Members of the MiddleWeb Discussion List and other interested
teachers are joining together to explore the Writing Workshop
and other ideas about supporting young adolescent writers and
readers. Juli Kendall, a reading-writing teacher/coach in Long
Beach, California, is helping moderate the discussion. Juli also
posts a weekly journal entry from her reading/writing classroom.
This year, Juli will focus on her efforts to integrate subject
matter into her reading and writing workshop approach. In her
first journal of the year, she explains
the rationale behind this move and some of her thinking about
how she hopes to accomplish this goal.
Find out more about our project at our Reading/Writing
Workshop homepage. You'll find Juli's background article here. Links to many of the tools created
by Juli and her colleagues are embedded in these journals. Most
often, when you click on them, a PDF file will begin to download.
You'll find a list of the downloads here.
If you'd like to join the daily discussion that parallels Juli's
Journals, find out how here.
"In the end after all the hard work is over, research projects are lots of fun."
-- Edgar, an aspiring 5th grade meteorologist, voices his opinion of research and inquiry projects.
First came whole class research projects in Journal
#22, "Our 'Bloody' Investigation!"
Then came small group projects in Journal
#24, "Nonfiction Investigations: Using Research Skills
in a Content Area."
Now, it's time for our individual inquiry and research projects
about science topics.
Until the end of school, we'll be doing independent Nonfiction
Inquiry Projects. To scaffold the learning through the year, I
intentionally designed whole group projects, then small group
projects, and finally, these independent projects. In this way,
I gradually release responsibility to the kids for their learning,
a little at a time.
During whole group projects, we all work together in a lockstep
fashion to learn how to do research. During small group projects,
more responsibility is released to students to allow them to grow
as researchers and investigators. By placing individual projects
last, kids use the skills they have developed to work on their
own projects and assume even more responsibility for their learning.
In this way, over time, we realize our goal of creating independent,
lifelong learners.
For Week 1, my goal is to get students thinking of possible topics
and asking questions. To keep it tied to the science standards,
we base our projects on five "Big Ideas" from our state
science standards. We use these big ideas as an umbrella to make
sure that we are covering the science content at the same time
that the kids have a choice about which question they want to
investigate. Here are the "Big Ideas":
Systems in Living Things
The Big Idea p; The structures within living things are
organized into systems.
The Solar System and Beyond
The Big Idea p; Earth is part of a solar system of planets
circling a star in one of the many galaxies of stars in the universe.
The Nature of Matter
The Big Idea p; All matter is made up of tiny particles
that are in constant motion; changes in matter always involve
changes in energy.
Water on Earth
The Big Idea p; Water, an essential natural resource,
must be conserved and kept clean.
Weather and Climate
The Big Idea p; The weather on Earth is always changing.
Before we begin, I borrow a "Research Timeline for First
Inquiry Projects" from page 194 in Nonfiction Matters
by Stephanie Harvey. It helps me get organized. Here's what
it says about week one of a ten-week unit of study for Inquiry
Projects.
Week 1 p; Teacher has proper resources in place. The classroom is filled with ample nonfiction text from the school library, the public library, and her own collection. A wide range of genres is represented: magazines, newspapers, trade books, CD-ROMS. Teacher sows seeds, whets student appetites. Gets them thinking of possible topics. Shares own passions, collections, and possibilities for study.
To get things started, I share my own research process with the
kids. I pick "Water on Earth" as my topic. I talk to
them about "the Big Idea" -- that water is an essential
resource that must be conserved and kept clean. For an opportunity
to do " independent research," I give students sheets
of wax paper and droppers and suggest they place drops of water
on the paper. Then I ask them to describe the water drops. They
are really surprised to see how round the drops can be. Next,
we add tiny drops of liquid soap to the water to "pollute"
it and describe what happens. As the water drops spread out all
over the wax paper, making a mess, they are amazed at the difference
adding the soap makes. (The big payoff from this experiment is
that, after we finish mopping up, the table is really clean!)
My next step is to pick my research question. "How can water
be kept clean?" Then we do an activity demonstrating how
pollutants travel. The idea is to make a soil model and discover
how pollution can "seep" into ground water.
Procedure (from Houghton Mifflin Science Discovery Works,
pages D54 and D55):
--Make a model of a soil profile. Use a piece of cotton cloth
to cover the small opening of the top section of a 1 liter plastic
bottle that has been cut in half. Secure the cloth with a rubber
band.
--Turn the top section of the bottle upside down and set it in
the bottom section of the bottle. Put sand in the top section
to a depth of about 6 cm. Then add about 6 cm of soil on top of
the sand. You have made a model soil profile.
--Add five or six drops of food coloring to the soil. Then sprinkle
about 5 mL of salt crystals on the soil.
--Use a graduate to measure about 250 mL of water. Slowly pour
the water over the surface of the soil. Observe the liquid that
collects in the bottom section of the bottle. Record your observations
in your Science Notebook.
--Use a dropper to place three drops of tap water on a microscope
slide. Place three drops of liquid from the bottom section of
the bottle on another slide. Observe the liquid on each slide.
Record your observations.
--Allow the liquid on each slide to evaporate. Then compare the
slides and record your observations.
We'll spend the next few days analyzing the results from our research
about clean water and also check out some other resources. Here
are a few:
Sources for information about local water
Local water utility
State Water Project (SWP)
Sate Department of Water Resources
Laws
The Clean Water Act, 1972 (federal)
The Safe Drinking Water Act, 1986, (federal)
The Porter-Cologne Act (state, California)
Videos
Bill Nye, the Science Guy: "Wetlands" (Disney Educational
Productions)
This video explains how wetlands naturally purify the water that
passes through them.
Books
The Nature and Science of Rain by Jane Burton and Kim Taylor
(Gareth Stevens, 1998)
Water Up, Water Down, The Hydrologic Cycle by Sally M.
Walker, (Carolrhoda Books, 1992)
Internet Resources --
"The Water
Sourcebook Series" comes as pdf files.
http://www.epa.gov/OGWDW/kids/exper.html
The International Boundary
and Water Commission
http://www.ibwc.state.gov/
USGS Water Science for
Schools
http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/
Deserts of the
World
http://www.livingdesert.org/nowater.htm
Water Resources-Los Angeles
Aqueduct, Owens Valley, and Mono Lake
http://tinyurl.com/2mqz9
US Environmental Protection
Agency -- Water for Kids
http://www.epa.gov/kids/water.htm
"Water
Use: Tragedy in the Owens River Valley" -- a very advanced
lesson plan-actually geared to high school, but fascinating stuff!
http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/lesson_plans/lesson08.htm
This website by the
publisher Houghton Mifflin has a collection of resources that
match our "Big Ideas." It also has lots of other ideas
and information like a monthly theme, this month it is "Space"
and includes links to "Space Day Activities," and a
selection of current events.
Truth be told. I picked the topic of clean water because I didn't
think anyone else would. But in the process of modeling how to
do independent inquiry, all of us learn about the importance of
clean water and that's a very important lesson.
SEE Juli's Curriculum Map
for Research Projects - Unit 5
Read next week's journal
Read last week's journal
Read Juli's backgrounder about her work
Back to Juli's journal index
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