Research Project Links Grade 5
Assignment- Part 1
Student Goal: Find, share, and present an answer to an intriguing question through a multi-genre project you present to others who would also enjoy learning the answer. Understand and share the process and content of your research in this project.
Student Expectations: Find a topic of interest to you and others on which you will develop and research an answer to the main question you have about the topic. Keep track of and reflect on your ideas, processes, and content. Transform the information into an interesting, concise, multi-genre project that you will present to and celebrate with others. Share both your process and content learning.
Definition of Multi-genre project: Investigate answers to an essential question on a topic of interest to you and others to create an information document, which synthesizes ideas from at least three text sources and one primary source (interview, survey, experiment), and which includes formatted text (titles, subtitles, content, graphics, bibliography), graphics (picture, chart, graph, diagram, flowchart, etc.), and future considerations.
Introduction
Students will create what I call "brosters:" 81/2 x 11 inch "brief posters" that include a graphic which explains the main idea, a gist statement of the main idea, and questions still needing answers.
Keep a list of your topics and check (√) the ones that interest you. Begin notebooks for your introductory prewriting and reflection that include sections at this time for
a) topic list,
b) brosters,
c) quick-writes,
d) reflections.
The reflections will answer the questions:
1) I chose this topic because...;
2) My partner helped me by ...;
3) I am/am not still interested in this topic because...;
4) This reminds me of other topics of interest, which are: ___.
Ideas
a. What world events concerned you this year?
b. What local events concerned you this year?
c. What school events concerned you this year?
d. If you were in charge of the world, what would you change to help the world?
e. If you were the President, what would you do to help our country?
f. If you were the mayor, what would you do to help your town?
g. If you were tribal chairman, what would you do to help your tribe?
h. If you were ASB President, what would you do to help your school?
i. Look over your answers to questions a - h. Which one interests you the most?
j. What information would you need to learn about those interests? List the interest and the information you would need.
k. What hobbies do you have?
l. What questions do you have about your hobbies?
m. What people do you admire and why?
n. Which person would you like to know more about and why?
o. Another site to find topics: http://www.sunrae.org/lesson/ww.htm Complete quick-writes and ask questions to discuss the information with peers
p. From questions i-n & o, list possible topics, events, or people you would like to study and why.
Topic Selection
1. Begin a preliminary research and sharing of the topic. First, narrow the topic, by asking questions: Who, what, when, where, why, how, which... questions are asked about the topic until you reach a narrow enough topic to begin research.
2. Keep track of your sources:
Student Sheet
Citation:
Annotation of Source Topic:
Evidence of validity:
__ Up-to-date
__ Credentials:
__ Important facts
__ Peer reviews
__ Lack of bias
__ Fair
__ Bibliography
Plan
3. Make a plan: 
studentplan.doc
What is the intent? What do you INTEND to do? Explain what you intend to do, how you will do it, what information will be gathered, how will you record information?
What do you intend?
Who is the information for?
What is your plan?
What resources and materials do you need?
~What will you read?
~What will you experience?
~What are the thoughts of people?
~What visuals will help?
How will you gather the information?
How will you order your quest?
How will you record your data?
KWQE
3. Create KWQE Charts from their preliminary research: 
kwqe.pdf
K What do I already know?
W What do I want to know?
Q What "Big Questions" do I want answered (categories from 'W')
E Who else would want to know this?
5. Share your work with a partner.
Share with partner/trios with "AEIOU:"
An idea on my topic is:
Everyone else's ideas are:
In my source, the ideas are:
Other ideas and connections are:
Understandings I now have are:
6. Determine possible products for sharing: broster, web page, wiki-page, PowerPoint, alphabet book, newspaper format (sports, feature, editorial, news), magazine article, brochure, pamphlet, advertisement, public service announcement, game, graph, chart, diagram, cartoon, comic, etc.
Topic Links
Dragons
Metropolitan Museum of Art http://www.metmuseum.org/explore/justforfun.asp
Scroll down, or maybe you'll find something else to learn about
Ask students what they notice about the animal in the picture, and let them know that this carving was made more than a thousand years ago in Korea. Roll the cursor over the image and select a highlighted area to learn more about each part of the dragon. Source: http://edsitement.neh.gov/view_lesson_plan.asp?id=244
Dragon Background:
- In tales that feature dragons, the dragon usually has a green, black, gold, or red body and can breathe fire. Different stories explained that dragons might have one or more heads.
- People believed that the bodies of dragons had special powers. For example, some stories told of a powder made from the eyes of a dragon that could make bad dreams stop. Other stories explained that if you planted the teeth of a dragon, they would grow overnight into an army of men.
- Some dragons are friendly to human beings. In China, for example, people used to believe that dragons sent the rain each spring so people's crops would grow and they would have food to eat. Other dragons were mean and greedy. Some of them slept on big piles of gold with one eye open so they can catch anyone who tries to steal their treasure. People who took the dragons' gold would actually turn into dragons themselves.
- Western cultures described dragons with wings for flight; eastern cultures described dragons with no wings and the ability to fly in more magical ways.
- Source: http://edsitement.neh.gov/view_lesson_plan.asp?id=244
Unicorns
http://www.metmuseum.org/Works_Of_Art/department.asp?dep=7
Ask students what they notice about the animal in the picture. Let them know that this famous picture was created 500 years ago in the Netherlands and is called "The Unicorn in Captivity." Explain what the word "captivity" means and ask them to discuss why someone would want to capture a unicorn.
Source: http://edsitement.neh.gov/view_lesson_plan.asp?id=244
Create Your Own Magical Creature
http://www.moma.org/momalearning/artsafari/index.html
On the left side of the next page, click on "Make Your Own Art." Choose "Fantastic Animals" from the list that appears on the following page; Henri Rousseau's painting The Sleeping Gypsy will appear on screen. After viewing the image, click on the area at the bottom of the screen to access the computer graphics program.
Ask Asia
http://www.askasia.org/features/VISIBLE_TRACES/myexhibit/exhibitworkplan.pdf
Create your own exhibit of magical creatures by downloading the directions above. Check out the information about Asia at: http://www.askasia.org/features/VISIBLE_TRACES/exhibit.html
"Welcome, Art Exhibitor. To design your own Visible Traces gallery exhibition, select a topic, such as politics, religion, calligraphy, animals, or clothing, or a specific medium of work, such as rubbings, paintings, or maps. Your exhibition can cover many centuries, or it can focus on a single time period. Explore the Visible Traces online exhibition to download or print images for your exhibition and then post them in a room to create a gallery space, or compile them in a booklet to share."
Asia Exhibition at: http://www.askasia.org/features/VISIBLE_TRACES/exhibit.html
Ask Asia Page: http://www.askasia.org/students/
Folklore
Folklore: http://www.americanfolklore.net/
Beatrice Potter
The Tale of Peter Rabbit http://wiredforbooks.org/kids/beatrix/p1.htm
Squirrel Nutkin http://wiredforbooks.org/kids/beatrix/sn1.htm
The Bad Mice http://wiredforbooks.org/kids/beatrix/bm0.htm
The Fierce Rabbit http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=PotBadR.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public∂=1&division=div1
Write about a time when they were naughty but learned a lesson from what they did wrong. Ask them to describe what they did and why they did it, what the consequences were, and what they learned from the experience.
Write and illustrate your own naughty animal story! Use the story- planning chart, provided in pdf format, so that you can outline the important elements of your stories before beginning to write. Plan where their illustrations will go in your stories.
Source: http://edsitement.neh.gov/view_lesson_plan.asp?id=386
Ancient World Cultures & Myths
Note-taking guide: http://www.pbs.org/mythsandheroes/NotetakingGuide.pdf
What is a myth: http://www.pbs.org/mythsandheroes/myths_what.html
Living Legends Quiz: http://www.pbs.org/mythsandheroes/legends.html
Four Powerful Myths: http://www.pbs.org/mythsandheroes/
Jason: http://www.mythweb.com/heroes/jason/
http://mmtaylor.net/Holiday2000/Legends/Jason.html
Golden Fleece: http://www.classicsunveiled.com/mythnet/html/quest.html
Source: In Search of Myths and Heroes PBS companion site to the program http://www.pbs.org/mythsandheroes
World Cultures:
http://eawc.evansville.edu/index.htm Click on a picture at the top of the page.
Greeks and Romans: http://www.springfield.k12.il.us/schools/southeast/pprojects/
http://baldwinets.tripod.com/persephone.htmMythWeb http://www.mythweb.com/Myth: http://www.wingedsandals.com/What did you learn? Choose one of the project from this page to share your learning: http://members.aol.com/leesixthgrade/mythology.html#mythologyLots of information !