thing 6: Research Project Calculator

What is easy for you about teaching research? What are the challenges?
I think that I do a good job of getting the kids excited about the project, because I do allow them choice. Sometimes that choice is in their topic selection and other times it is in the final product. Giving kids ownership of the research keeps them more engaged and motivated. I am challenged in the "question" step and the "conclude" step. How do I get 8th graders to ask their own probing research questions? How do I get them to analyze the info and not just cut and paste?

How might the RPC Teacher Guide help you plan and manage research projects?
I went crazy printing off documents from the teacher support materials. There is so much there that I can use. I especially liked the Instructional Planning Guide as a resource for the teacher and LMS to fill out together. I could see this being a way to open up some great collaboration. I also plan on using the narrowing a topic tool with some of my students who still have a History Day topic that's too huge. No matter how many times they are told to be specific, I always have kids who want to do "WWII" for History Day. I think the specific triangle might give them the visual that they need.

One thing about history day is that it is such a drawn-out, long term project. I could see tweaking the student research planning guide and using that as a way to give the kids "checkpoints" on their progress.

How can you keep the planning, teaching and managing of research projects sane for you as a teacher?
I think that by breaking it down into manageable pieces for students, it makes the whole process much easier for me as well. I am also a big fan of the "ask 3 and then me" philosophy. That way kids are helping each other problem solve rather than just coming to me right away. I have found it helps with the "I can't find anything about my topic on the internet" kinds of questions.

I have also found that collaborating with my LMS has been a life saver as well!

What additional support or resources do you need to be successful in this area of information literacy?
Here's the question I struggle with: How do I teach kids how to write a thesis statement to help guide their research?