SOCIALS STUDIES CBAS COMMON RESEARCH STEPS

Teacher Librarians have used a research process for years:

• Big6   Mike Eisenberg and Bob Berkowitz ( trademarked name)  Kids' version of  Big6

• Wenatchee School District implementation ideas
  

• Research Cycle    Jamie McKenzie

• Implentation by Bellingham School District-- online research
  

• Information Literacy Skills at Bellevue School District

• Information Search Process Tools- wiki

The steps are similar to the common elements of the Social Studies Classroom Based Assessments.

We are suggesting some tools to help students become more proficient in each stage of the process

A checklist of these steps is modified by Eve Datisman

Essential Question:

• Galileo Info Network Canadian site with inquiry learning examples and good explanations
  

• Questioning.org Module Maker- online lessons and examples of effective questions by Jamie McKenzie
  

• Thesis Builder- fill in the the form to make a thesis by Tom March
  

• Thesis Generator ideas about the key points of thesis making by Joyce Valenza
  

• Overarching questions in Social Studies (UBD style) samples

• use define:"your word without quotation marks " on Google
• Visual Thesaurus- only the first few are free (but inexpensive tool for web access or on cd)

• InfoPlease Social Studies concepts (caution pop-ups!)

• Statewide Databases- school and public libraries- Proquest, elibrary, Culturegrams
  Including Cobblestone, Calliope, Social Education and more in full text
• Cobblestone provides free index of their journals (Cobblestone, Calliope, Faces and more) and inexpensive annual fee for fulltext access
  
• Online Readability Check- enter the MS Word document or URL for a quick readability check http://www.readability.info
• Lexiles is the current method of estimating reading http://www.lexile.com of Dept. of Education
• Web site evaluation from Barbara Jansen St. Andrews, Texas
  
• Detailed web evaluation questions from Berkeley Library
  

• Graphic organizers like Inspiration and Kidspiration ( for purchase) Webinspiration  requires free account
  

• Mindomo.com- new free online organizer

• Read/Write/think organizer- make online and then print

• Ideas about note-taking and synthesis from Big6.com

• Online note taker from Read Write Think

• Note Star part of 4teachers.org, (requires sign up)

• Timeline Generator from Read Write Think

• Blank Timeline form (excel spreadsheet template) from Trish Henry Prairie View Elem. Mead School District
  

• S.M.A.R.T worksheet- middle school time management and accountability for research from teacher Dawn Wood of Foothills Middle School, Wenatchee School District

• Research Paper Organizer- Barbara Jansen St. Andrews , Texas

• Persuadestar part of 4teachers.org, requires sign up
• Graphic organizer for arguments for persuasive paper Read/Write Think
• Standards for group discussions MCREL standards

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• Web page poster part of 4 teachers.org, (requires sign up)
• Annotated Bibliography
  • Oregon OSLIS Citatation- Elementary and Secondary
  • Noodlebib Express (free) and Noodlebib (subscription account) http://www.noodletools.com
  • Citation Machine
  • Knight Cite