​Welcome back my specialist and supporting teacher friends.  Sorry for the delay the past few weeks, but I’ve been busy preparing for my school’s verification visit in less than a month.  I’ve been working crazy hours, but I’m still trying to make some time for the things I love, like being here with you and sharing more ideas. 

When I think of research skills, it’s more than looking something up on a computer or book.  It’s more about what we do with the information after we have received it.   Since it can be more labor intensive and cerebral, I think many teachers just pass it off as completing a research project.  Today, we are going to explore how we can take it a step further. 

If you are a coordinator, you will see many parts are the same, because they can apply to all teachers.  We will diversify a bit as we examine the sub-skills. 

When I read this list, many ideas pop into my mind.  First, we need to be intentional when planning inquiries to have a research focus.  That seems obvious, right?  Not so much, if you are focused on getting content taught.  Being mindful is key with the ATLs. 

How are we providing a range of tools, so students can research on their own and self-select based on the purpose of the inquiry?  Yikes, this sounds huge at first, but this could simply be presenting 5-7 visible thinking routines to our students and graphic organizers and teaching them how to self-select based on purpose.  Hmm...that sounds doable.  The key is to have all of these processes formally and informally documented, so the student is able to talk through it with their parents at the end of the year.

When we are teaching explicit research skills, we need to teach them about reliable sources and which search engines are vetted.  Oftentimes, fake news is taken to be real.  This is our chance to teach them how to vet these sources and accredit them through proper citations.  We don’t have to do this process alone, because we have our librarian and technology specialist to lend a hand too. 

Now, what will the students be doing during this time?  Let’s take a peek at the sub-skills they will be focusing on to become more independent researchers. 

• Formulating and planning
• Data gathering and recording
• Synthesizing and interpreting
• Evaluating and communicating
• Media literacy
• Ethical use of media/information

Now, let’s take a deeper look at one of the ATL sub-skills

We like to truly understand what we are learning, which is why we like to synthesize and interpret information.  If you're like me, you might do this too much.  But, this process helps us to internalize information to create meaning. 

​This sub-skill is more directed at our supporting teachers who work with our special populations.  You may be pushing into the classroom experience and this may be something to consider as you target certain types of texts.  I will try to provide examples of ways I’ve also seen some specialists use them in their practice.

How are we teaching the form and structure of a narrative text to our students?  Are we solely teaching the plot diagram and character traits?  There is so much more to narrative than that.  How are we examining the language used to create a mood?  Can we capture events in our mind that give a sense of time and space?  How are we capturing voice? 

• Art:  apply these ideas to light, color, shape, and the mood you are trying to evoke. What story are you trying to tell? 
• Foreign Language:  what words are we putting together to share a story of our experiences? 
• Library:  how can we examine the various components of narrative through a read aloud experience? 

This last one can be examined by both specialist and supporting teachers, because it can be applied to any situation or topic.  It’s about how we use it to get the best results from our students.  Here are ways I’ve noticed specialist and supporting teachers use data handling
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• PE:  Track progress of a fitness program through daily graphing in a notebook
• Science Lab:  capture trials through a frequency table

​I feel like we embedded this process into the above examples.  The key is how are we going beyond the factual content and getting students to take more ownership of the thinking?  How are they researching with the purpose to not only obtain new information, but understand and apply it?  This can only happen through open-ended questioning, use of a variety of reflection tools and formative assessments, and specific direct instruction that creates aha moments.  

Let’s try to be better at making the ATL research skills a more vibrant part of our teaching, rather than a formulaic process of gathering information.  Research is not one-size fits all.

Welcome back my elementary friends.  Sorry for the delay the past few weeks, but I’ve been busy preparing for my school’s verification visit in less than a month.  I’ve been working crazy hours, but I’m still trying to make some time for the things I love, like being here with you and sharing more ideas. 

When I think of research skills, it’s more than looking something up on a computer or book.  It’s more about what we do with the information after we have received it.   Since it can be more labor intensive and cerebral, I think many teachers just pass it off as completing a research project.  Today, we are going to explore how we can take it a step further. 

When we are preparing the learning space for research, we need to consider our purpose.  There are several things that we can do as educators to set the stage for research to become a routine practice within our units of inquiry. 

We can…
​

• Plan transdisciplinary and subject-specific inquiries in which students can develop, apply and reflect on their research skills.
• Provide a range of tools for students to organize their research so that all stages are documented.
• Model academic integrity by providing proper citations and references for materials and ideas that are shared with students.
• Collaborate with, for example, the librarian and technology specialists
• Support students to build research skills and to learn how to identify reliable sources of information.

When I read this list, many ideas pop into my mind.  First, we need to be intentional when planning inquiries to have a research focus.  That seems obvious, right?  Not so much, if you are focused on getting content taught.  Being mindful is key with the ATLs. 

​How are we providing a range of tools, so students can research on their own and self-select based on the purpose of the inquiry?  Yikes, this sounds huge at first, but this could simply be presenting 5-7 visible thinking routines to our students and graphic organizers and teaching them how to self-select based on purpose.  Hmm...that sounds doable.  The key is to have all of these processes formally and informally documented, so the student is able to talk through it with their parents at the end of the year. 
​

When we are teaching explicit research skills, we need to teach them about reliable sources and which search engines are vetted.  Oftentimes, fake news is taken to be real.  This is our chance to teach them how to vet these sources and accredit them through proper citations.  We don’t have to do this process alone, because we have our librarian and technology specialist to lend a hand too. 

Now, what will the students be doing during this time?  Let’s take a peek at the sub-skills they will be focusing on to become more independent researchers. 
​

• Formulating and planning
• Data gathering and recording
• Synthesizing and interpreting
• Evaluating and communicating
• Media literacy
• Ethical use of media/information

Now, let’s take a deeper look at one of the ATL sub-skills

​We like to truly understand what we are learning, which is why we like to synthesize and interpret information.  If you're like me, you might do this too much.  But, this process helps us to internalize information to create meaning. 

This first one is quite deep, so I’m going to try and deconstruct to the best of my ability.  

How are we teaching the form and structure of a narrative text to our students?  Are we solely teaching the plot diagram and character traits?  There is so much more to narrative than that.  How are we examining the language used to create a mood?  Can we capture events in our mind that give a sense of time and space?  How are we capturing voice? 

An information report can be dry and formulaic.  How can we ignite passion when writing and reading these types of texts?  We can use visible thinking routines to help us look at information differently.  Use graphic organizers and other visuals to help us sort and categorize information. The possibilities are endless.

When setting up this type of text, we can use a lot of visuals to help us sort and categorize information.  We can have sequence cards to help students understand the step by step nature of this writing.  But is there more?  I think something that would be more powerful is having a sorting activity that goes to the heart of why procedural texts are important and how they organize our world. What that looks like will depend on you and your students. 

Recently, I modeled a lesson about data sets and how dot plots help us to organize and structure the information.  This was an aha for the students to know that dot plots have a purpose and they aren’t just something on a test.  Then, we applied our thinking to connect to a frequency table.  These are the connections we want to make when using data.

I feel like we embedded this process into the above examples.  The key is how are we going beyond the factual content and getting students to take more ownership of the thinking?  How are they researching with the purpose to not only obtain new information, but understand and apply it?  This can only happen through open-ended questioning, use of a variety of reflection tools and formative assessments, and specific direct instruction that creates aha moments.  

Let’s try to be better at making the ATL research skills a more vibrant part of our teaching, rather than a formulaic process of gathering information.  Research is not one-size fits all. 

Welcome back my early years friends.  Sorry for the delay the past few weeks, but I’ve been busy preparing for my school’s verification visit in less than a month.  I’ve been working crazy hours, but my head has still been a buzz with ideas regarding early years. 

When I think of our earliest learners, I naturally think of research skills.  They are naturally curious about the world around them and are constantly exploring through play.  By asking questions, testing out theories, and collaborating with others, they are researching how the world works.  This is why early years are such a magical time in school. 

As we are thinking of formal research skills, we know there are some things that teachers can do to invite this deeper thinking into the classroom.  Teachers can: 
 

• Ensure sufficient time for uninterrupted play (in responsive learning spaces) to practice and develop research skills.
• Collaborate with, for example, the librarian and technology specialists to build research skills and to help students identify sources of information.
• Model academic integrity by acknowledging where materials and ideas came from.

When I look at this list, I think about how an early years classroom and schedule are designed.  If learning “content” is the focus, then we lose out on all of the wonderings that students will answer through playful exploration. By allowing for sufficient time for uninterrupted play, our learners drive their journey through tinkering and making connections between ideas.  Isn’t this how we learn best? 

Once learners have experienced sufficient time to tinker, they are able to formulate ideas to share with others.  This is so important, so they can apply their thinking in a variety of ways to make generalizations.  As educators, we enter to model the processes, challenge misconceptions, and acknowledge where ideas come from.  

Imagine if this was your class.  Would you be excited to go to school everyday?  I certainly would.  But, when I entered the building, how would I know how to seek information on my own? 
The IB has designed the research ATLs to be the guide to this process.  Let’s take a look at the various sub-skills. 

• Formulating and planning
• Data gathering and documenting (audio recording, drawing, photographing)
• Synthesizing and interpreting
• Evaluating and communicating
• Media literacy

Just like last time, we will take a deeper look at the sub-skill criteria and see how we might break it down, so it’s easier for students to access.
​

​We like to truly understand what we are learning, which is why we like to synthesize and interpret information.  If you're like me, you might do this too much.  But, this process helps us to internalize information to create meaning.

When I am thinking of sorting and categorizing information, a thousand ways pop into my head.  Let’s take a look at a few of them that go beyond matching games or sorting into Venn diagrams. 

One of my kinder teachers presented a lesson where she was reviewing the needs of plants.  The learners were given various parts of a plant and asked to sort them onto a paper in proper sequence.  As she talked through the needs of plants, students were able to independently identify that roots were on the bottom.  When I questioned their thinking, they were able to compare the roots to our mouth drinking a glass of water. This is where we know that students are able to sort and categorize information. 

In one of my pre-kinder classes, the students were given pan scales and were asked to make predictions based on the weight of an object.  Students were given certain roles (partner A or B) and were given objects to compare.  Before the second object was placed in the pan, they were asked to verbalize their predictions using a sentence stem.  The teacher referred back to a prior activity where they learn about lighter and heavier objects.

These engagements are an example of research skills, because students are testing their ideas based on prior knowledge, making predictions, creating a test, analyzing the results, and making conclusions on their learning.  These engagements set the stage for future learning. 

My favorite engagement that comes to mind was in a kindergarten class in Germany.  The class was completing an invitation to inquiry to make predictions about the new unit. They participated in five different stations and debriefed by making connections between each station.  

In one of the stations, students were blowing air through a straw and comparing the distance that objects traveled.  Some objects used were feathers, cotton balls, and marbles to name a few.  The fascinating part was when a learner was able to articulate that the weight of an object greatly impacts how far it would go.   She could see that it took a lot of energy to move a marble and quite little to move a feather. This is a huge concept for a little child.

When we are analyzing and interpreting information, we are trying to figure out how it works and why it works that way.  This is the power of play in action to research and explore the world around us.  

I think there are endless possibilities with developing research skills through play.  It’s about if we are willing to test them out and shift our view of what “research” looks like in the early years. 

Thanks for joining, be sure to check out our next early years session in episode 54. ​