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Lesson 1

Introduction to Research

We will discuss the importance of a researched perspective and the research process. We will then form small research teams and begin developing our research topic.

Lesson Goals

  • Can I deepen my understanding of the research process and the importance of having a researched perspective on issues that are important to my learning community?

  • Can I participate in a collaborative discussion with my peers about issues of importance and interest to us?

Texts

There are no texts for this Lesson.

Materials

Tools

Question Sets

Editable Google Docs

Activity 1: Write – Discuss

We will learn about the Research Process and share our experiences with prior research projects.

Step 1

Reflect on the following guiding questions. Record your responses in your Learning Log.

  1. What is research?

  2. Why is research valuable?

  3. How has your understanding of research developed or changed this year? Since last year?

  4. Think about a prior research question or project you engaged in. What was challenging about it? What did you learn about the research process?

  5. What does inquiry mean? How do you use inquiry questions to learn about your topic?

  6. What does recursive mean? How does it apply to research?

Step 2

Share your responses with a partner or as a class.

  1. What is research?

Research is an inquiry-driven process where individuals or teams use questions to deepen their understanding of topics and allow their perspective to evolve as new evidence is discovered, analyzed, and incorporated.

This is different from having an opinion and setting out to try to find support for it. It involves keeping an open, curious mind and being prepared to take in new, sometimes unexpected information.

Successful researchers follow a general process and use tools and strategies to find, analyze, and organize credible information from reliable sources. Using this process will lead you to adopt different points of view and to explore different paths as a consequence of your findings.

  1. Why is research valuable?

Having a researched perspective—one where ideas, thoughts, and conclusions about a particular subject are informed by asking questions, exploring texts, and turning to many different sources for knowledge—will give you a broader, deeper understanding of any subject of interest. This research-based understanding can inform your decisions and policies.

  1. How has your understanding of research developed or changed this year? Since last year?

  2. Think about a prior research question or project you engaged in. What was challenging about it? What did you learn about the research process?

  3. What is inquiry? How did you use inquiry questions to learn about your topic?

  4. What does recursive mean? How does it apply to research?

Activity 2: Read – Write – Discuss

We will begin working with vocabulary and adding words to our Vocabulary Journals and interacting with words to cement our understanding of their meaning.

As with all units, you will continue to use a Vocabulary Journal. You will use the journal to record the meanings of some research-related terms, as in this activity. However, the journal will be most useful when you start reading and making meaning from your research sources. For some of those words, you might use a Vocabulary in Context Tool to decipher meaning from the text; for others, you might use morphology to decipher the meaning, or a reference resource to check if your meaning is accurate. Record the words and definitions in your Vocabulary Journal. For each word, be sure to identify the vocabulary strategy (e.g., context, morphology, reference resource) you used to determine its meaning

As stated in the previous activity, the research process is driven by inquiry and is recursive, but what exactly does that mean?

Work with a partner or group to respond to the vocabulary exercises, as directed by your teacher, to unpack the meaning of the following words:

  • inquiry

  • recursive

Activity 3: Discuss

We will review the expectations of the Culminating Task and section 1 diagnostic.

Step 1

Review the Culminating Task Checklist. In your Learning Log, write down what you notice and wonder about this section of the unit and how it helps to support your work toward the Culminating Task.

Share your observations and questions with the class.

Step 2

Listen as your teacher reviews the Culminating Task Checklist and discusses the following goals for this unit:

  • to understand the stages and processes of deep research

  • to be able to apply research skills to learn more about any topic of interest

  • to learn how to ask great questions that result in rich answers

  • to use tools to build your own research portfolio

  • to share the most interesting results of your research in a presentation to your learning community

Remember that the research process is not necessarily linear; you will revisit, revise, and continue to move forward throughout all the sections of this unit. In this section, your team will choose and explore possible topics and a Central Research Question to help you guide your thinking and further research.

Activity 4: Read

As a class, we will look over the Research Process, which shows the steps we will follow in the Research Process.

Step 1

Locate the Research Process and follow along as your teacher introduces how to plan out the research process.

Use the following questions to guide your discussion:

  1. As outlined in the Section column, what primary research goals will you be working toward throughout the unit?

  2. Looking at the Steps column, what tasks do you recognize or have experience doing? What seems new or confusing to you?

  3. How do the lessons relate to their respective sections?

Step 2

Next, access and read through the Application Unit Glossary. You can consult this handout throughout the unit if you need clarification on the purpose for a particular tool or definition of a research term.

Use the following questions to guide your reading of the handout:

  1. What primary research activities will you be doing in Section 1?

  2. What tools will you be using in Section 1? How will they help you begin your research?

Activity 5: Read – Discuss

We will form teams to begin the Research Process and learn about the final research presentation.

Step 1

Follow your teacher’s instructions to form research teams. The potential topics to research will be posted for the class, with sign-up sheets for each topic and a limited number of spots in each team.

Step 2

As a team, review the Presentation Guide, which will help you begin the process of planning and delivering a presentation that you will deliver to your learning community. You have a lot of research to do before you begin working on the presentation, but you will benefit from knowing the final goal of the unit early on.

Be sure to ask any questions that you have about the presentation to help you understand the task and prepare.

Activity 6: Discuss

We will begin our research projects by thinking about topics and texts we explored in earlier units.

Step 1

In the Application Unit, you will apply all of the research skills and techniques you have learned so far. You will also practice and hone new skills. Working in a research team with some of your classmates, your deep research will culminate in a presentation to your learning community.

One of the most important research skills to hone is the ability to productively pursue what interests you.

  1. Which questions fascinate you?

  2. What mysteries would you most love to dig into, whether or not they can ever be solved?

Step 2

You have used the Application Unit Potential Topics Tool to keep track of your most exciting insights, burning questions, and greatest ideas as you have completed each unit. Locate and review the tool.

In a group of your peers, choose a unit from earlier in the year and discuss the following questions:

  1. What topic, angle, or text from this unit interested you most? Why?

  2. What questions do you have about this topic that remain unanswered?

  3. What topic, angle, or text from this unit do you want to explore further?

  4. Are there any books, articles, websites, or movies about this topic that you would like to read, watch, or explore more? If so, list them here.

  5. Are there any sites you would like to visit or people you would like to interview to help you learn more about this topic? If so, list them here.

  6. What are some of your most interesting insights about this topic?

Activity 7: Discuss

We will meet in our teams to begin discussing our topics.

Step 1

Listen as your teacher reviews the Section Diagnostic Checklist. Notice that as part of the Section Diagnostic, you will submit the Exploring a Topic Tool. This tool guides you through a process of thinking about what interests you within a topic area that you have read about, discussed in class, or begun to research on your own. It begins with writing a summary of what you already know in general about a topic area. It then provides spaces for recording ideas about subtopics, called Potential Areas of Investigation, that you might investigate further. It also includes room for notes about why you are interested and a place to turn your interest into an inquiry question.

Step 2

Take out the Exploring a Topic Tool. Discuss your general topic with your team. Take notes on the first page of your tool during your discussion. Consider the following questions:

  1. What do you already know about this topic?

  2. What more do you want to know about this topic?

  3. Which aspects of this topic do you find most interesting. Why?

  4. Which aspects of this topic do you find least interesting. Why?