How to Teach Beginning Research for Elementary Students

It's time for elementary students to begin learning how to research topics, but how do you teach them where to begin?




Learning how to research can be very tricky for students.  They don't know the basics, so breaking it down into small steps is best.

Beginning Research with a Simple Topic


Students as young as first and second grades can begin to research when given this step-by-step guide to follow.  

Beginning Research for Elementary Students



WEEK ONE:

Day 1- chart. Asks students how it looks, where it lives, etc


Begin by spending a week teaching the skills as you research together.  Chose a topic that all students love or a timely topic for your classroom.  A great topic is any animal.

DAY ONE:


Students will break down the beginning research into four areas:

1)  the physical appearance of the animal (color, size, # of legs)
2)  what the animal eats
3)  the animal's habitat
4)  the animal's enemies

Divide a large piece of paper into those four areas.  Give your students books or a video about the animal.  Ask the students to write one fact that fits each of the areas onto sticky notes and place the sticky notes into the correct squares.

DAY TWO:

Shows sticky notes of where polar bears live and what they eat


Read the sticky notes with the students, and discuss the information.  Is it clear?  Does it fit the topic heading?  What kind of information should be added?

Brainstorm together with students to make sure that you have enough information.

DAY THREE:

Use information from sticky notes to complete sentences on a chart paper


Use the information from the sticky notes to complete the sentences you have prepared on chart paper.


DAY FOUR:

Students will fill out a report using the previous information




Give students their own copies, and have them copy the information you wrote together yesterday on the chart paper.

DAY FIVE:


Each student can use the information gathered and completed yesterday to write a paragraph (or more) in his or her neatest handwriting on another piece of paper.

WEEK TWO:


Have students work together in small groups or with partners to repeat the steps from last week.  Assign groups different animals.  You can have the materials ready for them, or take a trip to the library for students to check out books. 

(For younger students and for the first time we did this in my classroom, I checked out all library books from the library ahead of time.)

As students spend the week working together, your job is to move around the room to check in to help with questions, guide students to find the information, and ensure that students are remaining on task and using their time wisely.

On the last day, you might wish to incorporate speaking and listening standards by having students stand up together and read their reports to the class.

WEEK THREE:


If you feel that students have a good grasp on beginning research, have them repeat the above independently.  Week two can be repeated with new topics and new groups if needed.

This unit has a list of topics, graphic forms, beginning (rough) draft, and completed drafts in differentiated levels to make beginning research easy for your elementary students if you are interested.



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Beginning research





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