I Wonder: Exploring Research With Primary Students

If you have ever had your class interrupted by a thunderstorm or by a bug crawling across the carpet, you know that students naturally question the world around them. This eight-lesson unit encourages second-grade students to ask questions about a specific topic, choose a particular question to explore in detail, and research the question using a variety of resources. Students organize their information on a "What we think we know," "What we have confirmed we know," and "New facts we have learned through research" (TCF) chart. They then collaborate to write a class scientific explanation. This resource can be used with various topics easily. Therefore, once students have been through the whole unit and become familiar with each session, it could be repeated using different topics. The consistency of using the familiar research process would allow student to develop their research skills. It could easily be scaled back for 1st grade or Kindergarten students by including more teacher guidance in each lesson. This unit allows students to explore each step of the research process, refine questions, locate important details in text, and how to write facts in their own words. Consequently, it would allow a teacher to spend time with students practicing the skills related to research, and then demonstrate how to report findings. It could also be a way to differentiate for students the learning expectations involved in research...meaning that each session (lesson) could be used with groups of students who need remediation, or compacting to grow the research knowledge.

Weblink address (URL):

Standards & Objectives

Learning objectives:

Student Objectives:

Students will:

Gain scientific knowledge by exploring a topic, engaging in hands-on experiments, and posing questions
Gain knowledge about writing by learning about the structure of scientific explanations and how to write paragraphs
Demonstrate comprehension of how to answer a scientific query by doing their own research and helping confirm their own and other's responses
Apply what they have learned about writing and scientific explanations by organizing notes into paragraphs and by illustrating these paragraphs appropriately

NCTE/IRA National Standards For The English Language Arts:

Students read a wide range of print and nonprint texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world; to acquire new information; to respond to the needs and demands of society and the workplace; and for personal fulfillment. Among these texts are fiction and nonfiction, classic and contemporary works.
Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound–letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).
Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.
Students conduct research on issues and interests by generating ideas and questions, and by posing problems. They gather, evaluate, and synthesize data from a variety of sources (e.g., print and nonprint texts, artifacts, people) to communicate their discoveries in ways that suit their purpose and audience.
Students use a variety of technological and information resources (e.g., libraries, databases, computer networks, video) to gather and synthesize information and to create and communicate knowledge.
Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and the exchange of information).

Lesson Variations

Extension suggestions:

Extensions:

Decide as a class whom you would like to share the book with. Some possible publishing ideas are to:
Invite parents in for a publishing celebration
Display the book in the school library
Add the book to your classroom collection of nonfiction books
Publish the classroom explanations on your school or classroom website
Have students refer to the "I wonder..." chart that they created in Session 1 and select a question to answer on their own.

References

Contributors:

Dana Malone

Originator:

Ayers Institute for Learning & Innovation