Vantage Learning Community - Because Writing Matters » Teaching Research Papers using MY Access!

Feb '10 4

Teaching Research Papers using MY Access!

By qualtic
Posted in Because Writing Matters

Research papers allow students to examine a subject in detail as they investigate different facts and perspectives about their topic. Whether they choose the topic on their own or you assign it, the sense of discovery is exciting and limitless. What sometimes becomes challenging, though, is incorporating all those new ideas and interesting quotes into an essay of their own.

Rather than seeing the research paper as a simple “cut and paste” exercise, students and teachers using MA can work through the writing process from research to editing, so the focus is on the student’s understanding and presentation of their research via a well developed essay. Consider these tips for teaching a research paper using MY Access!

iSEEK search engine- This credible and safe search engine compiles millions of sources from all fields, mediums, and grade levels. iViews allow a student to easily narrow their search, but the iViews also will help students discover facts or topics they may not have already know about their subject.

The KWL chart- You can encourage students to think about their research before they start reading as they list what they already know and state what they want to know. The chart gives students a place to log their notes as they distinguish their ideas from those they find in research. This not only helps prevent plagiarism but also lets students see that their ideas may be just as valuable as those they will find in research.

A T chart may also help students stay organized as they takes notes, putting the source in one column and the summaries and quotations in another.

After the student has gathered their own ideas and those from the research, they should start to create an outline of their essay. This additional step can help students see that they, not the research can set the structure of the research essay. For example, they can use a Cluster Web to develop their main ideas and evidence.

With MY Access!, there are a few possibilities to consider for the prompt selection. You can create your own prompt or use a MY ACCESS! prompt and add the research requirements as Special instructions. Of course, the genre you choose for the research paper will determine the feedback students receive. You can set up a prompt that will provide specific text based feedback for the content. You could create a My Prompt for the research assignment and make it “Text Based/Informational.” This will provide My Tutor Feedback about research elements. For example, Content and Development feedback includes goals, strategies and examples for incorporating citations into the essay.

If you want to provide trait scores for an Intellimetric prompt, you can select a general Intellimetric prompt such as “A Person You Admire” that applies to your research topic and add Special Instructions for your assignment.

As students revise, they can refer to the Research handout found in Instructional Documentation in the Resource Center that guide them through research formatting. They can also use the Research tags list found in Instructional Tools and Activities for Informational Writing to improve their word choice and refine their understanding of the sources they have used. To format their research paper, students can review a simple handout on MLA format guidelines, and for the most current 2009 MLA updates, they can refer to the OWL MLA Formatting and Style Guide.

Since they will have put so much time and effort into this vast undertaking, you may want to encourage them to “Publish” their essay from the student portfolio, so the presentation reflects all of their hard work!

We hope these ideas will be helpful. But we are also interested in hearing your suggestions!

What tips do you have for teaching research papers?

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 4th, 2010 at 10:22 am and is filed under Because Writing Matters. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Comments are closed.

Blogs

Archives

Recent Posts

Recent Forum Topics

Teaching Research Papers using MY Access!