Research Paper Guidelines

[Patrick Higgins]

I had sent this out via twitter last week, but this looks like a more captive and focused audience for the topic.

What should our high school research process look like? In looking at our guideline, and the rules we teach students, there seems to be little that reflects the tools and the media our students have access to. Is it practical to require that they all use notecards (source cards and bib cards)? Do we require that they learn the correct way to write out MLA or APA for their works cited page?

We are looking at our process in my district right now, and it's hard to see value in some of the things we continue to teach. To try and gain some perspective, we just sent out a survey to our graduates from a year ago who would be out in the world, in the military, or about to begin their sophomore year of college. We asked them a series of questions about the habits they learned during the research process and whether or not it applied to their college studies. But I would like to hear from those of you in this network about your processes and your thoughts on what skills our students need to be taught during their research projects. Thanks!

[Tammy Gillmore]

In re-reading this discussion, I clicked on the embedded link...and I love this! I do believe I heard those same angels singing!

I played with it...very good! I selected essay...loved the time-line feature. Great for the procrastinators, which most kids are, mainly due to the extremely busy lives. Thanks for this!