Research

The Georgia Performance Standard for teaching Research begins in the 4th grade and is designated in the Writing Strand as, for example, ELA7W3 which is identified as English Language Arts, grade 7, Writing 3 (Research and Technology). The complete standards can be found in the GPS Center on the Fulton County website under “Staff Only.”

Based on a thorough review of the Research standard, here are some things to note:
 * Under crediting sources: (variations in terminology)**
 * 4th Gr. – “Works Cited”
 * 5th Gr. – “Works Cited”
 * 6th Gr. – “Cites References” “Creates a bibliography” “Plagiarism is a form of stealing.”
 * 7th Gr. – “Documents Sources” “Create a bibliography” “Plagiarism is a form of stealing.”
 * 8th Gr. – “Avoids Plagiarism” “Cites Sources” “Create a bibliography”
 * 9th Gr. – “Cite sources within the body of the text” “Uses a style sheet to format a works cited page” “Explain the difference between a bibliography and a works cited page”(see notes at end)
 * 10th Gr. – “Embed quotations into student’s own text” “Follows any style guide to format a works cited page or a bibliography”
 * 11th Gr. – “Integrates quotations and citation into a written text…” “Use an annotated bibliography…” “Write a bibliography” Write a work cited page”
 * 12th Gr. - “Integrates quotations and citation into a written text…” “Use an annotated bibliography…” “Write a bibliography” Write a work cited page”
 * Under Paraphrasing**: (directives to students)
 * 6th Gr. – “Give credit to the author by citing any ideas (including paraphrasing and direct quote) in a paper or work.” 6c.
 * 7th Gr. - “Give credit to the author by citing any ideas (including paraphrasing and direct quote) in a paper or work.” 7b.
 * 8th Gr. – “Give credit to the author by using the appropriate formatting for citing information, paraphrasing, or using direct quotes.” 8c.
 * Miscellaneous**:
 * Begins using search engines & web browsers to locate information in 4th grade 4c.
 * References use of databases (such as GALILEO, Grolier, Infotrac, etc.) 6a.
 * Difference between primary/secondary sources 9a.
 * Formulates clear research questions 9a, 10a, 11a, 12a.
 * Uses appropriate conventions for documentation in the text 9e, 10e, 11e, 12 e
 * Specifically addresses discrepancies in information 9c.
 * References locating valid & reliable information and evaluating information – 10th grade. 10a, 10c.

The English/Language Arts Georgia Performance Standard on Research begins in the 4th grade & goes through 12th grade. At vertical team meetings spring 2008 (Chattahoochee/Northview Cluster) we learned that there is much confusion about terminology used (Works Cited/ Bibliography/Reference Page, etc.), inconsistencies and gaps in teaching about plagiarism, and no one research method guiding the process for students. As a result, teachers are finding that students are not sufficiently prepared to handle research assignments without having to do a lot of re-teaching. After reviewing various research methods, the Chattahoochee/Northview LA vertical team for grades 5-12 has recommended that their cluster adopt The Big 6 as the standard research process in all cluster schools, because: Language Arts teachers, in cooperation with all media specialists, will continue to teach research skills as they appear in the standards. All content area teachers are asked to support, for consistency, the use of the Big 6 for any research assignments made in their classrooms. We are hoping that students will come to recognize The Big 6 as a method to follow to produce a quality product. What the Big 6 will NOT do is: Dictate what research assignments or projects teachers give. Apply any conditions on research assignments – subject matter, length, duration, product, rubrics, results, types of resources used, presentation formats, etc. Training/resources/discussions on the Big 6 can be provided to all teachers through content area/department meetings, Professional Learning Communities, team or grade level meetings, or, as needed – one on one.
 * The Big 6 and Media Specialists**
 * it is nationally recognized
 * it is systematic in approach to the problem
 * it is supported by a well developed and free website for teachers
 * it uses best practices
 * it is already in place in some schools

1. Task Definition – the student understands what the assignment is and what information is needed 2. Information Seeking Strategies – the student understands how to select good sources of information 3. Location and Access – the student knows how and where to find sources and the information within 4. Use of information – the student reads, hears, views information and knows how to extract relevant information 5. Synthesis – the student organizes information from multiple sources and presents the information 6. Evaluation – the students is able to judge his/her product effectiveness and process efficiency
 * To review…the Big 6 Research Process is:** ( [|www.big6.com] )

One point that we want to make is that no one is required to use the Big 6, but it will save time and effort for everyone in the long run if we’re all on the same page – Social Studies knows what Language Arts is teaching about research methods, Language Arts knows that Science will be reinforcing the Big 6, and students will have less questions about what to do if we’re all practicing the same format. The more opportunities students have to practice using the Big 6, the more proficient they will become.

From real life – (good ways to introduce the Big6 to students or teachers
 * Sample Problems That Can Be Solved Using the Big 6**
 * High school student selecting a college to attend
 * Teachers planning a staff development workshop
 * Choosing a pet
 * Learning how to care for a pet
 * Choosing a movie to see
 * Completing your income tax return
 * Planning a party
 * Looking for a job
 * Buying a car
 * Baking cookies (or any “how to” project)
 * Planning a baseball game
 * Choosing a novel to read
 * Where to go on vacation
 * Where to stay – B & B, resort, conventional hotel
 * What sights to see
 * Where to have dinner

Connected to content areas – (applications directly related to the Georgia Performance Standards)
 * How has the Harlem Renaissance in music influenced the Hip Hop culture of today?
 * Compare themes in American folk tales with current situational dramas on television or in the movies.
 * Describe how the Constitutional powers of the President have been extended and the impact on the country.
 * Describe a relationship between a seasonal change in plants and a seasonal change in animals.
 * How does global warming affect the wildlife of the Arctic regions?
 * Select a math-related career you might choose and describe the requirements to be successful in that career.
 * Write an original folktale incorporating the critical elements of a myth or fable.
 * Describe how the Dred Scott Decision highlighted the division between state and federal governments.
 * In what ways did the end of slavery affect the economy of the South?
 * Choose an ancient Indian civilization of the Americas and prepare a presentation that includes a map, description of their habitat, timeline, and reasons for their demise.
 * What were some of the causes of the hysteria surrounding the witch trials of Salem and could it happen in our country today?
 * Select a country in Europe and create a travel brochure depicting places to visit, a brief history, customs, and language.
 * You are a pioneer in the early 19th century traveling west in a covered wagon. You have limited space for your belongings. What would you take with you and why?
 * In the novel __Al Capone Does My Shirts__ how is isolation an important component in the lives of the characters?

Difference between Works Cited and Bibliography – In **Works Cited**, one only lists items that have actually been cited. In a Bibliography, one lists all of the material consulted in preparing a document. (various sources)
 * Some additional information:**


 * Primary sources** are the "materials on a topic upon which subsequent interpretations or studies are based, anything from firsthand documents such as poems, diaries, court records, and interviews to research results generated by experiments, surveys, ethnographies, and so on."* Primary sources are records of events as they are first described, without any interpretation or commentary. They are also sets of data, such as census statistics, which have been tabulated, but not interpreted.


 * Secondary sources**, on the other hand, offer an analysis or a restatement of primary sources. They often attempt to describe or explain primary sources. Some secondary sources not only analyze primary sources, but use them to argue a contention or to persuade the reader to hold a certain opinion.

Examples of primary and secondary sources: Primary Source / Secondary Source Art: Original artwork / Article critiquing the piece of art History: Slave diary / Book about the Underground Railroad Literature: Poem / Treatise on a particular genre of poetry Political Science: Treaty / Essay on Native American land rights Theater: Videotape of a performance / Biography of a playwright http://www.bgsu.edu/colleges/library/infosrv/lue/primary.html

Excellent article you can share with your faculty:

//** The Philadelphia Inquirer, April 20, 2000 Joyce Kasman Valenza For the Best Answers, Ask Tough Question ** Technology can make it easy for students to take it easy. Teachers need to challenge them to think and analyze. "Asking questions is a very good way to find out about something." - Kermit the Frog If my teacher asked me to write a report about a president or an animal or a state or a country, I would balk. What's the point? That work has already been done. Ask me those questions and I would be tempted to hand back any one of the many excellent printouts from Encarta or Britannica or Grolier. Those of us who work with technology-savvy students are seeing plagiarism on the rise as students complete topical assignments by cutting and pasting together pieces of text from several digital sources. It's our own fault. Topical research assignments are exercises in paraphrasing. Simply going to the library or using the Internet to find facts about a topic does little to encourage learning in an information-rich world. Real life is about problem-solving and decision-making. It is more than reporting facts. With basic information so easy to access, shouldn't we now focus our students' attention on questions that will challenge them to use information meaningfully - to think, analyze, evaluate and invent?// //"Questions may be the most powerful technology we have ever created," said Jamie McKenzie, editor of the educational technology journal From Now On. McKenzie's new book, Beyond Technology: Questioning, Research and the Information Literate School (FNO Press, 2000), explores the effect of "data smog" and the importance of engaging students in higher-level questioning and research activities. McKenzie recently established a Web site devoted to the power of questioning, at [|http://questioning.org] "Questions allow us to control our lives and allow us to make sense of a confusing world," he said. "They are tools that lead to insight and understanding. If all you have is the technology, you are not an information producer, you are just a consumer." McKenzie is concerned that while our schools focus more attention on funding information technology, few of them focus any real attention on teaching the types of information-literacy skills that inspire meaningful learning. "In the past, so much information came to students like processed cheese," McKenzie said. "We used to do most of the thinking for the kids." McKenzie noted that many states are changing their standardized tests to require more original thought and inferential reasoning. The difference between asking topical questions and asking thought-provoking questions is, McKenzie said, "the difference between microwaving dinner and cooking spaghetti sauce from scratch." So what kind of questions lead to better sauce? The questions come in a variety of familiar flavors. "Which one" questions ask students to collect information and make informed decisions. Instead of asking me to "do a report on Philadelphia," ask me to decide which city in the Mid-Atlantic region is the best place to live. Instead of "Do a report on AIDS," ask me which serious disease most deserves research funding. "How" questions ask students to understand problems, to weigh options, perhaps from various points of view, and propose solutions. Instead of asking me to do a report on pollution, ask me to propose a solution to an environmental problem in my neighborhood. Ask me how I would invest a windfall of money. "What if," or hypothetical, questions ask students to use the knowledge they have to pose a hypothesis and consider options. Ask me "What if the Declaration of Independence abolished slavery?" or "What if the Germans hadn't sunk the Lusitania?" "Should" questions ask students to make a moral or practical decision based on evidence. Ask me "Should we clone humans?" or "Should we discontinue trade with China?" "Why" questions ask students to understand cause and effect. "Why" helps us understand relationships; it helps us get to the essence of an issue. Ask me: "Why do people abuse children?" "Why is the mortality rate higher in one Third World country than another?" Instead of simply asking better questions, encourage me to design my own questions. Teach me how to look for patterns in information. Teach me how to take notes with a purpose, how to organize my ideas as I take notes. Ask me to defend my choice in the form of a presentation. Students unfamiliar with exploring big questions will need practice and guidance. They will need assurance that there may be many right answers. They need to understand that, in order to answer the big questions, they need to identify and address the smaller, subsidiary questions. That question about which city is the best place to live could not be answered without asking, "What does best mean?" The criteria might include weather, number of hospitals, major-league sport teams, or access to Gap stores. Then the question arises: How can I locate information about the criteria I have selected? My search for information should lead me to a wide variety of sources - census data, weather sites, business home pages, chambers of commerce. I will need to ask myself: Which three cities in this region do I think would be good candidates to explore and compare? Instead of merely collecting printouts about those three cities, it makes sense to guide this kind of research with a scaffold, or organizer. A scaffold for this project might take the form of a grid with the names of three cities across the top and the criteria for selecting listed down the side. Students would use the boxes to collect and compare evidence. And, if teachers use the scaffold for assessment, they can offer students guidance as projects unfold, and thereby avoid a disaster in the final product that might otherwise be revealed too late.// //After students finish data collection, they should be able to examine their columns and make a decision about which city they should further explore. And then - yet another question - how do I best communicate my choice to the class? Holly Perry is the principal at Academy for Middle Years (AMY Northwest), an alternative middle school in Philadelphia serving students in grades six through eight, where the curriculum emphasizes inquiry. Perry and the faculty of AMY Northwest joined the Coalition of Essential Schools in 1988 after questioning whether the school was living up to its dreams. The coalition's schools share a philosophy of 10 common principles, at http://www.essentialschools.org/aboutus/phil/10cps.html, inspired by the research of Ted Sizer, chairman of Brown University's education department and director of the coalition. Instruction in the coalition's schools is based on inquiry, on students' asking and teachers' guiding the exploration of "essential questions." Perry said: "We started out with each team raising its own essential questions. Helping kids to find their own voices. We ask: 'What is it that you think? What is your evidence? And what are the consequences of you holding these ideas?' " Perry and her staff avoid posing "skinny" questions. "When was the Declaration of Independence signed?" is a skinny question, Perry said. "But 'What would have happened had we not signed it? Was everyone covered equally?' These open-ended questions, which can be argued supported by evidence, are fat questions." Perry's students come from several elementary schools. For many, this kind of open-endedness is new. "Now they have the responsibility of posing questions and determining what makes a difference to them," Perry said. "Some are longing for us to tell them what to do. Do we tell them? No, of course not." An inquiry approach takes extra effort. Perry and librarian Janet Malloy are always looking for high-quality research materials and resources that elicit open-ended questioning. They emphasize primary sources. They require the use of note-taking tools such as graphic organizers or scaffolds. I asked Perry how students respond to the inquiry-based approach at AMY Northwest. She said: "We hear them say, 'You make us think. You help us think. We like to think.' "//

Questioning.org http://questioning.org/ Essential Questions (Bellingham Schools) http://wwwgen.bham.wednet.edu/ essenque.htm Exploratorium Institute for Inquiry http://www.exploratorium.edu/IFI/index.html Framing Essential Questions (From Now On) http://www.fno.org/sept96/questions.html Asking the Essential Questions (Horace) http://www.essentialschools.org/ pubs/horace/05/v05n05.html Asking Essential Questions http://www.biopoint.com/ibr/askquestion.html Generating Essential Questions http://www.mdk12.org/practices/good_instruction/projectbetter/information_literacy/il-26-27.html Introduction to Problem-Based Learning http://www.imsa.edu/team/cpbl/whatis/whatis/slide1.html Inquiry-Based Learning and Teaching http://www.bsu.edu/teachers/burris/iwonder/ KanCRN Collaborative Research Network [|http://kancrn.org] Problem-Based Learning http://hale.pepperdine.edu/~ammowad/problem-based_learning.htm Resources for Inquiry-Based Language http://www.ed.uiuc.edu/projects/inquiry/resources/resources.html Using the Internet to Promote Inquiry-Based Learning http://www.biopoint.com/ibr/startup.html WebQuest Page http://edweb.sdsu.edu/webquest/webquest.html Web sites to aid students in organizing research Concept Mapping Homepage http://www.to.utwente.nl/user/ism/lanzing/cm_home.htm Graphic Organizer Index http://www.graphic.org/goindex.html Graphic Organizers http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/students/learning/lr1grorg.htm K-W-L-H Technique http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/students/learning/lr1kwlh.htm SCORE Graphic Organizers http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/actbank/torganiz.htm
 * Internet resources about asking questions:**

Another useful tool to help teachers and students succeed in their research efforts, is the Pathfinder. Like a road map, pathfinders guide students to appropriate and reliable resources on any given topic. Below are samples for elementary and secondary schools. Pathfinder Samples: (Your School) Media Center RESEARCH PATHFINDER (topic) OPEN WORD & MAKE COPY

Collaborative Team: (teachers and media specialist’s names) Project or Topic: Media Center Dates:
 * Remember that the Media Center is open each day at xx a.m. for additional research time.

COMPUTERS: www.galileo.usg.edu Click on K-12 (top right), then use the following databases and type in your keyword(s) to access encyclopedia, magazine, and newspaper articles: (password for at home use – _) Under Middle School, go to: Compton’s by Britannica KidsClick New Georgia Encyclopedia Novel List SIRS Discoverer (and any other specific GALILEO databases that would be useful for the research topic) High School, go to: Annals of American History Encyclopedia Britannica Online SIRS Researcher. www.go.grolier.com For use at home: User name – fultonsd ; password – home. http://infotrac.galegroup.com/itweb/atla11792 For school use, the password is fulton. For use at home: User name – alta11792; password – alta11792. Type in your keyword(s) to access encyclopedia, magazine, and newspaper articles You can also include any school purchased research Internet subscriptions)