Malcolm Mulligan October 7, 2010

 Identifying student skills needed  Mini lessons to teach needed skills  Overview of Project Based Learning  Overview of a Research PBL (ILF project)  Sharing resources  Question and Answer

Yes they can, however they may need to acquire or hone some skills and have some guided practice. Here are some skills you may wish to cover prior to assigning a research project.

 How to read an article, chapter, charts, etc.  How to start research – survey information  How to make an outline  How to summarize and take effective notes  How to properly cite your information  How to use the library and the on-line resources  How to narrow topics and refine questions  How to work in groups effectively  How to present your findings  Why you should proof your work

Many students when given a reading assignment open the book to the page and start reading from the top left to the bottom right – often ignoring key text features that would give them clues to better retain the information. Activity: Look at the chapter text and create a graphic outline of how you would read this text. (What order do you read…)

Many of these topics can be covered in class or group led activities within a larger lesson  A lesson on making an outline could start with a general reading (graphic outline)  Then show how to find the main ideas of the topic and put the outline on the board.  Related lesson: summarizing and note taking.

Summarizing Text is related to note taking and the use of the Graphic Outline can be a useful tool to assist students with both skills. Ensure students have a purpose for the notes. Show students how to take note of text features. (headings, italics, graphics, sources) Show how to scan for main topic of a paragraph, decide if relevant to your search. Show how to take notes in point form to record supporting ideas, examples, key words… Show how to record source information (by hand, or with citationmachine.com).

“ Respect the time & creative effort of those whose information you use.” Quoted at: Citing sources is an important part of research. Go over the school’s plagiarism policy, show proper procedures for citing different works. Share resources for them to use (easy bib, citation machine.com) Also show them how to use the works cited to provide more research material

You can provide your students with all the articles you wish them to research. Alternatively, you can give them a list of the articles you want them to find – on-line. They will still have to do the reading, summarizing, citing, writing, and presenting. They will be spared the major search part of research.

Make your students aware of the Provincial resources available for them to do research on-line. Do not forget about the NB Public Library and their resources! How to narrow your topic and refine your search Evaluating credibility of sources How to cite sources correctly (MLA, APA..)

This is a handout you can give your students so they can access many on-line resources. It is available on my wiki page.

Effective groups have a focus and a deadline. Heterogeneous groups are more effective for individual learning, and if formed based on interest of the research. Effective groups need a leader to keep meetings on time and on task. Effective groups take responsibility for their tasks and deadlines. If you can find a real-life problem and have the research provide some real-life solution then there will be more interest and better results. Checklists can be effective in assisting group members to stay on task.

 This is a copy of the Group work Checklist I used to assist the students in staying on topic and time targets.  This is also available on my wiki page

Step 1: Define the project Begin with the end in mind – a theme Know what you want the students to accomplish. What is the Driving Question they are going to answer Step 2: Identify curriculum standards

Step 3: Identify key skills the students will learn, but only identify those you will be assessing. Step 4: Plan the assessment: Define the products to be assessed throughout the project. What is expected of the students at what point. (Early, during, end). State the criteria for assessment. (rubrics, exemplars)

Step 5: Map the project: Formative assessment tools to assess and manage learning. Step 6: Manage the process: (Differentiated Instruction, Groups, etc.) The information on PBLs is available on the Portal or from the following book: Project Based Learning Handbook: A Guide to Standards-Focused Project Based Learning for Middle and High School Teachers. Second edition. Novato, Ca: Buck Institute for Education, Print.

 Go to my wiki to see the project and resources

Resources: (Awesome site for citations. see also citationmachine.com) conduct-research-online/ References: For Groups see Dennis Littky and Big Picture Learning: And : Classroom Instruction That Works: Research Based Strategies For Increasing Student Achievement. Alexandria, Va: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, P Print. The information on PBLs is available on the Portal or from the following book: Project Based Learning Handbook: A Guide to Standards-Focused Project Based Learning for Middle and High School Teachers. Second edition. Novato, Ca: Buck Institute for Education, Print. How to read text information is from the following books: The Teacher’s Resource: Stepping Out, Reading and Viewing: Making Meaning of Text, Teacher's Resource. Canadian Edition. Toronto, Ca: Pearson Professional Learning, , 134. Print. And the Course Book: Stepping Out, Reading and Viewing: Making Meaning of Text, Course Book. Canadian Edition. Toronto, Ca: Pearson Professional Learning, , 155. Print.