Hello Again Everyone,
My original HIT posted on Monday, October 30th was responded to with
more info from several people. Therefore, here again is my original
post, the first 2 responses I had, and then the ones that I have gotten
since the first hit.
Thanks!!
ORIGINAL POST:
"Hi Everyone,
I'm looking for information for both middle schools and high schools
about what length of research reports should be written by students in
these grade levels. I've been working with our English teachers a lot
trying to choose the right length for our seventh graders and our eighth
graders to be writing, and some of our teachers really think that middle
schoolers should be doing more research, but in smaller chunks, rather
than a longer research paper (longer being 3 or 4 pages).
I'd love feedback on what is seen in other schools. The English research
standards don't have page lengths at all. I will post a HIT."
Here's the first HIT:
"ASCD's October 2006 publication of Educational Leadership had a great
article on "Reading Writing Thinking" that you may find helpful.
Further back in the magazine, there is a sidebar suggesting one page and
one resource per grade level, beginning with first grade."
"We are a private independent prep school in LA--7th-9th grade campus.
Our 7th and 8th graders actually do not write very long research
projects. They do short (sometimes just one or two paragraphs) research
projects. We find that 7th graders have trouble being succinct so it is
a skill that our teachers work on. It also allows them to go through
the full research process more often and it allows us (librarians) to
reinforce the Big6 skills and introduce.
Our Freshmen work on a more extensive history term paper of 6-8 pages."
The NEW responses:
"In our middle school research reports are usually 8-10 paragraphs long.
We differentiate for students with special needs and require 4-5
paragraphs from them and scale back the number of resources they would
be required to use for their research. Very few of our projects are
based in English/Language Arts, they just don't have the time with the
prescriptive/diagnostic model we use. Most of our projects are done
with the Science and Social Studies departments.
We use the Big6 model to help students plan their projects.
For a paper with 8-10 paragraphs, we usually require 4 sources. I am
working with the Science department right now for Science Fair, and they
took my suggestion of at least one book, one encyclopedia (print or
electronic), one website, and one periodical article (we have access to
SIRS/PROQUEST). For our students with special needs, we require at
least two sources, a book and a website. But, I help them find other
sources that they can use, like periodical articles from SIRS Discoverer
that are on their reading levels."
"When my sister was working as a junior high school English teacher she
used a modified research paper -- the students went through each step of
a full sized research paper, but they ended up with a paragraph. Each
sentence had to then be illustrated. The paragraph needed to be (Ithink)
ten sentences. But they had to do note cards, the research, have at
least 4 resources, etc."
"7th grade just does the research part on up to the notecards and write
in a bibliography. 8th grade does 3 page."
Thanks again!
Nancy
Nancy KapLon, MLS
Librarian
The SEED Public Charter School
Washington, DC 20019
nkaplon@seedschooldc.org
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