week 2 work focus
Week 2 goals/outcomes achieved
Contribution to supporting group members in week 2

Step 5

As a group project, it’s important to discuss what collaboration might look and feel like. Have students come up with some descriptions of these to share. It can also be helpful to identify what collaboration is not and how the group might recognise the signs of a fractured group.

Help the group to consider timed sprints of work, which might also align with milestones. This includes a shared understanding of what parts need the whole group to work together and what parts can be done as individual components separately.

Students might have defined periods to work on this and when they provide you or a mentor with updates. Using a ‘traffic light’ method of identifying steps and tasks in updates helps the group track, celebrate and support progress (i.e. Green = completed or positive progress; Yellow = in process or to be organised; Red = stopped or stuck).

If not already agreed, discuss where students will work on this passion project. Can everyone be in the same room? Are there break-out spaces? Do groups need specialist equipment, such as access to science labs, music or sporting equipment, etc?

Take Action: The impact of group passion

Step 1

As the group’s project progresses, it will become more important to decide together how the impact and effectiveness of the project will be measured.

This is trickier than curriculum-based assessment because there may not be prescribed outcomes. However, there needs to be an endpoint, even if that is a project phase.

Start with the questions such as:

What do you want to learn/get better at through this project?
Who is helped by the project?
Who else has a say in the effectiveness of the project?
How will you know you’ve been successful?
What do you hope is the impact of the project? On themselves and others.

Step 2

Review the milestones together. These might be based on time or completion of key steps or phases. Because of the iterative nature of the work, they won’t necessarily produce ‘X’ by ‘Y’ date. Rather, they may have to report regularly about their progress and effort rather than a final product. For example, encourage students to

Research and report back on what they have learnt, especially as a group
Try something out, test their ideas in some way and reflect on what they have learnt
Be prepared to try again with a different tactic or approach based on their first attempt - have the group generate a list of 10 ideas and then refine them
Seek feedback from different people, such as engaging with relevant people from the community outside the school. This is often done best in pairs.
Have a clear approach for gathering feedback as a pair of students. A useful order of questions for feedback is: What do you like (be specific)? What could be better? What questions do you have? Who should I talk to next?

This process is about learning as they go and following the development of their passion. The focus for you as their teacher is to support and guide them. Help them navigate their choices if they get stuck, and ensure they have the momentum to keep going when they hit roadblocks.

Step 3

At the end of the project or a major phase, the group might submit, present, or complete their work in whatever way was determined. A key factor is knowing the intended audience for this work - it might take time to arrange ways to reach and ‘pitch’ to them.

This stage differs from their progress with the Passion Profile, which they will reflect on with you at the end of the Term.

Depending on the project, the group might coordinate and deliver:

A presentation to their peers or class using a simple narrative: What was the issue they pursued? What ideas did they develop? What impact has it had?
A presentation to the whole school on the journey of their group passion project
A physical display in the school or a digital artefact on the school website or their own channel.
A presentation to the school community, especially if a community group or organisation was a part of the project. If there is an opportunity for feedback, that would be beneficial for the group as well.

Reflection

No matter what their project or how the group has pursued their passion, it is important that at the end, they should make time together to discuss:

What have they learnt? Were there unexpected areas of learning?
How was their resilience tested? How did they get past the tough times?
Did they meet their objective - Why/why not?
What has been the impact of their project on themselves and others?
What’s next for their passions?

Have the students revisit their Passion Profiles, completing one from a clean template, then show them their previous one to compare. What’s changed, and what’s the same?

Passion-led Learning: Group Passion Project

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UN Sustainable Development Goals

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