Objectives:
- Students engage in finding and “collecting” words from reading materials.
- The teacher develops lists of these words and supports students in transferring these vocabulary words to their writing.
Materials:
Special Note for Explicit Scaffolding for ELLs: These materials provide specific resources (such as the charts & graphic organizers) for English Language Learners to be able to access the academic content matter. It is critical to make the following materials available during the unit.
Explicit Support & Scaffolding for English Learners:
- The class will be writing this report in pairs and as a whole group so there is adequate time for demonstration, modeling, and discussion of key concepts as well as the writing process. In addition, the following materials will be created by students and used as scaffolds throughout the lesson:
- List of High-Power Words – This needs to be created on large chart paper and hung in the classroom throughout the unit.
- Labeled drawings
- Graphic organizers that list the necessary information to be gathered
- Cognate chart(s) of the vocabulary words in English and the cognates listed in other dominant languages used in the classroom community.
- 1-2 page selections of research for different reading levels
- Wordcatchers (Scott et al., 2008, p. 90) to support students in using connecting words in their writing.
Brief Description:
Students create and utilize a list of powerful, content-specific words, and consciously select word choice and language to write a research report about a specific subject that explains their knowledge of the Common Core Content Standards.
Initially, students will study the Standards for a specific unit. Then students select a topic, sort facts, sequence facts and ideas, write paragraphs, and assemble a research report.
Teaching Tip:
A Research Report can be written about any subject including math. For example, a student could write a report about the different kinds of angles and triangles.
Instructions
Pre-Teach:
Mini-lessons on:
- learning how to categorize items and ideas
- developing interesting lead and concluding sentences
- combining sentences
- using descriptive language.
Begin to create the list of High-Power Words:
- The teacher puts up a chart paper with each process listed. For example, if the unit was about the human functions for a Life Science study, the chart could look like this:
| Circulation | Respiration |
| Digestion & waste disposal | Transport of materials |
- Students are each given a post-it. They are to select which process they would like to study more intensively and explain why they are choosing that process. They put their post-it on the chart paper.
- In a whole class discussion, look at the categories that are most desired and talk about the explanations students listed on their post-its.
- As a whole class, select one of the categories to write a class research report.
Teaching Tip:
It is critical to complete the Pre-Teach lessons before attempting to do the Research Report. Students will then approach the task with a writing toolkit.
Gathering Facts
- The teacher will need to differentiate by having several 1-2 page selections of research available for different reading levels. Students should be put into pairs to do the reading and fact-finding.
- Introduce the Fact Sheet. This is an 8 ½” x 11” piece of paper divided into several rows and two columns, labeled Fact and Source.
- Students will find and record important or interesting facts, key words or phrases using a maximum of 10 words. Each fact is written in a separate box; the source column indicates the page and book or website.
Sorting Facts
- Once again, students will work with their partner to organize their facts. They cut up their fact sheet into the individual boxes.
- The challenging part is for students to create categories and assign each category a heading.
- Special Note: Before attempting this activity, teach at least 8-10 quick mini-lessons where the teacher presents words on the overhead and has students in pairs or small groups categorize the words and create headings. Discuss how and why students created the specific categories. What were they thinking?
Sequencing Facts and Ideas
- With their partner, students arrange the categories into a sequence. They can order them from most important to least important ideas or into related concepts.
- The fact boxes can be glued onto either a fact organizational sheet or into a notebook.
- This serves as the outline for students’ writing.
Writing Paragraphs
- Students can still work with their partner, but both people need to write the report.
- Students write their facts into sentences. The facts in each category become the paragraphs.
- Students write interesting opening and closing sentences for paragraphs and reports.
- Students write vivid and interesting descriptions of their facts.
- Students proofread their work using An Editor is Someone Who C.A.R.E.S. and proofreading cards. (Scott et al., 2008, p. 110-111)
Assembling the Report
- Before completing the report, look at non-fiction books in the library or classroom to see how authors create a title page, table of contents, illustrations, graphs and tables, resources page (listing the sources of their information), and/or book cover.
- Students create a title page, table of contents, resources page, and book cover for their report.
- Options: Students can also create illustrations, graphs and tables for their report.
Reference: Scott, J.A., Skobel, B. J., & Wells, J. (2008). The word-conscious classroom: Building the vocabulary readers and writers need. New York: Scholastic, Inc.
Subjects
Assessments: Writing A Research Report
Pre-assessment:
(This pre-assessment can be scaffolded for ELLs by having students work in teacher-selected pairs or small groups to offer peer support.): After extensive study of a specific subject, students individually, in pairs or small groups, will draw and label what they have learned.
Post-assessment:
For the actual report, use the Rubric for Nonfiction Reports (Scott et al., 2008, p. 159).
Extensions: Writing a Research Report
Follow-Up Focusing on ELLs and Word Learning: The Dictionary