Quick Search

So after my students finished their cross curricular project I wanted to see how quickly they could apply what they learned in this two week project.  We reviewed the strategies of researching we learned and applied to our current unit of social studies-Colonization.  Students chose  one of the thirteen colonies.  We decided we needed to know...

• reason for founding of settlement
• geography/climate
• job opportunities
• government

Some optional additions were

• important historical figures
• religion
• economy

The Goods--the Two Page Spread

Please, please, please I beg of you to reconsider writing a 5 paragraph essay as the final product for research and try this!!  It is called a 2 page spread. Think a magazine layout.  My kids totally got it. They were excited about it too. When they were finished with their research and working on their final drafts the room was SILENT.  Active engagement; automatically differentiated; PRICELESS!!!

We generated a list of Must Haves

• title
• author
• at least 2 paragraphs
• 2 headings
• a fact box
• picture
• caption
• neat
• colorful
• border 
• beginning capitalization
• ending punctuation
• words spelled correctly

Then we organized a draft on 8 x10 paper. I approved it and they made their large sized spread. This was by far the best research project I've done and I didn't want to pull my hair out while completing it.

Taking Note

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kevin/5387998/sizes/m/in/photostream/

Note cards? Notebook paper? Organizers? I have tried many different ways through the years to help my students organize notes. I think I have figured out what works for me and my students.

NOTE CARDS

PURPOSE

For my students to truly understand what they are researching we had to establish the purpose of our research.  The project at hand was a cross-curricular project so my teaching partner and I were tag teaming lessons.  I taught note taking lessons and she allowed additional time for researching in her room.  This worked out great and allowed us to finish the project in two weeks.

Students generated a list of questions on the planet they were researching.  They understood they needed key facts about their planet, but knew to keep it interesting to their reader.  Majority of students worked on finding out the following information

• where the planet is location in relation to the earth
• could the planet sustain life 
• did the planet have or has water
• the number of  days/years it take to orbit the sun
• size in relation to the sun and earth
• how it was formed
• if it has rings how they were formed and what purpose they have
• how old the planet is

Some students took things further and others did less.  It really depended on what they were interested in knowing.  These questions guided their research.  Now it was time for students to learn how to find these answers. I then taught how to skim and and scan. I used a lesson from Read, Write Think and adapted it to fit my topics.  This was huge for the kids. Giving them permission to not read the entire book was such a relief to them.  We did however have to have some practice. Students had to really think about what they were looking for and where to possibly find it by using the Table of Contents and Index.  This was NOT mastered, but I plan on using this same researching outline later on in the school year so students can acquire more experience using this method. 

Getting to the Gist of It

One of the hardest things for students to understand at this level is how to read informational text and summarize in their own words. The lesson I taught has to do with getting to the gist of it. I wanted my students to be able to read the information and then summarize in 10-15 words the paragraph they read. We had been practicing summarizing in our novels at the time, so moving into the informational text wasn't hard, but for some students they still wanted to write the author's words which is plagiarism.

I choose an article on Saturn from Time For Kids and I read each paragraph and then summarized in 10 words or less on a note card. I used Book 6 from the Comprehension Toolkit to model my lessons after. However, I used articles about Space because the kids were studying this.

We spent 3 days practicing summarizing in articles about Space. Each day students would turn in their best card for an informal assessment to assess their progress.

What is Informational Text?

As we teach students to distinguish between fiction and non-fiction we need to understand that non-fiction is a broad area (just look at the Dewey Decimal System).  So I have begun to refer to content material as Informational Text.  The day I introduced informational text writing. I brought in about 30 different informational books that I like and let the kids explore. As they explored I asked, "What do you notice?" I began to generate a list.

• title
• author
• table of contents
• pictures
• bold words
• index glossary
• color
• vivid description

These are just a few things my students came up with.  Then we discussed the purposes of the text features.

The next day I had the following poster up (basically their list) and we reviewed the text features and the purpose.  The task at hand this day  was to locate at least 4 features of the list  in one of the informational books in the tub. They  made a t-chart as they browsed their book finding these items listed and identifying how it helps the reader. At the end I have students sticky note their favorite text feature in the book and share it in a sharing circle.

The Dreaded Research Project

You know what I'm talking about. "Just wait, 5th graders!! Soon you will have to do a HUGE research project."  Later on in writer's workshop you find yourself saying, "Think this is rough...wait until your research project!!"

This is how research was introduced to me, as a student,  followed by the AWFUL five paragraph essay.  I detest the formulated 5 paragraph essay so my classes the last few years have done various forms of presentations in place of a research paper following the research experience. My students have made PowerPoint presentations, written free verse poems, made epitaphs, brochures, advertisements...you name it.  But, I now have a new form of presentation---the two page spread (think magazine).  My students are wrapping up their projects, so I will begin posting lessons and how-to's soon!!