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These penpals can be either the old fashioned snail mail or e-mail the teacher. His addresses are: Roger Thomas Mountain View Middle School 2400 Perry Avenue Bremerton, WA 98310 roger@orca.esd114.wednet.edu Nancy Cave Mountain View Middle School Librarian 2400 Perry Avenue Bremerton, WA 98310 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-= All postings to LM_NET are protected under copyright law. To quit LM_NET (or set-reset NOMAIL or DIGEST), send email to: listserv@listserv.syr.edu In the message write EITHER: 1) SIGNOFF LM_NET 2) SET LM_NET NOMAIL or 3) SET LM_NET DIGEST 3) SET LM_NET MAIL * Please allow for confirmation from Listserv For LM_NET Help & Archives see: http://ericir.syr.edu/lm_net/ =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-= Date: Fri, 19 Feb 1999 11:46:17 -0600 From: "Johnson, Barbara" <bhjohnso@ALBRIGHTMAIL.ALIEF.ISD.TENET.EDU> Subject: Hit: Research Methods (besides Big Six)-Long Dear All: There were many requests for a hit on this topic. The responses are below. I've deleted signature lines within the hit to save some space. (Please don't be offended!) Thanks for all your help! :-) Barbara Johnson, LMS Albright Middle School Houston, Texas 77083 School < bhjohnso@albrightmail.alief.isd.tenet.edu <mailto:bhjohnso@albrightmail.alief.isd.tenet.edu> > Home < bjohnson@netropolis.net <mailto:bjohnson@netropolis.net> > "When you know that you don't know, you've got to read" (Solomon B. Fuller 1872-1953) Take a look at FLIP it!(tm) as an alternate (and much more user-friendly) to Big6. There's a very bare-bones website at http://www.scils.rutgers.edu/pds/techissues/flipit.html <http://www.scils.rutgers.edu/pds/techissues/flipit.html> There have been articles in Library Talk and Teacher-Librarian, and the book is available from Linworth Publishers. I've used FLIP it!(tm) very successfully with gr. 4 + up. Several middle/high schools are now using it as the de facto problem-solving strategy across all curricular areas., with great success, and we've found it especially useful with special ed kids. Please post a hit if you come up with anything useful. My own alternatives: I'm not sold on BigSix. I use Preview, Do, Review with younger students and am fond of the Nine Step Plan (see below) You can find it at http://edweb.camcnty.gov.uk/hinchingbrooke/original/bignine.html <http://edweb.camcnty.gov.uk/hinchingbrooke/original/bignine.html> Unfortunately I don't find it very memorable. I've used it sucessfully as a handout with empty boxes below each Step where students write their findings as they come across them. I've also tried to simplify the 9 into 6 by combining 2 and 3, combining 2 3 and 4, omitting 5 ... but I'm still not entirely happy with it. There's also the PLUS model, which is simpler and more memorable. Purpose (identifying the purpose of the assignment) Location (finding relevant information resources related to the purpose) Use (selecting and rejecting information and ideas, reading for information, note taking and presentation) Self-evaluation (did you apply the information skills successfully, what did you learn) More details of that in Teaching Information Skills in Schools by James E Herring, Library Association Publishing, London. Here's the basic info on The Nine Step Plan. Its origin seems to be in "School Libraries: the foundations of the Curriculum" published in 1984 by HMSO in the UK. ISBN 011 630713 7 Page 9 says: "... there are few information-handling tasks ... which do not require the stages analysed by a recent Schools Council / British Library committee; The Nine Question Steps 1. What do I need to do? (formulate and analyse need) 2. Where could I go? (identify and appraise likely sources) 3. How do I get to the information? (trace and locate individual resources) 4. Which resources shall I use (examine, select and reject individual resources) 5. How shall I use the resources? (interrogate resources) 6. What should I make a record of? (recording and sorting information) 7. Have I got the information I need? (interpreting, analysing, synthesising, evaluating) 8. How should I present it? (presenting, communicating) 9. What have I achieved? (evaluation) And that's the basis of many of my projects. Hope it's useful I recently took a class with Dr. Marjoire Pappas, one of the authors of Follett's Pathways to Knowledge. If you go to Follett's website, there is an excellent description of the information process model. In the class, we also learned about FlipIt and I-Search. These models also have web sites. I have used this method for several years. I found it in a School Library Journal. The middle school and freshmen students use file folders with envelopes in them. I found that students did not want to outline. So, I teach brainstorming and notetaking. Then we assign topics. They label the envelopes with the 3 major sections of their paper. They take notes on notecards and place them in the envelopes that they belong. Then when they write their paper, they can just take the notes out and write the paragraphs one at a time. They write an introduction, 3 paragraphs and a conclusion (5 paragraph essay type). They must cite sources. We use MLA in the high school. The last envelope is for their bibliography cards. I check their folders the first day to make sure they are on the right track. My teachers have found this very effctive. The article is entitled Pre-Search and is found in the SLJ March 1992. It was authored by Virginia Rankin. She is a Teacher-Librarian in Bellevue Public School, Seattle, Washington. It really helped my students and my English teachers really appreciate it. Also, I sell the file folders, envelopes, and note cards for $1.00. They cost only about 50cents because I buy in bulk. The money goes to buy research materials. It is a good trade off. They kids appreciate it. Even when I don't require it, they ask for the file folders. Barbara- We use the research process outlined in Barbara Stripling's book, Brainstorms and Blueprints. We like it because it is adaptable to any situation and can easily adapt one assignment to many ability levels. It really coordinates with the Big Six information problem solving model but is specifically for research. The two don't seem competing but different layers of the same thing although I don't directly teach both at once. I think that would be confusing. Brainstorms is available through Libraries Unlimited I believe What I have found to be the biggest problems related to doing research is the the part of the process I call presearch-identifying the topic (not too big, not too small, have access to resources). Unless this step is done the rest is full of frustration. When I work with a teacher to design a research activity I create a handout walking them through the project. I begin with Presearch and explain what they should do during this step. {For example a state report we just started with 4th gders. asks them to identify the characteristics of a place they would like to live - suggested things to consider include-live near an ocean, in the mountains, place with snow or not, what products are made there etc. Once such characteristics are identifued then find a state that fits the criteria identified. In this way they take some ownership of the topic.} Next step is the search or information collection/notetaking piece they are most familiar with. Sometimes I identify types of sources they need to use. Next step is Interpretation. In designing a research activity I make sure the students are asked to do something more than just take notes and rewrite the facts to turn in. I ask them to make the information their own or do something with it in some way. For example in a connection with an animal report they had to find a fiction title with the animal as a character, read it and include a paragraph explaining if the book character's character traits were the same or different from the behaviors discovered about the real animal through research. In connection with a biographical activity they had to recognize and explain the link between the two individuals researched (we gave them the pair of names). We have asked them to pick a task done in everyday life today and in colonial times and identify the piece of technology used then and now and compare the two. Again this step is frequently passed over. The final step is Communication or sharing results in some way. This is bassically a simplified version of the Follett Pathways model. It seems to be working for us in our 4th and 5th grades. It is the designing of the instructional activity that integrates thinking or leads to a lot of copy and pasting from web sites. The finished project can be only a few paragraphs long, but if the student is made to think, recognize relationships and draw conclusions which they can support much is learned. Track down a program called Independent Investigation Method developed by Cindy Sheldon & Virginia Morse distributed by Active Learning Systems 800-644-5059 It offers a step by step approach to research that is easy for kids to understand and implement. I use it with sixth graders. Most of whom have never been taught how to do research in an organized, painless way. two sites, I have discovered to be helpful are: Tips for Teachers: Nashville Public Schools (http://www.nashville.k12.tn.us/TIPSmanual/Appendices.html <http://www.nashville.k12.tn.us/TIPSmanual/Appendices.html> ) and From Now On; The Educational Technology Journal (http://www.fromnowon.org/ <http://www.fromnowon.org/> ) (Especially look at the articles on questioning as a tool for teaching) You can check out the INFOhio DIALOGUE Model for Information Literacy Skills by going to http://www.infohio.org/about/id_header.htm <http://www.infohio.org/about/id_header.htm> Hope this helps =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-= All postings to LM_NET are protected under copyright law. To quit LM_NET (or set-reset NOMAIL or DIGEST), send email to: listserv@listserv.syr.edu In the message write EITHER: 1) SIGNOFF LM_NET 2) SET LM_NET NOMAIL or 3) SET LM_NET DIGEST 3) SET LM_NET MAIL * Please allow for confirmation from Listserv For LM_NET Help & Archives see: http://ericir.syr.edu/lm_net/ =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=