techleadership

multidimensional mathematics was taught and valued

roles to help children by providing some advantageous structure to the effort to help students learn to collaborate in ways that matter.

one issue I have with roles is that they can be too tight and not allow all students to experience every aspect of project/problem work

survey students about the roles they desire most and make teams based on the surveys.

She and her mom were proud that she had done her own research. When she said that she got her information from Wikipedia, I suggested that she might wish to include her source on the project, but she did not want to. She did not know if she would be presenting the project to her classmates.

My concern was not just about the credibility of using Wikipedia for academic purposes. The reading level was too advanced for a typical third-grader. Researchers (Anderson, 2012) have found the overall readability of numerous Wikipedia articles too difficult for many readers.

How is the research process introduced to elementary students, particularly for using the internet? Are learners provided an age-appropriate online tutorial? Is there a standards document indicating skills that students should be developing in elementary grades for using technology to conduct research?  What guidelines/templates are students provided for developing their projects? Are they provided a checklist/rubric for how projects would be graded? Who sees their projects?  How do you make parents aware that their children will be doing internet research and that their children’s “online safety” has been considered?

elementary learners can hop on the Research Rocket at the online portal Kentucky Virtual Library: How to Do Research and find an interactive and engaging tutorial designed just for them. Content might also benefit classroom lessons and discussions, particularly in K–2 when

ibrary media specialists in the School District of New Berlin (WI) developed a series of research guides and templates, organized by grade-bands. Templates for grades 4 to 6 combine a checklist or rubric.  Lankau, Parrish, Quillin and Schilling (2004) developed the Research Project Guide: A Handbook for Teachers and Studentsfor Humble Independent School District in Texas.

Symbaloo, a social bookmarking tool, for this purpose. The Elementary Research Guide focuses on the Super 3 and Big 6 research models for grades K–2 and 3 to 5, respectively. Presentations on the Super 3 and Big 6 models, posted on Slideshare.net, illustrate that educators value both models.