And the Answer is...?

Teaching Pre K-8, Jan 2005 by Swartz, Elizabeth

Give your students a great lifetime skill by teaching them the right way to find answers to their research questions

Gathering information can be daunting for a student of any age. I like to try to make it easier for my students with specific requirements and structures. While a rubric provides the requirements, structure can be attained in many different ways. Data collection usually takes place in the library, but I've found that it can be started and modeled in the large group setting first.

Gathering important information. The most important part of the research work is to make sure everything gathered will help answer the question.

Young students coming into the library struggle with this concept. When writing a report on dogs, sometimes it's hard for them to know what is most important. It's very helpful when assignments include specific questions such as: What breed of dogs are used for seeing eye dogs? How are these dogs trained?, etc.

In this stage of the research process, it's essential to try to encourage kids to use many different resources for familiarization. In addition, caution your students that not everything on the Internet is correct.

I like to make sure that their research folders always contain a consistent, structured checklist like the one that appears on the reverse Teaching K-8 Reproducible page. I've found that this type of checklist helps to keep my students organized, focused and always moving in a forward direction.

Helpful reminders. The question to be answered needs to be within sight at all times. Also, make sure that your students know that the resources being used need to be written down. While the youngest students write down only the resource and the page number during an initial assignment, older kids should be expected to keep track of complete bibliographical information.

Before any information is recorded, train your students to consider if that material helps to answer the question. It needs to be more than just related to the topic, it needs to provide vital information.

Teachers require an array of sources. The important thing is to allow this skill to strengthen through practice. Help your students organize the gathered data. I've found that envelopes with clasps are very helpful. It would be a shame to have all this good research lost in the back of a desk.

Good luck and have fun!

IRA/NCTE Standards for the English Language Arts: #7

Students conduct research. They gather data from a variety of sources.

Elizabeth Swartz is the librarian at the Watsontown and Turbotville Elementary schools in Pennsylvania.