Secondary Library Media (6-12)
Lesson Plans

Strand 3:

Identifying, evaluating, and selecting sources

Standard 1:

Determine a wide range of general and specific sources.

• Career Research - Biography
  This is a lesson plan regarding middle school research. Students first complete their career research (different lesson plan). Next they complete this lesson which is completing a biography on an important person in their chosen career.  Picture taken by Jann Leishman  
• Choosing Research Topics: Plate Tectonics
  Students will read from selected materials about earthquakes, volcanoes, continental features, ocean floor features, rocks and/or fossils, and develop a question to investigate.
• Genius Hour
  This lesson has been created to use with a 6th grade class. The format is a genius hour format. Students will be choosing a topic on a current event and researching that current event. They will create an infographic using Adobe Spark that shows the inforamation they found.The graphic for the cover page was created by Jean Robinson using Canva.
• Puzzles, not Pieces: Smart Searching (Day 3 of 5)
  This is day three of a five day unit teaching students strong research skills for a "white paper" style research paper (can be modified for any pro­con research assignment). For the purpose of this assignment, the white paper is an argumentative piece which introduces a problem and argues a solution to that problem. In this team­taught lesson, students will continue to learn that researching is not a linear process. Students will learn to adjust their topic based on what information is available (with their pre­search). Focus will be on finding good search terms and thinking outside of the box to gather evidence.
• Puzzles, not Pieces: Topic Selection (Day 1 of 5)
  This is Day 1 of a 5 day unit teaching students strong research skills for a "white paper" style research paper (can be modified for any pro-con research assignment).For the purpose of this assignment, the white paper is an argumentative piece which introduces a problem and argues a solution to that problem.In this team­-taught unit of 5 lessons, students will learn that researching is not a linear process. They will use "pre­search" to help them test, adjust, or even abandon viable topics from their brainstorming. They will learn to narrow ideas to smaller, researchable concepts.
• Puzzles, not Pieces: Topic Selection (Day 2 of 5)
  This is Day 2 of a 5 day unit teaching students strong research skills for a "white paper" style research paper (can be modified for any pro-­con research assignment). For the purpose of this assignment, the white paper is an argumentative piece which introduces a problem and argues a solution to that problem.In this team­ taught lesson, students will learn that researching is not a linear process. They will use "pre­search" to help them test, adjust, or even abandon viable topics from their brainstorming. They will learn to narrow ideas to smaller, researchable concepts.
• Social Media and the Stand Against Fake News
  This is a 5 day unit about validating sources on the internet and social media.  It is taught so that students understand and respect the obligations of using social media wisely before sharing and the importance of giving credit to creators through citing sources.  It is a blended unit with a final project to be done in Apple's Keynote where students will show what they have learned in a slide show to other students in the class. They will be able to practice what they learn in class and become better at research, validating sources, and spotting fake news. Image citation - ?Say Thanks to Pxhere - Free Images & Free Stock Photos - Pxhere.? Pxhere.com, https://pxhere.com/en/photo/1361501.
• Tech Fun Friday Project
  *This lesson plan is adaptable for various projects involving technology.  This is a general lesson plan used for our Tech Fun Fridays. Students who are caught up in all core classes and not missing any assignemnts are given time to do their own research on a topic that they are interested in. They must conduct research, create a presentation to compile their research, cite sources, create a project (3D printing, animation, etc.), carry about that project including taking and editing photos of their final project to include at the end of their presentation and then practice their public speaking by presenting to the class. (This covers many core standards depending on what grade you teach. Please reference the standards you are working with to determine which ones fit this lesson.)

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