kathleen.johnston

This week I have been working with P3/4 and we have been exploring how to search and research more effectively. I believe that it is vital to make sure children become proficient in searching and researching, as this is one of the keys to effective learning. Therefore, we have spent the last couple of weeks identifying  questions which will support searching and researching-

• What do I want to find out?
• How will I find this out?
• Where will I look?
• What have I found out?

We used these questions to create a research form for the children to fill out during a research activity. In P3/4 the children were finding out about the earth, sun and moon using the research forms we had created. They used a display on space to access a variety of resources – CD Roms, DVDs, videos, websites, books and posters. They had half an hour to find out as much as they could. The research forms focussed their research and the result was that they came up with much more relevant information which they understood – it was not just copied from the internet, or from the pages of a book. They also wrote down book titles,urls etc., so that they could use the same source of information again.

During the plenary session the children said that their research was meaningful and much quicker with the research forms. They also had ownership of the forms as they had helped make them. I was impressed by the quality of information produced and could see that the children understood what they had found out. Over the next couple of weeks we will focus on how to use different sources of evidence more effectively and encourage the children to evaluate each resource on how it contributes to their research. We will also explore where to find different sources of evidence – eg. library, and how to use it.