Research

Scope and Sequence:

6th Grade: 

• Science - Natural Disasters
• History - Historical Fiction (?), Create a country
• LA - 

7th Grade:  

• Science - Disease project (?), Science Fair Project
• History - Roman Research project
• LA -

8th Grade:

• Science - Energy projects
• History - Historical Fiction story, 
• LA - poetry project

Specials:

• Health - 
• Art - 
• Spanish Lit - 

Cooperative Research Projects:

• Link to PDF describing how and whys of group research.  Notes below:
• Group research increases understanding & learning of the topic, ownership & involvement in the project, and awareness of cooperative group/leadership skills and strategies that can be translated to other situations.
• Group research is multifaceted.  It teaches students research activities and skills, cooperative group skills and how to balance "competing concerns" (balance life!).
• Research skills & strategies: students learn the goals of research, the research process, and the infrastructure that is designed to support their research efforts.  Questions:  What are our research goals?  What are the steps to doing research?  What are the rewards and challenges of doing research?
• Group research enhances the students’ awareness of how they work in groups and can help them learn the five basic elements that are needed to structure cooperative groups (link defines each): positive interdependence, individual accountability, face-to-face promotive interaction, interpersonal and small group skills, and group processing.
• Students learn different roles & strategies to keep groups effective: Facilitators assign roles (e.g., team captain, summarizer, timekeeper, recorder/reporter, paraphraser, direction giver, and materials captain) to group members.  (Link: middle school descriptors of roles.)
• Use T-charts to describe the physical and verbal actions (looks like/sounds like) associated with any role students are assigned. Although this may seem unnecessary, providing the students with concrete behaviors that can be modeled is effective in teaching basic group skills. 
• Students learn different leadership roles and strategies to keep the groups effective:  self-evaluations & peer evaluations and status forms  track how students contribute as a member of a group.  Specifically, seek to identify student actions that directly contribute to the completion of a task (e.g., information & option giver or seeker, direction and role definer) and that indirectly contribute by maintaining the effectiveness of the group (e.g., communication facilitator, encourager).  The degree to which each of these actions is performed indicates the leadership that a student exhibits.  
• Cooperative research gives students support for "Competing Concerns" or organization of student time and energy.  This promotes communication and professionalism and fosters trust among members of each group. The objective is to reach consensus on concerns that could affect the group, e.g., expected time commitment, group goals, and membership responsibility. Teachers often worry about student professionalism, e.g., meeting responsibilities, managing time, behaving proactively, and being ethical are all addressed. Student concerns center on mentor  expectations (How do I help other members of my group? Do I want to?), the ability to contribute to research, and balancing other coursework and research.
• Groups are used throughout the research project. The composition of groups depends on the objective of the activity (Research groups VS Presentation groups). 
• 2 groups are created:
• Presentation Group - 2-4 students create a comprehensive research project together (These groups can be heterogeneous.)  These groups meet daily to report on their learning and their progress.
• This group should create a VISION statement to be able to work well together (C: CCI/PDSA).  (Note: This information comes from a different article.)
• Why are we here? (To learn about X.)  What do we have to do well together? (Behaviors all will work toward.)  How will we make sure that happens? (Accountability measures.)  By doing this, we will....
• Ex:  We are researching earthquakes.  We will have to find interesting information, determine what is important, and take quality notes.  We will have to listen to each other so that we can all present any part of the presentation.  We will ask questions, pay attention to each other, and bring all of our supplies to class every day.  By doing this, we will create a power point presentation that the class will LOVE and will get A+ grades for all of us!
• Research Groups or Expert Groups (Jigsaw groups) - groups that research different components of the project together.  They would create a compare/contrast charts using the different topics researched.  They become experts on their topic, but they will be/may be expected to present a different topic! Each student is responsible for being able to articulate the answers of other group members.  (These groups can be homogeneous.)  These groups meet daily to work on research and share findings.
• Jigsaw technique: Each member of a group is assigned one of the sections of the research project. Students assigned to the same section meet to read, discuss, and plan a presentation. Returning to their original groups, each student, in turn, explains her/his section of the presentation well enough that anyone can present it.
• Students are learning about all topics on a daily basis.  Compare/Contrast charts should be a part of the presentation reflection process.
• Possible Daily schedule:  
• 10 min:  Presentation group meets and shares progress
• 40 min:  Research group meets to forward research, share findings, and synthesize research into the presentation format
• 10 min:  Regroup with Presentation group to share progress, set goals.
• Evaluate all learning:
• Interest in and commitment to the research groups (How did I work with this group?)
• Cooperative group/Leadership skills  (What skills can I transfer to my next group experience?)
• Level of knowledge of the research topics  (What did I learn from all the projects?)
• Research skills  (How would I attack a research project in the future?)

Other sources that support this thinking:

• Whys:  Cooperative Learning Research Projects
• Whys and Hows:  Middle School uses for Cooper Learning
•  How to search more effectively....