Well, I finished another round of senior papers today! This year, I worked with a teacher who wanted her students to understand the actual process of writing a research paper, instead of simply writing a paper just to write a paper. However, she also wanted the paper to be meaningful to the students--something of a real world learning experience that the students could take away from the topic they chose.
Perfect! Right up my alley.
So I introduced her to SIRS Knowledge Pro/Con database, and she was amazed. She liked it even more when I told her it's a database used by the local community college.
What did she like about it? First of all, the students had a choice of current, controversial topics. Since "College & Career Readiness" is the newest buzz phrase, and our seniors SHOULD be thinking about what they want to study in college or to pick as a career, the topics were relevant. Each topic was accompanied by an essential question, which the students used as their research question or guiding question. For example, one of the topic questions was "Should school uniforms be worn in public schools?"
When teaching the research process, I find the task formation is one of the most important steps. Having the students recognize the essential question at the outset of any research assignment is critical. Its primary importance is to provide a purpose for reading. The essential question also gives students an idea about what information to collect. Finally, the answer to the essential question will later become part of the thesis statement---of course conclusions are drawn once the students do all the collecting and reading of information.
The other reason why she liked it was that each topic question was accompanied by six current newspaper/magazine articles. Three of the articles provided evidence--opinions and facts--that supported the affirmative to the question; and three articles that were contrary. Why is this important? The students saw multiple perspectives and used those in their writing. However, these were not the only sources they could use. They simply provided a beginning for information gathering, so students were free to explore EBSCOHost and Global Issues in Context in addition to SIRS to find more relevant articles.
Another reason why my colleague liked it was due to the fact that the students could use their sources (i.e. six articles) to "talk about" each other. Having the articles arranged by pro/con made it easier for students to show how sources could agree or disagree with each other: "Unlike Hamilton, Smith makes the argument that a vegetarian diet is not critical to reaching longevity" ; "Although Hamilton and Smith differ on what is the best diet that could lead to a long life, they agree on a number of points."
Before the students read their articles, they downloaded them into Google Drive. From there, they were able to annotate each source. Not only did the kids save paper but they didn't loose their raw materials. While annotating, they were advised to find at least five pieces of information from each source that would help them answer their research question.
The students then took the three to five pieces of information and their annotations and placed them in a notes table I created. The notes table allowed the students to write the MLA 8th edition citations, collect direct quotes and then summarize/paraphrase those direct quotes into indirect quotes. The students were also taught to include the source in the first sentence of each summary paragraph. Throughout each paragraph, they were to continue to refer to the source. Our goal was to have the students "write about the sources" by incorporating them into the sentences.
Once the students finished reading and collecting their notes, they had an answer to the initial research question. This answer was their thesis. Yet, they were not done: They had to write their thesis so it sounded like an argument. So, the students were expected to include not only the argument they favored but to also include the contrary argument to show how it could be wrong. Having them start their thesis statements with a subordinate conjunction made the statements more argumentative.
In case you are interested in this product, here is a brief video about how SIRS works. The video is outdated because the interface has recently changed, but you can get a good idea of of how the database works.
I would really recommend this database for students who have a difficult time writing research questions, forming thesis statements or searching for relevant sources. Students who have little understanding of the research process in general will benefit from this database, and teachers will like it because they will be able to spend more time helping students learn how to write in-text citations, thesis statements and indirect quotes.
Perfect! Right up my alley.
So I introduced her to SIRS Knowledge Pro/Con database, and she was amazed. She liked it even more when I told her it's a database used by the local community college.
What did she like about it? First of all, the students had a choice of current, controversial topics. Since "College & Career Readiness" is the newest buzz phrase, and our seniors SHOULD be thinking about what they want to study in college or to pick as a career, the topics were relevant. Each topic was accompanied by an essential question, which the students used as their research question or guiding question. For example, one of the topic questions was "Should school uniforms be worn in public schools?"
When teaching the research process, I find the task formation is one of the most important steps. Having the students recognize the essential question at the outset of any research assignment is critical. Its primary importance is to provide a purpose for reading. The essential question also gives students an idea about what information to collect. Finally, the answer to the essential question will later become part of the thesis statement---of course conclusions are drawn once the students do all the collecting and reading of information.
The other reason why she liked it was that each topic question was accompanied by six current newspaper/magazine articles. Three of the articles provided evidence--opinions and facts--that supported the affirmative to the question; and three articles that were contrary. Why is this important? The students saw multiple perspectives and used those in their writing. However, these were not the only sources they could use. They simply provided a beginning for information gathering, so students were free to explore EBSCOHost and Global Issues in Context in addition to SIRS to find more relevant articles.
Another reason why my colleague liked it was due to the fact that the students could use their sources (i.e. six articles) to "talk about" each other. Having the articles arranged by pro/con made it easier for students to show how sources could agree or disagree with each other: "Unlike Hamilton, Smith makes the argument that a vegetarian diet is not critical to reaching longevity" ; "Although Hamilton and Smith differ on what is the best diet that could lead to a long life, they agree on a number of points."
Before the students read their articles, they downloaded them into Google Drive. From there, they were able to annotate each source. Not only did the kids save paper but they didn't loose their raw materials. While annotating, they were advised to find at least five pieces of information from each source that would help them answer their research question.
The students then took the three to five pieces of information and their annotations and placed them in a notes table I created. The notes table allowed the students to write the MLA 8th edition citations, collect direct quotes and then summarize/paraphrase those direct quotes into indirect quotes. The students were also taught to include the source in the first sentence of each summary paragraph. Throughout each paragraph, they were to continue to refer to the source. Our goal was to have the students "write about the sources" by incorporating them into the sentences.
Once the students finished reading and collecting their notes, they had an answer to the initial research question. This answer was their thesis. Yet, they were not done: They had to write their thesis so it sounded like an argument. So, the students were expected to include not only the argument they favored but to also include the contrary argument to show how it could be wrong. Having them start their thesis statements with a subordinate conjunction made the statements more argumentative.
In case you are interested in this product, here is a brief video about how SIRS works. The video is outdated because the interface has recently changed, but you can get a good idea of of how the database works.
I would really recommend this database for students who have a difficult time writing research questions, forming thesis statements or searching for relevant sources. Students who have little understanding of the research process in general will benefit from this database, and teachers will like it because they will be able to spend more time helping students learn how to write in-text citations, thesis statements and indirect quotes.
