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Personal Travel Guide to a Chinese City
Scholars become travel guides in this group research project to investigate a Chinese city or region for a presentation. Heavily based on Internet research, the activity requires participants to jigsaw the final project, so each team...
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Paragraph Building
Build the skills your budding authors need to develop to compose well-structured paragraphs. Give them the topic sheet (included here), and have them write a cohesive paragraph using the ideas listed. Consider having them include two...
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Rubric for Research Papers
This rubric is decent, but it doesn't provide a point allotment for each category. Use this as an outline to create a more comprehensive assessment for your writers' research papers.
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How to Integrate Quotations
Quotations add validity to an argument or an analysis, but how do you integrate them into your writing? Several examples are provided, and your emerging writers will surely benefit from looking at different ways to add quotations....
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Worksheet for Choosing a Research Paper Topic & Developing a Thesis Statement
How do you choose a research topic? This helpful graphic organizer is provided to aid middle and high schoolers in organizing their initial thoughts and choosing a topic. They have to narrow their topic by culture, time frame, event,...
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Green Buildings Virtual Tour
Students fill out a worksheet after researching green buildings by taking a virtual tour. In this green buildings lesson plan, students use Google Earth to research green buildings.
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Personalities of the Renaissance
Have the class interpret historical evidence presented in primary and secondary resources. They examine sources regarding architecture, art, exploration, government, literature, religion, and technology of the era. Then they use their...
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Conversation with _______
After choosing a famous person your learners admire, they write a scene where they pretend to meet their chosen person. They identify a specific event they'd like to discuss with them, and write a dialogue detailing their fictitious...
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Anne Frank and Louisiana - There is a Connection!
How is Louisiana connected to the Holocaust? After reading The Diary of Anne Frank, eighth graders complete a research report about a survivor of the Holocaust who currently resides in Louisiana. Though the idea is a good way to...
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Discovering Differences Between Internet Search Engines
Students explore the differences in search engines available on the Internet. Most users are unaware of the differences between search engines. Some sample larger or smaller portions of the World Wide Web than others.
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Documentary-Style Research Projects
Show your pupils how to use guiding questions to help them focus their research into a topic. Using the framework provided by these questions, researchers explore a topic, collect interesting facts, and prepare a PowerPoint presentation...
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How Do You Know?
What is the difference between primary and secondary sources? Help your middle schoolers develop a knowledge of appropriate sources to use when doing accurate research. They develop unique ways to incorporate literature in historical...
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Using a Dictionary-Sounds
One of these words doesn’t sound like the others. The dictionary provides the answers to a quiz that asks learns to identify the sounds in unfamiliar words.
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Using a Dictionary-Sounds
Figuring out how to pronounce unfamiliar words can be tricky. Learners use the dictionary to determine the beginning and ending sounds of words and then answer four multiple choice questions that test their understanding of these sounds.
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Gathering, Evaluating,and Organizing Information for a Research Report
It's never too early to build research skills! Young scholars locate information relevant to a subject they are doing a research project on. They take notes and sort the information under main topic headings. Through research, they gain...
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Unanswered Questions in Number the Stars
Students read a book, "Number by the Stars." Students explore the internet and search engines. Through guided internet research, students find answers to questions posed in the book. Students share their internet experiences and discuss...
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Nonfiction
As scholars begin using informational texts, it's important they understand their uses and features. This visual instructional activity has readers match three text titles to corresponding pictures. Next, they examine a book cover with...
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Do Some Research: Bones in the Body
Where are the smallest bones in your body located? Using the Internet and/or library, young biologists locate, illustrate, and write an explanation of where these tiny bones can be found.
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CCC: Credible sources, Creative Commons Images, and Citing Your Sources
As part of a unit devoted to the study of autobiographies, this one-day library session focuses on developing research skills. Class members locate and properly cite a sketch of a Creative Commons image, as well as record the call...
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Using the Internet to Challenge Young Writers
Designed as a professional development exercise to introduce teachers to the Internet, the activities in this resource ask novice web surfers to access a series of sites, bookmark them, and answer question about information found on the...
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Using Citations in a Research Paper
As a prequel to a research assignment, class members explore writing citations in the modern Language Association (MLA) and American Psychological Association (APA) formats. In pairs, or individually, researchers use books and magazines...
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Marvelous Manatees
Two groups consider whether or not the Florida manatee will become extinct during their lifetimes. They research manatee populations and statistics together and then a class debate is held. Afterwards they consider how reliable...
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Revolutionary War Era Research Project
Young historians interpret historical evidence presented in primary and secondary resources in this American Revolution lesson. They select topics from the time era that they are interested in researching. Additionally, they follow...
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Media Literacy Skills
You're on camera! Third graders find a news story and research it to get more information. Everyone uses their found information to write a script and create their own news broadcast!