What is research?

Click here to see the polls. I used polleverywhere to crowdsource answers and assess understanding. The 4-6th graders had fun using it and seeing their answer light up on the screen. Based on Threshold Concepts, I tried to build up their conceptual knowledge of basic research skills before embarking on a research project. Concepts: research, resesarch questions, sources, primary sources, secondary sources….next, authority! Here are some screenshots:

What questions do we need to think about to answer the big question WHAT IS RESEARCH?

What are some examples of research questions?

What are sources?

What is a primary source?

What are some examples of primary (first-hand) sources?

What is a secondary (second-hand) source?

What are some examples of secondary sources?

Taino vs. Columbus

The 4th graders read Jane Yolen’s “Encounter,” a retelling of the first encounter between Native Americans and Tainos, and an excerpt from Christopher Columbus’ diary. They took notes about the first encounter and the two points of view. Then they used MS Word to create an imaginary dialogue between the two, using a historical drawing as the background image.

They learned to cite the image and create speech bubbles, right-clicking to send the speech bubble to the front.