Soup to Nuts: The entire research process in 70 minutes

I initially balked at the idea.

Model the entire research process in one lesson? With students producing a paragraph with sources, cited in-text (!) by the end of the block? 

Absolute craziness. 

But, when a teacher approached me with the idea, I said YES. I figured I would come up with something. 

Was it do-able? Kind of.

https://imgflip.com/tag/soup+nuts

Here's how it went down:

The preparation for the lesson consisted of me actually doing  the task: "Find information about Planarian and Light" (grade 9 Science).

By crafting my guiding questions, selecting sources, searching, note-taking, organizing, writing, and citing, I experienced the task as if I were the student. Along the way, I documented my thinking and my solutions to the obstacles I encountered and these became my "talking points" for the lesson.

I created a guide with the process & resources we'd use in class and a shortened version of my work for students to type into as we did the task together.

This was a "listening" and "doing" kind of a class. 

I told them to work with their eyes glued to my large screen and their laptop screen like a tennis match - my screen/your screen - are we in sync?

Their document had the following key steps:

Guiding Questions to gather background information

Source Selection for background 

• Where do YOU like to go to learn something new?

Brief notes for background 

• Probably won't be used or cited in the paper - just to get a sense of what we're talking about

I knew ZERO about the topic, so my background information was extremely basic. The students had done a lab with these little flatworms, so they were way ahead of me. I just briefly narrated my thought process of getting familiar with the topic.

Focused Guiding Questions 

• Narrower questions based on learnings from the background information

Source Selection 

• What types of sources do we need for our new questions - experts? articles?

Here, I explained that I chose targeted databases for them, based on the teacher's request that they find "scholarly" science articles. 

Search for & Gather Information (the meatiest part of the process)

I showed them how to...

• Navigate database filters: "full-text", subject, search within
• Use quotation marks in notes to indicate text cut/pasted from a source
• Use a source number in notes to track sources
• Grab pre-formatted citations
• Paraphrase (they practiced paraphrasing one of my quoted facts)

Organize Information 

• Read over the information gathered
• Determine categories
• Make an outline with the source codes next to the facts/evidence

Write the paragraph 

• Copy the outline and add sentences around the headings and facts, keeping the source numbers intact

This was a revelation to them - to see how I didn't bother to retype any of the evidence from the outline and how the source numbers stayed with the facts.

Create Citations in Noodletools 

• Pre-formatted citations are easy! Copy/paste into the manual section and add the source number in the annotation section - this keeps the sources with the coded source numbers

Create Works Cited and copy/paste it below the paragraph

Add in-text citations to the paragraph 

• Replace the source number in parenthesis with whatever comes first in the full citation

It was a MAD RUSH but somehow we completed a lot of this - but, not all. 

The students did not have time to...

• Take extra notes on their own 
• Organize their information 
• Write it into a paragraph 
• Complete their citations in Noodletools

But, they saw me do these last bits and clicked into how it all fits together.

Here is the teacher version of the document (my full notes) and the student template (forced copy).

For max efficiency, all tabs I planned to show were open to the exact right spot in an incognito window (research guide, student template, my notes, each site, noodletools).

Will I do this again? 

YES but with a much easier topic with two sources only. 

I liked that they saw how one document could contain everything, and that lightbulbs went off when they saw how my red "source numbers" acted as a code that made the in-text citations very easy at the end.

Before I left, I asked the teacher to promise to invite me back to teach about steps we skipped: 

• source evaluation
• strategies for reading scholarly articles
• more database tips and tricks
• more note-taking options
• more practice with paraphrasing
• more question generation techniques 
• (and so forth!) 

She said ok :)

Online Workshop: Google Power Searching

Our Middle School is offering student workshops related to various tech and information and organization skills. 

Here are the documents I used, thanks, as always to the amazing librarians out there who share their work so widely.

Boolify - a puzzle-type interface that shows how different filters impact a google search
My video - using Boolify to learn google filters
Google-a-Day home page - a new puzzle every day
Google-a-Day Lesson bank - past puzzles with slideshow answers
Padlet with Google-a-Day challenges
My remix of that Padlet with the answers


I linked the activities into a Bitmoji Classroom (feel free to copy and edit) and shared it with the students. 

Workshop Steps:

• View the boolify video or demo it "live"
• Explain the extra search tips (truncation, wild cards, and "reading" a search string)
• Define "stacking searches" (using the answers from one search to search again and build toward an answer)
• Assign Zoom breakout rooms + google puzzles from the Padlet (10 minutes)
• Regroup and share "Yays & Nays" (what worked and what didn't)
• Share the daily google challenge page for those interested in playing on their own

This was a 45-minute workshop that seemed to go very smoothly!

Source Evaluation Moves with Linda Hoiseth

The synergy of Twitter always amazes me. 

A couple of weeks ago, I was planning a lesson with our grade 9 Science team on source evaluation. In middle school, I had taught students the CRAAP model but now wanted to take them to the next level: to help them listen to their own instincts and push toward more critical thinking rather than checklists. 

With high school students, I have been introducing the idea of evaluation "moves" - actions we take to verify, question, and critique a source. 

I found John Green's Crash Course, "Navigating Digital Information," particularly helpful and now talk about active evaluation skills, such as lateral reading and reading upstream, as an extension to the CRAAP model.

But I was looking for a new tool. Something that would provide structure to students as they work through the process of choosing sources but encourage them to dig deeper than a checklist.

Enter, Linda Hoiseth, via Twitter! 

Linda is a librarian I have admired from afar for her thoughtful and innovative work in research skills with students. Although we've never worked together, we have been Twitter pals for many years and I've learned so much from her. 

Just as I was stuck in mid-planning mode, she posted this grid that reenergized my approach. She calls her process "Inside/Outside." 

It provides guiding questions to help students evaluate what's within a source and what can be found beyond the source. She focuses attention on four areas: Authority, Bias, Content, and Date. A final category, Evaluation, is completed at the end.

Here's how I used her grid in my plan for Gr 9 Science:
1) Students work in small groups on a particular topic

2) They review the list of sources I chose that range from too biased, to overly complicated, to unsuitable purpose, to just right.

3) As a group, they identify the best source to answer the overall question of the unit: "How do environmental factors affect genetic variation?"

4) To make their choice, students work through source evaluation moves, guided by the questions on Linda's chart. 

These "Inside/Outside" moves include:

• Skimming and scanning (is it understandable for your reading level?)
• Identifying the purpose of the information & any possible bias
• Lateral Reading (Read across the internet to see how the source connects to others. I use the analogy of a web)
• Reading Upstream (Read "up" to get as close to the original source of the information as possible. I use the analogy of cows pooping in a river :)

Here is an example of a group's completed grid. It took 45-60 minutes to view the sources, identify the best one, and complete the chart.

In the next class, students used the source to complete a "CER" (Claim, Evidence, Rationale) paragraph to answer the overarching question.

Shortly after teaching this lesson, I learned of another tool with a similar focus: SIFT. (Stop, Investigate, Find other sources, Trace claims)

SIFT is a set of moves created by Mike Caufield in 2017.

via Mike Caufield

SIFT Infographic

I asked Linda if she would like to share some of her thinking about the tool she created.

Here is the backstory!

by Linda Hoiseth, American Embassy School, New Delhi

"I keep this article about a Stanford study bookmarked to remind myself of the importance of teaching real-life web evaluation, and have been looking for a framework to teach that is useful in both academic and personal settings. I’ve been using ABCD rather than CRAAP for several years, particularly with middle school students, because I like its simplicity (and it doesn’t make them giggle). Each time I approach the topic with students, they repeat outdated messages about site evaluation that they’ve been taught: “If it’s a .com it’s bad but a .org is good,” “It has ads, so it’s unreliable,” etc., and I know that we have to move them beyond that simplistic thinking. Mike Caulfield’s SIFT post was enlightening to me, and I wanted to incorporate his ideas into my teaching. Thus, the Inside/Outside ABCD.

The seventh grade social studies teachers at my school and I have been working with students on the National History Day project. The assignment requires annotated bibliographies, which we’d already introduced to students as they used print and database sources. We know that website evaluation requires an additional level of attention, and NHD addresses that in their guidelines.

In our lesson with the grade sevens, we talked about the need to look carefully at what creators of a site say about themselves, but also what they don’t say. We asked the students to look at all of the websites they will use for their project with this critical lens, so we didn’t require them to fill in every box on the evaluation form. If they find something that tells them immediately that a site is unreliable or not useful for their purposes, they should just move on. Likewise, if they already know about the site or it is recommended by a teacher, they only need to gather enough rationale to complete their annotation.

My hope is that this process is quick enough that it isn’t onerous and simply becomes part of their thinking whenever they encounter websites. Let’s be honest: I don’t fill out a checklist whenever I approach a new website, but I do think about who is behind the site and what their bias is and whether or not the content is backed up elsewhere. Ultimately, I want my students to do the same."

Thank you, Linda, for sharing this and for making your work available to me and others. Our international librarian community is strong because of our culture of collaboration.

Going forward, I like the idea of teaching source evaluation skills as "moves" - actions we take versus viewing a source passively and trying to glean its value from what it presents about itself. I like the ownership and power we experience as researchers when we actively fact-check and seek different perspectives.

So now, with Linda's ABCDE Inside/Outside chart and the SIFT tool, I have two ways to guide students in the source evaluation process. By using both, students will begin to internalize the "moves" needed to become independent evaluators, not dependent users of a checklist or acronym to remember.

Research Skills & Diigo

I'm a Diigo evangelist: I absolutely love this tool for bookmarking and so much more. 

For our middle and high school students, it's also a powerful research tool.


Here's how Diigo aligns with several key research skills:

Skim and Scan for information and determine which text is relevant to the information need.

In Diigo:
Highlight the text you wish to clip and it goes into your Diigo library automatically. You can even color-code the clippings of text (up to four colors). Since all highlights get clipped, students are careful to choose just the most relevant information, lest their library get filled up with too much text.

Summarize, Paraphrase, Analyze Information

In Diigo:
Use digital sticky notes to track your thinking. Write

questions about the text. Practice summarizing and paraphrasing. Show understanding of the difference between these two skills (use one color for summary information and another color for paraphrases?) Show your analysis of the information: what are the deeper connections you can make? The possibilities for annotating are endless!

Evaluate Sources

In Diigo:
Add a description to each link to help yourself remember what was best about the site. Justify your use of the source in a few sentences. Use common source evaluation tools (CRAAP, OPVL) to give evidence for your selection.

Organize Information

In Diigo:
Create tags for saved links. Use tags from broad to narrow

to create a network of information for yourself. Sample tags: grade level, course name, topic, sub-topic, format....  Tagging requires students to think about informational hierarchies and how they might categorize information for later use.

Cite Sources

In Diigo:
All links you hightlight or annotate are automatcially stored in your library. You can easily see the clipped text and your notes with each link. This makes it easier to see which sources you used for various pieces of information used in your final product...this is helpful for doing in-text citations!

Check out some Screenshots!

Here we see a webpage with highlighted text and an annotation. The highlighted text gets clipped and stored in the Diigo library. Both of these will stay with the website days and days later. Simply log into Diigo and re-visit the page and the earlier highlights and notes will show on the page as seen here.

Here is the same page as it appears in the Diigo library. The link in blue, the highlighted text, the annotation, the tags are all there.

Interested in trying Diigo? Get the Chrome Diigo Web Collector and install the extension. It makes using Diigo part of your everyday life!

This is the tip of the iceberg about what Diigo can do to help with a research task. Stay tuned for a second post about saving and editing screenshots, sharing, and creating research groups.

Also see my earlier post: "Close Reading with Diigo"

Note: This entry is cross-posted on my school's technology integration page, Colegio Roosevelt, The American School of Lima

Notes from Narrative Biographies

Grade 7 students are preparing for their Biography Pageant! They'll read about an inspirational person and then act as that person to share what they learned.

Guiding Question: What's "Narrative Nonfiction"?
Last week, students selected biographies from the library. These will be independent reading books for the next couple of weeks, so we wanted to provide "page turners" instead of the typical fact-laden, reference-type bios. 

Some favorite narrative-style biographies

We talked about what makes a nonfiction book a "narrative." 

Structurally how is it different? 
(Reads like a story: sense of beginning, middle, end; character development, engaging style, chapters often have a central idea)

Visually how is it different? 
(paragraphs versus headings and sub-headings, may or may not have pictures)

See titles in our catalog here. 

Guiding Question: What's effective note-taking?
Next, we talk about how to take research notes as we read, explaining the differences among quoting, paraphrasing and summarizing. See last year's full lesson here.

Notes template in Google docs

This year, we added two elements to the notes template: "Comment" and "Category"

Why? 

In my work with high school students, I've noticed that students need lots of practice with adding their own voice to a research paper. Providing a steady stream of commentary and avoiding a list of facts makes an essay more dynamic and shows what the writer really thinks.

To help students internalize this skill, we ask them to add a personal comment for each of their notes. Comments can be anything that shows their thinking, questioning, or planning about their topic.

Another addition: We ask students to write a category on each note. Asking them for some "meta" data about their fact helps them synthesize what it's about and it will help them organize their facts into an outline later.

Now it's time to read and get inspired by some interesting people! 

Beachy books, Research outlines, Folk Rhymes

PreK 3, 4, Kindergarten: Storytime Theme - The Beach

Spot Goes to the Beach, by Eric Hill

We can't get enough of Spot! In this story, he heads to the beach with his family. 

Along the way, we lift the flaps to see what he'll get to buy at the souvenir shop, whose towel he borrows, and who's buried under the sand.

Beach Ball, by Peter Sis

In this wordless book, we follow a beach ball as it blows down the beach. Each page shows a different section of the beach and there are things for us to notice around different themes: shapes, colors, numbers, and so forth. 

Sis is known for detailed illustrations, and this is a wonderful book to sit with for a while.

Beach Day!, by Patricia Lakin, illustrated by Scott Nash

This simple silly story shows four friends who head to the beach on a hot day. During the trip, they get distracted and play at a playground instead. 

Will they find the beach eventually? When they do, will it still be fun?

Bats at the Beach, by Brian Lies (DVD by Nutmeg Media)

This story in rhyme shows bats at a beach and all of the activities they like to do. They mirror typical beach events: flying kites, having a bonfire, putting on lotion - but they have their own twist. They use "moon tan" lotion, roast "bug-mallows" instead of marshmallows, and fly their own little ones as kites. 



Grade 1: Guiding Question - What are some funny picture books?

The Paper Bag Princess, by Robert Munsch, illustrated by Michael Martchenko

Elizabeth is a princess who's set to marry Prince Ronald. But when a dragon comes and steals Ronald away, she goes off to find him. She confronts the dragon, cleverly finds a way to defuse his powers, and gets Ronald back. But Ronald's response is less than satisfactory. She firmly puts him in his place and we all cheer for her self-assurance.

The Seven  Silly Eaters, by Mary Ann Hoberman, illustrated by Marla Frazee

This is probably my favorite story in rhyme. The rhyme scheme and rhythm are perfectly done, and the story it tells is hilarious! A mother dotes on her children so much that she makes them each a homemade version of their favorite food...every day. Eventually, she starts to really resent it - with seven kids and seven meals to prepare daily, no wonder! 

Will she ever get a moment's rest? This ties up in a fun way that suits everyone in the family and the reader, too! Marla Frazee's detailed watercolor illustrations complement the tale perfectly.


Grade 2: Guiding Question - What are "folk rhymes"?

This is the House that Jack Built, by Simms Taback

Jack builds a house and the first item in it is a piece of cheese. In each new verse, an animal or person is added until the house is bursting with activity. So is it any wonder why the house is still for sale?

Multi-media illustrations are Taback's signature style and they are a great fit for this book. There's a folksy, disjointed feeling throughout, and it's fun to read together as kids understand the cumulative pattern of the story.

Three Little Kittens, illustrated by Jerry Pinkney


This retelling of the Mother Goose rhyme highlights the playful antics of the kittens. We add the sounds "meow" and "purr" when they appear in the text to add an engaging touch. Pinkney's watercolors illustrate the kittens in close-up view, tumbling about, acting contrite, and doing their best to behave. Classes loved the last line, when the kittens have found and washed their mittens but then ask, "May we go out to play?" We know they'll be in the same predicament if they do!

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, by Jerry Pinkney

This gives the full lyrics to the well-known lullaby, enhanced by Pinkey's signature watercolors. A chipmunk is the star of this largely wordless tale to find out what the winking star really is. We can sing along chorus of the familiar song and follow a little chipmunk on some woodland adventures. 

He enters a kind of dreamland, floating up into the night sky in a boat, flying with birds, then tumbling down and swimming with fish. He finally comes to rest on the back of a downy swan and we sense he's finally going to be able to sleep.

This must have been a trick to illustrate since the words in the song don't offer much to represent in pictures. Pinkney's version is highly imaginative but not directly tied to the words.

50 Nursery Rhyme Comics, forward by Leonard Marcus

50 nursery rhymes illustrated by 50 well-known picture book illustrators in comic form. We talk about how illustration brings new meaning to some of these poems. 

In "Hickory, Dickory, Dock", for example, the mouse is running up the clock because it's his job to ring the bell. Brilliant!





Grade 3: Guiding Question - How would the world's population look as a percent of 100?

If the World Were a Village, by David Smith
(DVD)

This book appropriately wraps up the work grade 3 has done this year. Units about "rights and responsibilities" and "indigenous peoples" bring lots of global understanding to the year, and this touches on these themes.

The concept: If the world were a village of 100 people, who would be in it? How many people would there be from each continent? What languages would be spoken? How many of the people in the village would have clean water? a roof over their heads? a computer?



Grade 4: Check out

Grade 5: Guiding Question - How can we organize the information we've found?

Once we gathered COPIOUS notes, we needed to get it all organized. Here's our process:

My sample color-coded notes

Step 1: Look over facts and brainstorm categories 
(for example: Causes of water pollution, Health effects of water pollution, Global impact of water pollution, Solutions to water pollution)

Step 2: Give each category a color

Step 3: Highlight each fact according to the category it fits into

Step 4: Strike out facts not highlighted; these will be cut from the paper. They don't fit anywhere.

Step 5: Each category becomes a topic sentence for a body paragraph in an outline

Step 6: Each fact gets typed into the outline under its matching category/topic sentence

With a completed outline, we're ready to write our ideas in paragraph form!

Machines, Traditional Lit Voting, and "Funny but Dark" Picture Books

PreK 3, 4, Kindergarten, Grade 1: Storytime Theme - Machines

I Stink, by Kate and Jim McMullan

A book about a garbage truck? What could be more fun for little boys? Everyone loves this one about a stinky garbage truck and all of the yucky trash he likes to "eat". We watch him get loaded up, then learn how the parts inside the truck compact all of the trash. The highlight is an alphabetical list of refuse that includes items like "Puppy Poop" and "Ugly Underwear" - good for giggles.

I'm Dirty, by Kate and Jim McMullan (DVD by Weston Woods)

The DVD version of this book adds lots of sound effects and movement. It's the story of a backhoe bucket loader and the work he does to clean up an empty lot. When he's done, he enjoys a mud bath...he loves being dirty!



Demolition, by Sally Sutton, illustrated by Brian Lovelock

This is a brand-new book in our library, and it's beautiful! In this rhyming story, we watch a building get demolished by various types of machines, each with its own specialty. All along we're wondering why the building has to be destroyed, but there's a super positive outcome when it's all gone and the rubble is sorted, cleaned up, and used for other things. 

Double page, full bleed illustrations really bring us up close to the action. 

The text is packed with onomatopoeia to give us a sense of the noise involved.

Grade 2: Guiding Question - What is a fable? What were our favorite types of traditional literature and titles we read?

After reading today, students voted on their favorite genre within traditional literature and their favorite book in the unit. Add your vote below! It's set to see the results.

The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse, retold and illustrated by Helen Ward

Another new book to our collection, this retelling of the classic Aesop's fable has gorgeous pictures. 

Country Mouse becomes envious of the life Town Mouse describes - one of hustle and bustle and action. He decides to go visit Town Mouse to see what it's all about. While he's there, he experiences some of the fun of the city but also comes to appreciate aspects of his home that he truly misses. We have good discussion afterwards about taking risks and being happy with our choices.

Mouse & Lion, by Rand Burkert, illustrated by Nancy Ekholm Burkert

This is another beautifully illustrated retelling of a classic fable. 

Mouse meets Lion and asks for his freedom and promises to help Lion someday. Lion laughs at the idea but lets him go. And wouldn't you know...he does end up needing Mouse's help. The African landscape features prominently in the pictures, done in finely detailed colored pencil and watercolor.

Grade 3: Guiding Question - Can a book be funny and also a little bit...dark?

I Want My Hat Back, by Jon Klassen

This is best read, not talked about. The surprise is so dramatic, I don't want to ruin it!

A bear is looking for his hat. He asks many animals but none have seen it. He does end up solving his problem, but that's all I can say. Just read it!


This is Not My Hat, by Jon Klassen

A companion to "I Want My Hat Back", this story is told from the thief's point of view. A fish readily admits to stealing a whale's hat. He's not planning to return it and justifies the reasons why he should keep it. We are included in his escape plan, but we are also privy to what's happening behind him. As events unfold, we feel complicit in what happens. We know what is bound to happen...but can't stop it. 
As in "I Want My Hat Back" this sparks lots of discussion about ethics. (Note: This the 2013 Caldecott winner for best picture book.)

Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs, by Mo Willems

Goldilocks is lured into the house of three dinosaurs (one of whom is just visiting from Norway). Love the dramatic irony as we watch to see what will happen. Fun surprise endings, as in all Mo Willems books, don't disappoint. This is a good read-aloud for grade 3 and up. Younger kids will enjoy it but may not appreciate the sardonic tone.

Grade 4: Check out

Grade 5: Guiding Question - What are some fast ways to create a list of citations?

Grade 5 is wrapping up its global issues research. Now that the outlining is done, they know which sources they're using in their paper, so it's time to create formal citations.

We use EasyBib and BibMe. These are both generators that allow us to plug in the site URL (carefully saved in a google doc as we gathered our information). The tool puts the elements of the site into the correct order, we add the date accessed and any other details the tool didn't find, and Voila! a citation in perfect format.