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SPECIAL SECTION THEMED ISSUE
7
Missouri Reader
Beth Hurst
by Julie Bryant and Colleen Shuler
R is for Research and Responsible Planning.
Planning is part of the process of writing. It
allows our students to be organized and offer a
foundation and direction for their writing. When
they begin researching, this builds their
background knowledge and expertise.
It is never too early to begin modeling how to
organize your thinking/research so your students
will begin doing the same thing as writers. Of
course, this can be done offline--old school-- or
using some new technology to achieve the same
results.
KWL is a planning strategy supported by
cognitive science and constructivism. It
encourages students to activate and build upon
what they already know, their prior knowledge.
Then, it guides students to pose questions they
want to know in order to direct their learning.
Finally, it provides a format for students to record
their new learning. (Daniels et al., 2007). Normally,
classroom teachers use KWL as a way to pre-assess
what students know about a topic. However, this
strategy can also be used by students to help them
formulate research questions. To begin this
process, students will first need to record what they
already know about the topic (K). Next, they write
questions about what else they would like to learn
(W). Using these questions will provide a focus for
deeper research. As students discover answers,
these facts can be recorded (L). Then, with this
information, students are now ready to compile
their research into a variety of formats or on
various digital platforms.
We have found links to some valuable resources
to help you lead your students through the
research process and beginning stages of planning
their writing about a topic of choice:
• Blog to step by step Research Writing for
• Amazing resource for research writing at all
• Scaffolding Methods for Research Writing for
In this first link, Genia Connell shares ideas for
helping students write research in grades 1-2 and
3-5. Photos of anchor charts, resources, and
.
classroom moments add a visual experience to this
step by step guide. The second link is a 36 page
research project guide serving as a user-friendly
handbook for teachers and students. This resource
spans all levels and is conveniently separated into
sections for K-2, 3-5, middle school, and high
school. The final link is to a lesson plan created by
Shannon Alicia O’Day and is featured on the ILA/
NCTE’s Read, Write, Think website. The lesson plan
is linked to standards and offers many ideas for
how to scaffold students 6-8th grades in the
research writing process. Within these links are
additional links to take you to some great graphic
organizers to aid students in getting down the right
facts worth sharing.
Students of all ages can be involved in the
process of research and planning responsibly for
writing. Included are photos of the research boards
(2nd grade) and research posters contributed by a
group of students in research projects related to
space and the rain forest.
The research boards on the next two pages were
designed based upon whole class input while
individual input was also included. Initially, the
class decided upon topics within the theme that
they wanted to know more about. Then, based
upon these themes, students began gathering and
collecting research from books, articles, and other
resource materials both online and offline. As
students discovered new and interesting facts they
wrote them on index cards and placed them in the
correct categories. At the completion of the
research the information could be compiled to
create travel brochures, informational reports, or
even books to be place within the class library.
.