RESEARCH TEXT SETLeah Nickerson

Lucus

Teaching Middle School Students to Be Active Researchersby

Judith M. Zorfass and Harriet Copel

Zorfass, J. (1998). Teaching middle school students to be active researchers. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Used as a Teacher Tool This book shapes a unit called the I-

Search curriculum for teaching research. Each chapter breaks down the process and how to teach students to pose questions, accessing various materials, making meaning from the materials, and implement active research.

I would use this text to define what active research looks like and how to pose questions after locating persuasive information as well as make meaning from it.

Magical Library Lessonsby

Lynne Farrell Stover

Stover, L. (2003). Magical library lessons. Fort Atkinsn, Wisconsin: UpstartBooks.

Used as a Teacher Tool This book includes 15 lessons plans lasting

anywhere between 30 to 45 minutes and is usable for grades 4 to 8.

Pages 30 to 51 are related to research skills and 6 novels and literature books are used next to each skill to make the lesson engaging and help students make connections.

Skills include: defining primary and secondary sources, citing sources, choosing the best resource tool, and investigating indexes.

I would use this text because of the skills covered for research and the popular children’s/young adult novels used alongside them.

More Magical Library Lessonsby

Lynne Farrell Stover

Stover, L. (2004). More magical library lessons. Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin: UpstartBooks.

Used as a Teacher Tool The author strives to support teachers in

their efforts to make instructional activities and construction relevant to students’ interests. This text focuses more on diverse fantasy books that are popular among young people.

This text also includes 15 lessons plans lasting 30-45 minutes for grades 4 through 8.

I would use this text because the research skills addressed such as: periodical literature, symbols, picking a topic, autobiographies, and identifying fact versus opinion in resources.

Pass, Shoot, Dribble, Dunk: A New Basketball Doesn’t Make the Team After All

http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/stories/spacescience/basketball/ Pass, shoot, dribble, dunk: a

new basketball doesn’t make the team after all. (n.d.).

I would use this article to walk through the research process with students. The article pertains to their interests and comes from the science section on the National Geographic for Kids website. Therefore, the scientific method is included within the article.

Since I will be tailoring this research unit to their science project, I saw it beneficial to include a science article for them to look at and see how research is conducted.

There's more to basketball than ball handling. Leather balls play better than synthetic ones.Photograph by Scott Cunningham/National Basketball Association

Ten Freaky Forces of Nature by

Douglas E. Richards

Richards, D. (n.d.). Ten freak forces of nature. Retrieved from http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/stories/spacescience/freaky-forces-of-nature/

I selected this science article to interest students in various topics that could be researched for the project.

The various topics also open up opportunities to pose questions about topics of interest.

Vanished: A Pueblo Mysteryby

George Johnson

Johnson, G. (2008, April 08). Vanished: A pueblo mystery. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/08/science/08anasazi.html?_r=2&ref=science&oref=slogin&

This article highlights Archeology, a branch of science. Most archeologists use the scientific method during their research.

I would use this to engage students in another form of science that could do research for.

Fact Monster (research website for kids)

Fact monster: Science and technology. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.factmonster.com/science.html

I would use this website because of the variety of information they offer for students to research. It is also very user-friendly