Research and Investigation Guides

Provides scaffolding to support student inquiry learning, including links to interactive tutorials and resources for each process step.

Secondary (6-12) Information Literacy Process Model and Interactive Research Guide

Time Frame

Allow 3 weeks for students to read their selected biographies. Sign out the computer lab for 3-4 days to allow students to create their digital presentations.

Notes to the Teacher

• Collaborate with your School Library Media Specialist for integration of 21st Century skills instruction.
• To facilitate the collaborative nature of this project, consider creating a project-based wiki or using another Web 2.0 tool (VoiceThread, MindMeister, Groupsite.com, etc.) as a collaborative workspace. See your Library Media Specialist for help, or visit the BCPS Resource Wiki for Software, Assistive Technologies, Web 2.0 Tools, Digital Content, and Resources.
• Before you have students use Web 2.0 tools such as Museum Box, Animoto, VoiceThread, or MovieMaker, see your library media specialist as you may have to set up student accounts, etc.
• Answers to the quiz on "Notes on Biography" are:
  1. a
  2. b
  3. a
  4. b
  5. b
  6. b
  7. a

Supplemental Teaching Resources

• Safari Montage - search your school's Safari Montage server for videos and other media.
• BCPS Office of Library Information Services: Reference Desk, Resource Wiki for Software, Assistive Technologies, Web 2.0 Tools, Digital Content, and Resources, Podcasting: Learning To Go, Video to Go
• Promethean Planet - search for interactive flipcharts (free account).
• Teacher's Domain - search for digital media (free account).
• Thinkport - interactive media, tools, lessons, and links from MPT.

Curriculum Standards Alignment

BCPS Curriculum for
Grade 7 Language Arts
(BCPS)

Grade 7 Language Arts - Unit: Nonfiction

• Students will read, comprehend, interpret, analyze, and evaluate informational texts.
  • Analyze important ideas and messages in informational text
    • Identify and explain the author's text's purpose and intended audience
    • Distinguish between a fact and an opinion
    • Explain how someone might use text
  • Read critically to evaluate informational text
    • Analyze the text and its information for reliability
    • Analyze the author's argument or position for clarity and/or bias

Maryland State Curriculum for Grade 7 Language Arts
(MSDE)

Standard 2.0 Comprehension of Informational Text
1. Apply comprehension skills by selecting, reading, and interpreting a variety of print and non-print informational texts, including electronic media.
4.Analyze important ideas and messages in informational texts.
5.Analyze purposeful use of language.
6.Read critically to evaluate informational text.

Standard 4.0 Writing
1.Compose texts using the prewriting and drafting strategies of effective writers and speakers.
2.Compose oral, written, and visual presentations that express personal ideas, inform, and persuade.
7.Locate, retrieve, and use information from various sources to accomplesh a purpose.

Standard 6.0 Listening
1.Apply and demonstrate listening skills appropriately in a variety of settings and for a variety of purposes.

Maryland Technology Literacy Standards for Students
(MSDE)

College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Reading
Key Ideas and Details:
1. Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.
2. Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas.
3. Analyze how and why individuals, events, or ideas develop and interact over the course of a text.
Craft and Structure:
4. Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone.
5. Analyze the structure of texts, including how specific sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text (e.g., a section, chapter, scene, or stanza) relate to each other and the whole.
6. Assess how point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of a text.
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas:
7. Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse formats and media, including visually and quantitatively, as well as in words.
9. Analyze how two or more texts address similar themes or topics in order to build knowledge or to compare the approaches the authors take.
Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity
10. Read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts independently and proficiently.
College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Writing
Text Types and Purposes:
2. Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.
and well-structured event sequences.
Production and Distribution of Writing:
4. Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
5. Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach.
6. Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and to interact and collaborate with others.
Research to Build and Present Knowledge:
7. Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects based on focused questions, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.
8. Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, assess the credibility and accuracy of each source, and integrate the information while avoiding plagiarism.
9. Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.
Range of Writing:
10. Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of tasks, purposes, and audiences.

National Educational Technology Standards for Students
(ISTE)

Standards for the 21st-Century Learner
(AASL)

1.1.1 Follow an inquiry-based process in seeking knowledge in curricular subjects, and make the real-world connection for using this process in own life.
1.1.6 Read, view, and listen for information presented in any format (e.g. textual visual, media, digital) in order to make inferences and gather meaning.
2.1.1 Continue an inquiry-based research process by applying critical-thinking skills (analysis, synthesis, evaluation, organization) to information and knowledge in order to construct new understandings, draw conclusions, and create new knowledge.
2.1.2 Organize knowledge so that it is useful.
2.1.6 Use the writing process, media and visual literacy, and technology skills to create products that express new understandings.
3.1.1 Conclude an inquiry-based research process by sharing new understandings and reflecting on the learning.
3.1.6 Use information and technology ethically and responsibly.