Beginning the Research Process
By lesleycoe on Jan 14, 2009 in Uncategorized
After observing the way North Carolina is shifting the way that 7th graders submit writing samples from a paper environment to an electronic environment, my interest in assisting students with the research process has been renewed. In the practice writing scenario, students are given a writing prompt, with which they are supposed to spend a pre-determined amount of time researching.
Students are provided computer access for the research process but what I have observed in many scenarios is unguided research. The teachers have not been provided with a standard or a structure in which the students are supposed to research, therefore the students have not been provided a standard or structure either. In order for this new process to evolve and develop, it has been left intentionally open-ended.
The majority of students began their research by accessing Google and entering their research topic into the search box. For many students, a standard Google search merely provides a wealth of information that quickly overwhelms them and they don’t know how to sort through.
Evri is a website that allows students to search by a designated topic which then creates a bubble map, a series of links, pictures and videos all related to the initial search topic. Students can click on the bubbles to produce further branches and delve deeper into their topic or they can choose to research from the initial results. The variety of media produced by the search targets the needs of all learners and provides a global perspective of how their research topic relates to other topics.
Addtional Lesson Idea:
This tool could also be used as a class brainstorming activity in which the teacher selects an overarching topic and the class can continue to click on the related topics until they discover a relevant topic of interest for an assignment.
Stumble It!
