Community reviews for Genius

Overall I think Genius.com is a great learning tool to demonstrate close reading. The website overall is easy to follow and it encourages class discussions on what specific pieces of texts mean to them. It's also a great way to show how students could have different view points and provide strategies on how to use evidence from texts to apply that information to their different views. The website also gives very detailed explanations on everything and is fairly organized.

Genius ends up being a very capable tool for the classroom but takes a bit of effort to become accustomed to using. The plethora of content and ease of distraction for students can be a downside but the ability to annotate and share on the spot while your peers do the same is extremely helpful. If Genius extended their features a bit more and allowed private sessions where a teacher could host a particular work and session that would be an incredibly useful step up. As it stands, Genius is a very helpful tool that could use some tweaking to be better streamlined towards the classroom. The upside of this tool, as well, is it allows students to search a variety of things such as songs that can then be used as a reference to a work in the classroom discussion or for a paper.

While I love the concept of Genius and enjoyed playing on the site myself, I would not recommend using this site in a classroom with students under the age of 18. This definitely has some applications for college level students given that there are no issues with requiring an email address or need to protect as heavily from explicit content for that age group. As a supplementary assignment for my own children, I could more carefully regulate what they are annotating. Beware using this on a projector even for a group activity as some great annotators have very explicit commentators. Final verdict - do NOT recommend for under 18.

There is very little not to love about Genius.com in the English Language Arts classroom! Setup is fairly quick and simple, saving teachers precious time and becoming a verified educator is as simple as sending an email. In the classroom, there is little question that Genius.com promotes close reading and lively discussion. Students are interested to read how their classmates interpret text in comparison to their own views and subsequently, how their classmates respond to their ideas. It is not uncommon to hear voices rise up of the clatter of keys in the classroom as students begin to debate the finer points of literature, using textual evidence for support!