Research Strategies

& Tools

By Elizabeth H. Eastman

River Oaks Elementary School

IBPYP Program of Inquiry@ River Oaks Elementary

Overview of IBPYP Curriculum

Delivering instruction in information literacy skills/strategies and in the use of information technology.

Helping students develop habits of independent research.

Providing expertise in acquiring information. Collaborating with teachers to identify links with curriculum, learning goals, student information needs, and information resources.

Bringing awareness of information issues to teachers, administrators, and students so we are socially responsible and ethical in our use of information.

Implementation of Library Instructional Program

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Challenges

Self directed independent research occurs when students:

•Select the topic•Develop questions•Locate resources•Acquire information•Organize information•Develop a meaningful product•Self-evaluate

What are the challenges?

•Limited reading ability•Limited vocabulary•Lack of motivation•A non-stimulating productclip

Task Definition

EXAMPLES:

▪ Research Made Easier

▪ Request for Library Research ▪ Process Checklist ▪ Clarifying Understanding ▪ Narrow A Topic ▪ Deciding Sheet

What do I want to know?

Questioning“If we hope to see inventive thought infused with critical judgment, questions and questioning must become a priority of schooling and must gain recognition as a supremely important technology.”

~Jamie Mackenzie

Using Non-Fiction:

•Reading to learn, and writing to inform are often important components of inquiry.

•Students should notice when they are learning something new.

•Learning something new leads to new questions.

•Model using short pieces of non-fiction text by thinking-aloud; kids do same with a partner.

L: (I learned…)

W: (Now I wonder…)

questions clip

Thick & Thin Questions

Locating & Accessing ResourcesStudents use a variety of strategies to acquire information from print and electronic

resources.

Kids identify key concepts and terms describing an information need so a search strategy is developed.

SOME EXAMPLES:

ROE Webpage Visitor Primary Source SurveysUsing ExpertsUsing Library Spine LabelsDewey Scenario CardsInterviewingNon-Fiction Text Features

Using:

•Text Features of Informational & Reference Books•Databases•Search Strategies•Dewey•Human, Print, & Digital Options

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I make a focused effort to locate and use primary sources with students, and to help them interpret and analyze them.

Primary Sources

Photo analysis

Observations

Information Seeking Strategies

Where can I find the information I need?

EXAMPLES:

▪ Online Resources

▪ Unlocking answers

▪ 3M Chart

▪ Comparing Databases

▪ Non-Fiction Study Sheet

Using InformationHow will I collect and organize information?

Read, View, Listen, &Record Information

RESOURCES:

•Readwritethink.org

•Thinkfinity

•Strategies That Work by Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvais

Note-taking clips

“Determining importance means picking out the most important information when you read, to highlight essential ideas, to isolate supporting details, and to read for specific information. Teachers need to help readers sift and sort information, and make decisions about what information they can disregard.” (Harvey, Stephanie. Strategies That Work. p.177).

Recording &Organizing Information

Note-taking clips

Some note-taking formats:

▪ Note-making▪ Bulleted List▪ Sensory Notes▪ Source-Fact-Response▪ Working w/Info Resources▪ Summarization▪ Outlining▪ I-Charts: supports the use of many info. literacy skills—seeking and accessing information, extracting and using it, and then making comparisons and evaluations.

▪ 2-Column Notes

RESOURCE: Fact Fragment Frenzy from ReadWriteThink.org

SynthesisHow will I make sense of and show what I learned?

EXAMPLES:

▪ Comparing Sources

▪ I.M.Honest vs. Cheatum A. Lot

▪ Whose Is It Anyway?

▪ Copying-Intermediate

RESOURCE:

CyberSmart

Choosing & Evaluating Sources

•Students learn to seek, select, and evaluate sources of information. They receive explicit instruction on how to make informed choices and judgments.

•I instruct students in evaluating information in order to determine its reliability, validity, accuracy, authority, and currency.

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▪ Choosing non-fiction ▪ Primary Non-Fiction Book Review▪ Website Evaluation▪ readwritethink.org: Hints About Print

•Change the research product-change the thinking! When students have to use information in new ways, copying stops.

•Importance of developing knowledge and strategies early.

•For students in the early grades, we model and make charts to credit sources, and older students use a template to do this independently.

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Citing Sources & Avoiding Plagiarism

▪ Template Primary

▪ Template Intermediate

▪ Scenarios

▪ Copyright w/ Cyberbee

Evaluation ▪ Notes checklist

▪ Evaluating Sources Checklist

▪ Citing Sources Rubric

▪ 5th Grade ExhibitionFormative Assessment:Used to inform instruction throughoutthe unit of inquiry.

Summative Assessment: Used as a summary of learning at the end of a unit of inquiry. 

This is What I Did…I Did It

MyselfI Did it With

HelpI Cannot Do

It Yet

I chose a topic that is interesting to me.

I made questions about my topic.

I chose where I was going to look for information.

I chose at least two different places to look for information.

I used keywords in my short and long answers.

I set up my outline in the order I wanted to share the information I found.

I evaluated my report and made changes.

I decided how I am going to present my information.

Bibliography

Allen, Janet. Yellow Brick Roads: Sharing and Guided Paths to Independent Reading K-12. Stenhouse, 2000.

Armstrong, Tricia. Information Transformation. Pembroke Publishers, 2000.

Burke, Jim. Tools for Thought. Heinemann, 2002.

Duncan, Doinna and Laura Lockhart. I-Search, You Search, We All Learn to Research.Neal-Schuman Publishers, 2000.

Eisenberg, Michael B. and Robert E. Berkowitz. Teaching Information & Technology Skills: The Big 6 in Elementary Schools. Linworth Publishing, 1999.

Harvey, Stephanie and Anne Goudvis. StrategiesThat Work. Stenhouse, 2000.

Koechlin,Carol and Sandi Zwaan. Info Tasks for Successful Learning. 2001.

Ryan, Jenny and Steph Capra. Information Literacy Toolkit. American Library Association,2001.

Valenza, Joyce, Power Research Tools. American Library Association, 2003.