This week let’s talk about research, and the ways it shows up across the world these days. Because I’d like to highly recommend you build some research activities into your class this year that don’t end in papers. 

I vividly remember my seventh grade social studies class, where we sat in groups at rounded tables trying to look cool and learned about how to take notes on a single source using a notecard. We built up our notecard stack over time, then arranged and rearranged our research into our first ever research paper. 

Teaching the research process is just as important now as it was back then, but there are a lot more ways to help kids show off what they’ve learned. You can practice the skills of finding good sources, taking notes, analyzing information, and sharing and citing that information with student podcasts, Instagram-style carousel posts, or infographics, as well as papers. This will allow you to weave research into more arenas, and give kids more creative variety in showing what they’ve learned. 

So this year, as you think about building in research skills, I  highly recommend you consider having students share their takeaways in a new medium. Something that incorporates visuals or audio as well as writing. Try a quick infographic assignment, a 5 minute research-based podcast, or my favorite, the Instagram-style carousel, where kids create a connected series of square images that teach their viewer about their topic through both writing and visuals. 

 

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