Research Building Blocks for Elementary Classrooms

NCTE's ReadWriteThink site offers a series of lessons that illustrates what research looks like in the elementary classroom. These six Research Building Blocks lessons step students through the process of finding sources, exploring information in those sources, gathering details, and citing the sources that they use.

• Hints about Print demonstrates how to examine texts to determine their relevance and helpfulness for a research project.
  
  
• Skim, Scan, and Scroll discusses the reading strategies that students can use as they look for supporting details to assist them in a research project.
  
  
• Notes, Quotes, and Fact Fragments explores the process of finding the words in sentences and paragraphs that contain the facts students need for their research.
  
  
• Examining Electronic Sources asks students to examine and rate the relevance of electronic sources.
  
  
• "Organize This!" focuses students' efforts on how to arrange the information they have compiled during their research.
  
  
• "Cite Those Sources!" discusses plagiarism and the importance of citing their sources.

ReadWriteThink invites high school teachers to submit their teaching ideas for research on the Web. All of the lessons should be of top quality and based on NCTE and IRA's Standards for the English Language Arts. If you are interested in this professionally and personally rewarding project, please fill out the online interest form.