Research at Webb Elementary

Choose Topic from a listOnce your major topic idea is decided upon,

your first step is to formulate some open ended questions.

What do you want to learn? What questions do you need answered?

Do you have guidelines to follow or a rubric to complete?

Collect Data from a Range of ResourcesPrint and electronic resources include:Reference textsPeriodicalsWeb pagesOnline sourcesAnd data from Experts

How do I know which type of resource to use? Click here

Gathering Relevant Information

How do you know what is relevant and what is not?

What are some guidelines to follow?Where should I begin to find resources?Librarian, Teachers, Experts, Books,

Encyclopedias, and ONLINE……….

Boolean SearchingUsing Boolean operators “and, or and not”

narrows your search options.Put quotation marks around your “search

terms”. Boolean Machine

Differentiate between primary and secondary sourcesA primary source is the original article or

piece of information. This could include a novel, painting, speech, article, letter, play, etc.

A secondary source is someone else’s information or analyzing about the original piece. For example if someone wrote an article about the President’s speech. The response is a secondary source. A secondary source could contain some biased information.

NotetakingNotetaking is a very important skill to learn at

an early age. Write down more information than you are going

to need to complete your assignment. Then you can go back and decide what is most important.

It is best to use an organizer to sort your thoughts. If you don’t already have one created for you, use your main topics for your assignment as your headings.

How do I know what resources to use? Click here for help!

Record Data utilizing technologyTake written notes and convert in meaningful

way.Use word processorsUsing charts, graphs, diagrams, timelines,

etc.Make a graphic organizer to keep your

thoughts organized and collect necessary information.

Skimming and ScanningSkimming and scanning allows you to cover a

lot of information in a short amount of time.Helps to identify main idea. This is where you

need to pay attention to titles, subtitles, headings, first and last sentences in paragraphs, illustrations, and first paragraphs. This is simply to locate information, not for total comprehension.

Scanning involves moving your eyes quickly down a page to locate specific information.

Let’s practice.

Paraphrasing vs. PlagiarismImportant to cite resources you use. This is called the

works cited page.If you use author’s words, must put their words in

quotation marks and then author’s name in parenthesis after each statement.

If you don’t say exact words, but use same idea, still need to give credit.

Example: What weighs about three pounds but has more parts than there are starts in the Milky Way Galaxy? (Flieger)the human brain

Example of a completed research paper. Click here

Identify the source of the notesMust include author, title, page number for

each note.Record bibliographic information for each

source in standard MLA format.You may use this citation maker to correctly

site your sources. Just choose the source type and complete the information. http://www.palomar.edu/dsps/actc/mla/

Copy and paste this citation into your works cited page.

Your requirements for this paper:All text must be in the same font.Title page: text must be centered, title in size 72 font and name

is size 36 font. ( May adjust if title is too long)Body of paper will be size 12 font, double-spaced, and left

aligned. Each paragraph must be indented. Number each page in top right corner with your name then page #. (example Hames 1)

Follow the expository pillar: 5 paragraphs- intro, 3 main ideas with at least 4 details for each idea, conclusion

Works cited page. Will begin on new page and next page number . Alphabetize each entry by first letter. Underline all titles of books, magazines, films, etc. Indent the 2nd line, 3rd line, and all subsequent lines of each citation.

Must include at least one citation from a book, one from a webpage, and 1 from an online database or encyclopedia.

Links to lots of resources! So you have to do a research project? Webb Reference Resources