Submitted by Dawn Coughlin on Fri, 05/04/2012 - 20:26
Created By:
Dawn Coughlin
Title/Role:
School Library Media Specialist
Organization/School Name:
Huron High School
Location:
South Dakota
Grade Level:
11
Type of Lesson:
Lesson in a unit
Type of Schedule:
Combination
Collaboration Continuum:
Moderate
Content Area:
Language Arts
Content Topic:
Junior English Language Arts Research Paper
Scenario:
Completing a research paper is part of the junior English Language Arts curriculum. Students need guidance and review about finding and using information. Students have done some research in the past and this lesson guides them to appropriate databases for the project, reminds them about how to effectively use the open internet and reviews source citation and plagiarism. Students are given a rubric to help them evaluate the sources they select. The lesson on finding, evaluating and selecting sources is done in one class period, but the school library media specialist and classroom teacher also give one on one guidance as needed until the paper is completed, or if the student needs assistance after this specific assignment is completed. The classroom teacher introduces the process for the research paper, the class comes to the library for instruction on resources,students start preliminary research and choose a topic. Both classroom teacher and school library media specialist assist students in completing the project. Assessment of the research paper is done by the classroom teacher.
Overview:
During this lesson on writing the research paper, students will be able to answer the following questions:
What are the steps of writing a research paper?
What sources are available through the school library media center and state library?
How does one evaluate sources?
This lesson was collaboratively taught by Molly Perry and Dawn Coughlin.
Final Product:
At the end of this lesson, students will be confident in selecting and evaluating sources for research. After doing guided searches with the school library media specialist, the student will select a topic that has credible information available to them. When a topic is selected and properly narrowed, the student will begin finding and evaluating sources.
Library Lesson:
Students will become familiar and confident with the physical and virtual library environment, will locate appropriate resources and will critique resources for accuracy, currency, reliability, usefulness, validity, scope, purpose and intended audience. (SD School Library Standards 1.12.1, 1.12.4, 1.12.5). Students will also know how to use the information in an ethical manner.
Estimated Lesson Time:
90 minutes
Have you taught this lesson before:
Yes
Strategies for differentiation:
For ELLs the SLMS and classroom teacher will create a list of selected topics for students to choose from for this project. The SLMS will also direct these students to databases that are at lower reading levels. Students who have difficulty reading will be directed to the lower level reading databases and to databases with text-to-speech capabilities.