Fun With Research: Strategies That Work

Presenters Donna Guerin and Patricia Carbone presented the idea that research (this was geared for elementary school students) has to be an inquisitive, question-based process. Student researchers are investigators who must ask and answer questions that frame the study. They presented many techniques, objects and websites that can advance this process, emphasizing that we should not re-invent the wheel. The following are my detailed notes about their presentation:

Donna.guerin@verizon.net if you want an electronic version of the links.

Laying the groundwork:

Plan, plan, plan, with yourself and teachers
Design engaging research lessons
Question driven
Task driven
Buy into a research process
Big Sic
IIM
Use a common research vocabulary
Want it to be fun for elem. Kids
It is an investigation and we need to let them know that

(Presenters dressed as investigators with Sherlock Holmes hats and pipes, can do that for kids…Agent IIM)

Don’t reinvent the wheel

Lots of places to find lesson plans, you don’t need to do it yourself.
(Links in handout)
Thinkfinity as an example (406 lesson plans that deal with research skills)
Intel has unit plan index
Noodletools
21st Century literacies
Voicethread
Route 21
21st centuryschools.org
lesson plans from the Baltimore schools
Read write think (all the lessons are already done)

Information skills (that’s us) are the most important skills our kids are going to need.
ICC Information, communication, collaboration

Ask good questions.

Effective research is question driven
Use good question cubes (can be purchased) Prevents kids from asking question that they can answer yes or no

Find, evaluate, cite sources
Kids and teachers don’t know how to do this
Most regurgitate facts
Let kids get immersed in resources

Citing sources
A Author/editor
B Book/article title
C Company or city
D Date of copyright
E Entire page numbers/URL

Tools can help, like online citation sources

Take good notes

Don’t plagiarize!!!

Noodletools has exercises to learn how to take notes
Read Write Think
Fragment Frenzy
IMM Notefact Model
Model how to take notes with a PowerPoint how to summarize (right click, pointer options)
Organize and categorize notes
Take the note facts and re-arrange them into categories

Goal evaluation

Develop product and presentation
Stop the research paper business!!! Yes they should be taught, but they need to have lots of variation.
2 steps here. PRODUCT and PRESENTATION

QuIP—Questions into Paragraphs

Read Write Think has an online flipbook kids can use.