Aim:

Our goal is to improve the research skills of our students by teaching them to use resources including books, magazines,newspapers, pamplets and the Internet more efficiently, and to provide a step by step guide to organizing information into a presentation or product.

Rationale:

Students need a guide for learning how to approach research and follow through to a logical conclusion in the form of a presentation or product.

Audience:
Students and teachers of 5th-8th graders will use this curriculum to guide them through a research project. It can be used in conjunction with a project assigned by the teacher or as an independent activity used to practice these skills. Students and teachers must have basic computer skills and a willingness to try new strategies and investigate new sources of information.

Objectives:

1) Students demonstrate a sound understanding of the nature and operation of technology systems.
2) Students are proficient in the use of technology.
3) Students understand the ethical, cultural, and societal issues related to technology.
4) Students practice responsible use of technology systems, information, and software.
5) Students develop positive attitudes toward technology uses that support lifelong learning, collaboration, personal pursuits, and productivity.
6) Students use technology tools to enhance learning, increase productivity, and promote creativity.
7) Students use productivity tools to collaborate in constructing technology-enhanced models, preparing publications, and producing other creative works.
8) Students use technology to locate, evaluate, and collect information from a variety of sources.
9) Students use technology tools to process data and report results.
10) Students evaluate and select new information resources and technological innovations based on the appropriateness to specific tasks.
11) Students use technology resources for solving problems and making informed decisions.
12) Students employ technology in the development of strategies for solving problems in the real world.

(Objectives 1-12 from ISTE National Educational Technology Standards)
Click here to go to ISTE's page.

13) Read with understanding and fluency.
14) Read and understand literature representative of various societies, eras, and ideas.
15)Write to communicate for a variety of purposes.
16) Listen and speak effectively in a variety of situations.
17) Use language arts to acquire, assess and communicate information.

(Objectives 13-17 from Illinois State Standards for writing)
Click here to go to the ISBE writing standards.
 

Instructional Plan:

This module is designed for students to use either individually or in small groups with the teacher/ librarian acting as a facilitator.

Step 1: Identify your topic
This helps students decide what they want to research, narrow down their subject so that it is manageable, and identify keywords that will help them find the information they need to support their thesis or answer their questions. Some of the strategies are to write down what they already know about the subject, organize their thoughts with a graphic organizer, look at a children's book suitable for 2nd-4th grade or an encyclopedia to get basic information and narrow their subject, and use their teacher and librarian as a resource.

Step 2: Choose research strategies
 Students are asked to think about all the places they can find information and all the ways to get information. They can view a resource list to give them some ideas. They can also go to a link that will show them how to improve their Internet searching skills. Finally they can follow a link to a web site where you can ask a librarian a question and receive an answer on-line.

Step 3: Start Searching
Students are asked to think about whether they need current or historical information and then given strategies to help them determine which sources will have that information for them. If this were being used in a school library a link would take the students to a magazine database such as EBSCO Middle Search  or Infotrack and a newspaper database such as NewsBank or possibly FirstSearch for these resources. In addition there could be a link to the library's OPAC from the section describing how to locate  appropriate books. Finally a list of Internet search engines and directories is provided with a link to a page of icons for those which the student can click on to access them.

Step 4: Organize your information and ideas
This helps students learn how to take notes using note cards without plagarizing (They learn what plagarism is!) , get down the information they will need to cite their sources, learn how to make an outline using their notes, learn how to use a concept map, and learn how to take good notes. In addition there is a link to a checklist that they can use to help them get through these steps.

Step 5: Present your information
Students can decide what form they want their presentation to take. They can find out how to do a  report, essay, slide show, and think about other ideas such as videos or web publishing.

Materials:

Computers that are connected to the Internet will be required for this module. Access to periodical and newspaper databases would be helpful, although students can find these resources at their public library.

Assessment and Evaluation:

A Jane Yolen author study is provided as a practice project. A Webwizards Evaluation form is located on the menu (spider web) page so that visitors to the site can make suggestions for improvement.