Research Pack Start’ Guide ‘Quick Welcome to the Research Packs! You and your students are about to set off on an adventure where they will explore new and important information about the world of science. In the process, your students will be: reading carefully and thoughtfully thinking critically writing fully-developed, grade appropriate informative writing pieces Perhaps best of all, all of this will be manageable for you as the teacher! Once you are familiar with the approach, Research Packs are designed to be used with minimal preparation. How does it work? Each Research Pack has been designed with the of three” in mind. This means that: “rule The first experience” in the pack is completed as a full class and is very highly • “research guided and scaffolded by the teacher. In this first research experience, teachers are not “seeing if” students can research, understand, and then write they are sure” that students can – “making research, understand, and then write. The second experience” focuses the but this same science concept / understanding, • “research time students are working with new content in small groups. The teacher is still very available for assistance, but students are using the same approach as they did the first time with somewhat more independence. For grades 3-5: Older elementary students now complete a third, independent part of the research project. The • third experience” again uses the but this time same science concept / understanding, “research students are using a now-very-familiar approach to read, think, and write more independently. NOTE: Research Pack materials can be used flexibly. Classrooms are different, and available time is different. For example, a teacher may choose to use only the first highly guided experience in this set. He may choose to use the highly guided and small group experiences, and omit the independent. What we would NOT recommend is leaving out the full group, experience.” It is critically important that research reading, re-reading, “research – talking, note-taking, writing is successful for students. That can happen only in the presence – of strong, effective instruction. The three pages that follow (one for each experience”) provide an overview of what “research you and your students will be doing as you work through each stage of the project. Once you have read through this guide, simply download the student and teacher packs, gather or purchase the texts listed in the Teacher Resource Guide and dive right in!
Research Pack ‘Quick Start’ Guide Welcome to the Research Packs! You and your students are about to set off on an adventure where they will explore new and important information about the world of science. In the process, your students will be: reading carefully and thoughtfully thinking critically writing fully-developed, grade appropriate informative writing pieces Perhaps best of all, all of this will be manageable for you as the teacher! Once you are familiar with the approach, Research Packs are designed to be used with minimal preparation. How does it work? Each Research Pack has been designed with the “rule of three” in mind. This means that: • The first “research experience” in the pack is completed as a full class and is very highly guided and scaffolded by the teacher. In this first research experience, teachers are not “seeing if” students can research, understand, and then write – they are “making sure” that students can research, understand, and then write. • The second “research experience” focuses the same science concept / understanding, but this time students are working with new content in small groups. The teacher is still very available for assistance, but students are using the same approach as they did the first time with somewhat more independence. For grades 3-5: • Older elementary students now complete a third, independent part of the research project. The third “research experience” again uses the same science concept / understanding, but this time students are using a now-very-familiar approach to read, think, and write more independently. NOTE: Research Pack materials can be used flexibly. Classrooms are different, and available time is different. For example, a teacher may choose to use only the first highly guided experience in this set. He may choose to use the highly guided and small group experiences, and omit the independent. What we would NOT recommend is leaving out the full group, “research experience.” It is critically important that research – reading, re-reading, talking, note-taking, writing – is successful for students. That can happen only in the presence of strong, effective instruction. The three pages that follow (one for each “research experience”) provide an overview of what you and your students will be doing as you work through each stage of the project. Once you have read through this guide, simply download the student and teacher packs, gather or purchase the texts listed in the Teacher Resource Guide and dive right in!