Research

=Making Research Real for Students=

__ Websites __ · “Research Without Copying” Ideas: [] · Research Report Literature Models: [] · // Stop the Copying with Wild and Wacky Research Projects // by Nancy Polette: ** [] ** “This is a fresh and appealing approach to teaching upper elementary and middle school students how to present their research creatively and without plagiarism. Polette's premise is that by changing the way students present their work, they are forced to think about the information they find and assess it critically and independently rather than just regurgitating it. The author uses Ripley's-style "Believe-it-or-not" fact tidbits as a hook and offers unusual and creative presentation formats, such as cinquains, acrostic poems, quizzes, and graphic organizers. Each section is organized around a theme: food, transportation, medicine, crime, presidents, unusual people in history, unexplained events, etc. Each thematic part concludes with a list of literature resources. The bizarre facts that Polette has discovered, and the interesting options she offers for presenting researching, are guaranteed to make the SLMS the favorite teacher in the school.”–School Library Journal

http://rochestersls.rcsdk12.org/researchhandbook.htm || Give students an encyclopedia entry photocopied and tell them to take brief notes in 4 words or less if it's possible. The Mantid works great. All grades like animals and they love the part about the female eating the males head while it mates. I let them know it's okay to go over 4 words, but it's guideline. For 4th grade I would probably ask for 4 facts. Explaining we want just the facts. Size- __Eats-___ etc... After they all have their facts I tell them to turn it into a paragraph or 5 sentences or more and add something to it to make it original and draw conclusions from what they read. Is the Mantid cool? Would you like to be one? Are you glad you're not one? Then I ask a few of the students to read the paragraph out loud so they can see how they all read the same thing and took notes and yet every paragraph has it's own personality and style. ||
 * [|Big 6 Resources] : Everything you would like to know about designing a meaningful research project. Go beyond fact retrieval with deeper essential questions. Design a project where the process is as important as the final outcome. Don't forget to include your information specialist in the planning loop. She may have some ideas or resources to help! :) ||  ||
 * Elementary Research and Lessons - Research Handbook and Lessons**Feel free to use these Word documents and modify as needed. Please give credit as to source.
 * Elementary Research and Lessons - Research Handbook and Lessons**Feel free to use these Word documents and modify as needed. Please give credit as to source.
 * __Note taking idea:__