BOBS: Building Outside the Blocks Projects

A BOB is a personalizing project designed to meet a variety of curriculum expectations and  presented in class over weeks or months.

You can incorporate multiple BOBs throughout a school year.

Tri-BOBs are BOB projects that recur three times.  Each iteration spirals to deepen skills while adding a new aspect with each revisit. This allows students the time and space to build  skills and much more. Here is a post on the power of Tri-BOBs.

Interview your parent(s) about why they chose your name. Then research the etymology of your name and others who share it. Determine why your name does/doesn't suit you and what you would change it to if you could.   

The What's in a Name BOB has been done from Grade 3-12. 

Choose 1 thing to start or stop doing related to eating, exercise and/or wellness. Track experience for 21 days through a journal. After the allotted time, create a product to reflect the outcome. Student achievements have ranges from learning to exercise, eat healthy , sleep better, hydrate, use breathing or other well being strategies and more.

Locate a song lyric related to an historical person, object or event. Annotate the lyrics. Investigate the meaning of the song. Conclude to what degree the lyrics are congruent with other historical accounts of the same person, object or event. Present the annotated lyrics, analysis and song to the class. 

Imagine you are emigrating from your home. Select one object you would have to bring with you. Bring that object to class and present the reasons for your choice.  

This was a way to use Genius Hour/20% Time projects. TTalks for Impact begins as a PBL and culminates in a BOB. The essence is that students choose a topic under the umbrella of the Sustainable Development Goals. Students then complete a deep inquiry into the topic and produce a TED-like talk, podcast or video presentation.

Inspired by RJ Palacio's Wonder, students read a biography or autobiography. Then, they design, create and present a monument in the person's honour or one that reflects their contributions.  

Students begin by selecting a storybook to read to the class. This is very user-friendly way to begin.

Students present a different picture book using visuals that they create. Any medium is acceptable and the products vary from all corners of the imagination.

After a year of explicit instruction in the writing process, students write and present their own original story with visuals. It may be a fictional or personal narrative, but they have had the time and space to become storytellers.

The PS Series begins with a Portrait of yourSelf. The presenter shares who they are, their family, interests and hobbies in whatever visual manner they choose. Students have made collages, videos, scrapbooks, games, puzzles and much more. 

The second stage of the PS Series was originally called a Personal Soundtrack. Students share a nostalgic song, one related to their identity and one that is an anthem or theme song- to pick them up and inspire them. This was the inspiration for the Personal Playlist Podcast (P3). Now, this project is a P3 of its own- The Personal Playlist Project.

Students experience weekly Friday Photo. where they go through four stages to analysing a photograph.  This culminating task is also the third part of this Tri-BOB. After several months of this teacher-led experience, students are ready to take their own photographs and lead the decoding of that meaningful text through 

Snapshot- a Photo Synthesis.

This is an introduction into what makes something newsworthy, evolves into annotating and summarizing the article, with questions and a response and then the presenting of a visual to enhance the communication of the issue or event. 

This was introduced in Grade 6.

What's Up begins with a visual and summary and then adds a critical analysis of the bias(es) in the article or related news coverage (video or image). This task culminates with comparing and contrasting 2 articles on the same subject for bias and presenting the different perspectives by leading a photograph analysis. 

This was offered in Grade 7.

This begins with a small group deciding on a news story to investigate independently and schmooze about in front of the class, recorded on video for the purpose of reflection. Next, the same/different group of students select a new issue or event to investigate and collaborate to create a series of tableaus telling the beginning, middle and end of the news story titled News, Schmooze and Tableaux, Too. Finally, the same/different group investigates a news story that they film as a news broadcast called News, Schmooze and Produce. 

This was a culminating middle school experience for the Grade 8's.