The Key to a Successful Research Project in the Early Grades
A free sample of the resource, Writing Animal Reports: Lesson Plans for the Early Grades can be downloaded at the end of this post.
The research process is a challenging endeavour for any student. For our young learners in the early grades, it is especially difficult. Here’s why.
As you know, when presented with a new topic, our brain searches for what we already know. New information is then attached to our prior knowledge. The result is an increased understanding of that topic.
The brain’s neurons connect to one another via dendrites. When we learn something new, our brain forms new connections.
Since our students’ prior knowledge is often limited, it’s our responsibility as their teacher to build their background knowledge. If we ask students to research a topic they have little or no prior knowledge of, their neurons will not have the necessary connections to make the learning task attainable. Students will be frustrated and discouraged. So, what can we do to ensure researching a topic is a positive and worthwhile experience for these young learners?
Use Shared Reading to build students’ general background knowledge of the topic you want them to research. When the writing topic is an animal, choose one animal group to focus whole-class instruction on. Once the research process begins, students then choose a species from that animal group for their report.
Grab a free copy of this chart for your reference.
Download a free copy of this prewriting sheet for your students to use when they research an animal.
Visit My Shop for these resources:
Writing Animal Reports: Lesson Plans for the Early Grades.
Writing Animal Reports in the Early Grades: Lesson Plans to Create Slide Presentations.
