Blog 3: SBA's post

This discussion comes at the perfect time. According to DCPS’ English/Language Arts standards, I’m suppose to teach my 6th and 7th graders to write research reports. I have to be honest – I would love to ignore this standard (just like the other two English teachers in the building are doing). But I know that ignoring this standard is a disservice to my students.

So, how do I teach my students to write research reports when I only have one computer with Internet access and no school librarian? (Our library hasn’t been maintained since the last librarian left five+ years ago.) That’s what I’ve been struggling with for the last few weeks.

I’ve decided to look at this as an opportunity to build the skills my students will need to write research reports in the future. I’m still debating if I’ll actually have them write one this year. I probably will but keep it to just a page or two. I’m struggling to come up with a topic or a least some parameters to help them choose theirs.

The research skills I plan to focus on aresummarizing, note taking, paraphrasing and evaluating sources. (This could also be a chance to review lots of writing and grammar skills.) I’ll work plagiarism in since I know many (most) of my students think a research report is copying verbatim off the Internet or from a book. I may touch on evaluating sources. We did citations a few months ago for science fair.

I also plan to walk over to the Anacostia Library (actually the interim library while the real one is being renovated) and see if I can get any support from the librarians there. I might have them put some books on hold so the students can come and do research on their own time.

Finally, I’m thinking of having them work in pairs on this. Each student would have to turn in their own report on their own topic, but they’d have someone to work with on the skills. I'm worried about how to do this in my inclusion class where I have 8 special ed students and an inclusion teacher that rarely leaves her chair.

Any other ideas and suggestions would be appreciated.