COURSE TITLE: the Research Process: Effective Teaching Strategies for Grades 7-12

COURSE TITLE: The Research Process: Effective Teaching Strategies for Grades 7-12

COURSE SYLLABUS

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday – August 27, 28, 29

Instructors: Bridget Knightly and Shelley Mains, BHS Library

E-MAIL ADDRESS: ,

COURSE WEB PAGE: http://teachresearch.weebly.com

CLASS HOURS: 9:00 AM – 3:00 PM

A. COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course will present strategies for teaching the research process and associated skills to students at the middle and high school levels. Topics addressed will include the design of effective research assignments, comparing different research models, skills to support effective research, and print/online tools to support steps of the research process.

At the conclusion of instruction, all participants adapt one of their courses to incorporate lessons in specific research skills. Three follow up sessions will include discussion and evaluation of these lessons in the classroom.

COURSE OBJECTIVES

This course will prepare participants to:

1. Identify the elements of a successful research assignment, and common pitfalls of student research

2. Compare three models of the research process

3. Outline individual skills to support each step of the research process

4. Integrate technology to support research lessons

5. Design and teach effective mini-lessons and comprehensive research units

6. Incorporate research skill instruction into course curriculum design

B. COURSE TOPICS/UNITS AND DATES

Days 1-3 are three consecutive days in August. These are followed by three after school sessions to be scheduled for fall 2012.

Day 1 : Research Assignments: Pitfalls and Best Practices

Day 2: The Research Process: Models and Skills

Scaffolding Research Skills: Strategies, Teaching Tools, and Technology Integration

Day 3: Scaffolding Research Skills (Part 2)

Incorporating Research Skill Instruction into the Overall Course Curriculum

Follow Up Session 1: Plans for integrating research skills this semester

Follow Up Session 2: Follow up on research lessons

Follow Up Session 3: Evaluation of research lessons

F. LEARNING PLAN

Day 1- Monday, August 27

9:00 AM – 3:00 PM

Homework before first day:

Log into Wiki and introduce onself (Name, picture, where work, background, why taking course)

Create a Noodletools account

Bring in an exemplary research assignment

Supplies:

Paper

Steno pads

Pencils

Pens

Whiteboard

Sample assignments

Computers and library access to work on assignments

Newprint and Markers for small group work

Infocus Projector

Post It Notes

9:00 – 9:30

Introductions – your name, school, grade, name an example of a big research assignment

9:30 – 10:30

Brainstorming:

· What is a success you’ve had teaching research?

· What is a hurdle to teaching research – what problems do we encounter?

· Discussion

· Show results of Freshman and Senior surveys of info literacy

10:30 – 10:45

Break

10:45 – 12:15

Putting Ourselves in Students’ Shoes:

· Distribute assignments, instruct participants to begin the first steps of the instructions on the assignment

· Ask participants to jot down impressions of doing the assignment, such as

o What did and didn’t work

o What was/was not unclear

o What interested you and what did you find “boring” or rote

o What required you to think critically and what involved regurgitation of facts

o How you felt doing the assignment

· Explain that we will discuss our experiences with the assignment after lunch

12:15 – 1:00

Lunch

1:00 – 2:00

Brainstorming:

· What were your experiences doing the assignments

o What did and didn’t work

o What was/was not unclear

o What interested you and what did you find “boring” or rote

o What required you to think critically and what involved regurgitation of facts

o What skills were required for success

o What was missing from the assignment?

o How you felt doing the assignment

· (Chart these on the board under Plus and Minus)

2:00 – 2:30

Small Groups:

· What are the characteristics of a good assignment? (Post on Wiki)

2:00 – 2:15

Break

2:30 – 2:45

Small Group Reports:

· Look at Wiki

· Distribute brochure on good research assignments

· Explain that tonight’s reading will include articles on what makes a good research assignment

2:45 – 3:00

Summary, Homework, Next Steps

[Homework to include:

· online introduction to research models (OWL, Kulthau –or tomorrow)

· Participant reflection on discussion section of website: what appeals to you about the different research models? What is one step of the research process you notice students struggling with? Discuss how you might improve your approach to teaching this step.

Question: Do we want them to read about research models tonight or just the stuff about good assignments? Should we wait and introduce research models tomorrow?

Day 2: Tuesday, August 28

9:00 AM – 3:00 PM

Supplies:

Whiteboard

Sample assignments

Computers and library access to work on assignments

Infocus Projector

Post it Notes

Poster papers with a step of the research process written on each

Class copies of a lesson plan that addresses a “micro skill” underlying one of the steps of the research process

9:00 – 10:00

Welcome back

Discuss homework reflections

Review Models of the Research Process – Post the steps we use

10:15 – 10:30

Break

10:00 – 11:00 (take break as needed)

Scaffolding each step of the research process

Explain that each step of the research process requires a student to master several specific skills. In order to teach successful research, we must provide instruction and/or practice in each of these skills. The first step is identifying each “micro-skill” that is a part of the research process.

· Have participants pair up. Give each pair a pile of post-it notes.

· Assign each pair a step in the research process. (Question – should we include all steps or just up until writing?) More than one pair should be assigned each step

· On post-it notes, participants write each small, individual step that is required to successfully accomplish each research step.

o E.g. in selecting resources, a person must be able to conduct a “smart” web search, choose sites to explore from list of sites returned from a search, evaluate the website for reliability, evaluate the website for appropriateness for the research task, etc.

o One skill per post-it note!!

· When pairs are through generating lists of skills on post-it notes, they post the notes on the poster page for the appropriate step.

· Faciliatators ask participants to review the skills under each step of the research process. (While students review skills, facilitators enter them on computer).

· Discussion:

o Any skills left out?

o What do you notice?

o What does this tell us about our lesson planning?

Ø E.g. we need to pay attention to these individual skills, which often get lost in the grand sweep of a comprehensive research assignment

o Which of these skills do you currently address in your teaching? Examples?

· If time, introduce a lesson plan that addresses one of these skills. If no time now, do after lunch

12:15 – 1:00

Lunch

1:00 – 2:45

Designing Lessons to Support Specific Research Skills

· If lesson plan wasn’t presented before lunch, now introduce a model lesson plan targeting a “micro” research skill.

· What is your lesson trying to address?

o E.g. a particular skill? A struggle that was identified earlier on day one?

· Demonstrate how to upload a lesson plan to the wiki.

· Working individually or in pairs, participants design 1-2 lessons to teach and/or practice one of the individual research skills on the post-it notes, assigned by instructors

· Instructors show students how to upload their lesson plans to the website

2:45 – 3:00

Summary , Homework, Next Steps

Homework to include:

· Readings on teaching steps of the research process (book chapters)

· Article(s) on integrating technology in teaching research

· Review students’ uploaded lesson plans from today

· Students assigned different skills for research. Each student writes a lesson to teach the skill and posts to wiki/website. Prepare to teach this lesson (or a portion of this lesson) in class tomorrow. (option to do this in pairs).

Day 3: Wednesday, August 29

9:00 – 9:30

Welcome back

In pairs, discuss homework reflections

9:30 – 10:30

The Research Proposal-Large Group Presentation

· Show “Research Proposal” Form. Explain that we recommend that every teacher assigning research use this as part of the assignment.

· Discussion:

What would be the pluses/minuses of using this with your research

10:30 – 12:00

Teaching Research: Lesson demonstrations

· Instructors each demonstrate a lesson

· Students demonstrate the lessons developed as homework

12:00 – 1:00 Lunch

1:00 – 1:30 – Large Group Discussion: Designing Year-Long Plan for Teaching Research

· How can teachers/librarians think about designing a comprehensive plan for teaching research across an entire course?

· How can school librarians and teachers work together to support effective teaching of research skills? (In this process, where are the opportunities for bringing in collaboration, peer feedback, etc.?)

1:30 – 2:30

· In pairs, develop outline for teaching research across one course. Explain that this will be fully fleshed out with lesson plans as final assignment, and this will be taught next year.

· Reminder about involving librarian, incorporating research proposal.

2:30 – 3:00

· Summary/Discussion

· Review of technology tools (show on wiki)

· Presentation of final homework assignment

Final Assignment:

Choose one year-long or semester-long course that includes research assignments. Develop a comprehensive plan for teaching research in this course. Include:

· Identification of research skills to be taught

· Timeline for teaching research skills aligned with course content and assignments

· Lesson plans for all research skills taught

· Research assignments developed according to guidelines for developing quality research assignments

· Integration of research proposal in research assignments

· Plan for collaboration with librarian

· Plan for integrating technology in research lessons

· Students will post assignments to web page.

Fall Meetings (three 90 minute meetings scheduled in September, October, November)