With a bachelor's degree in Psychology and years spent writing endless papers with a strong focus on references, it is easy to forget that research was a skill that was drilled into me over the course of four years. Without this knowledge, I would not have been able to properly educate myself on a variety of topics. Having the background knowledge to be able to read scientific studies came in handy this past year with all of the misinformation being spread about COVID 19. At the second grade level, my students will not be looking through scholarly journals for statistically significant experiments with large sample sizes to support their claims. However, I can begin to set my students up for success and begin to understand how to navigate the web, which questions to use, and how to find good sources.
In the common core standards, students in second grade are already being asked to gather information to answer questions and do their own research for projects. My first instinct would have been to give them a list of sites to visit or create a custom Google search engine to ensure that students end up with a reliable answer. However, after reading November's work and discussing research in depth, I realized the importance of students discovering how to find their own resources.
In my unit, I would focus on the history and social studies framework 2.T.4.3: Locate and analyze information and present a short research report on the physical features, resources, and people of a country outside the United States.
Clarification Statement: Students should choose a country of interest, for example,
• a country where they, their families, or their ancestors lived
• a country where they have friends or relatives
• a country that they have visited or would like to visit
• a country that is the setting for one of their favorite stories
• a country that has an interesting animal population, environment, or terrain
To complete this assignment, I would have my students use a primary source and a secondary source to share about their country of choice. In order for this unit to begin to be possible, students would have to learn how to differentiate between a primary source and secondary source, which is where my lesson begins. I would first teach students the differences between primary and secondary sources using a Google Slides presentations. Students would then visit different stations in groups with activities including: viewing examples of primary and secondary sources (ex. letters, textbooks, a documentary, pictures), a card sort of primary and secondary sources, a comparison of a primary and secondary source on the same event (ex. my experience at a new ice cream shop vs. a newspaper article on the new local ice cream shop), and a VoiceThread on primary and secondary sources that each group would add information to. At the end of class, I would then use a Kahoot to collect a formative assessment on my students to check for understanding on this topic. Students love using Kahoot, they are fast for students to take and students get immediate results. I would remove the ranking and time limits so that students are not pressured by them and the timer leaves ELL's and students who struggle with reading at a disadvantage.
While the final assignment, which includes students doing their own research, may be months away from this lesson, I feel that this lesson is an important foundational block in setting students up to become successful researchers in the future.
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