Research Process

Directions to Students

  Scenario

The Renaissance Festival has been a popular attraction during the summer months up and down the East Coast and in other parts of the United States. The company that created this traveling show is now planning to develop a new show with the Middle Ages as its backdrop. The developers are interested in making this new show more educational than entertaining and more historically accurate. They hope to showcase the groups and institutions of the time period that most influenced the medieval European culture.

The company plans to have various booths at the fair which represent these influences. They have invited historians (the members of your class) to submit plans for individual booths. The overall purpose of each booth will be to provide rich details about and an answer to the following question:

How did a particular group or institution influence the culture during the Middle Ages?

Task and Product

You and three to four other members of your class will form a small committee that will be responsible for a single booth on a selected topic. Possible topics (and subtopics) for the booths include the following:

After completing your research, you will use your findings to create a proposal for a booth for the company's fair. Your proposal may take the form of any of the following products:

• Power Point presentation
• video
• oral report with visuals (display, poster, overhead transparencies, slides, etc.)

Assessments

You will be graded on your daily work on the research process as well as on your final product(s).

Research process assessments:

• Daily (Formative)
• Research Process - Summative (Student/Self)
• Research Process - Summative (Teacher)

Final product assessment:

• PowerPoint presentation: Word document format or Web Page
• Video: Word document format or Web Page
• Oral Report with Visuals:Word document format or Web Page

Question

Essential Question:

How did a particular group or institution influence the culture during the Middle Ages?

Subsidiary questions: You will need to develop questions in order to answer the essential question. For example, for the topic of the feudal system, your questions might be similar to the following:

• What is the feudal system?
• How did it develop?
• Why was it important for the society of the Middle Ages?
• Who were the members of this system? What were their roles?
• How did the members of the feudal system interact with each other?
• What impact or contribution did the medieval feudal system have on life today?

This link provides ideas for additional graphic organizers that may be helpful in brainstorming additional questions and/or to plan and organize your research.

Gather and Sort

Gather information from a variety of sources.

You may use this graphic organizer for your notetaking. Use it as a Word document or Web page.

You may prefer to use note cards. For help with using note cards, click here.

This link provides ideas for additional graphic organizers that may be helpful in brainstorming additional questions and/or to plan and organize your research.

Keep track of your resources. You will use them to create a works cited sheet or bibliography.

To avoid risking plagiarism, properly paraphrase and quote in your writing.

Organize

Analyze your research notes to determine if you have answered all of your questions adequately as well as the essential question for your particular group or institution.

Synthesize your findings by creating a first draft of your proposal. Consider the following questions as you prepare your first draft.

• Which facts would offer your audience the clearest and most accurate picture of your particular group or institution and its influence on the culture of the Middle Ages?
• Were some contributions more important than others? Why?
• Did some contributions have a lasting effect on the culture of Europeans long after the end of the Middle Ages?

Evaluate the effectiveness of your research for the task.

• Have you gathered sufficient details about your topic?
• Have you included details that describe the contributions AND reflect upon the effect such contributions had upon society during the Middle Ages and possibly beyond?
• Are your details organized in the right categories or sub-topics to make sense for your audience?
• Are you ready to create your product?

Conclusion

Use your graphic organizer and/or note cards to prepare your booth proposal. Refer back to your product assessment to ensure that you meet all of the requirements.

Remember that you must include rich details about your topic. You should also include not only the cultural contributions that were made but also how those contributions affected society during the Middle Ages.

Presentation

Follow your teacher's directions for presentation of your booth proposal. Each committee will present its proposal to the class which will represent the Company's board of directors. The "board members" will decide which four proposals will be accepted for inclusion in the new Medieval Fair.

As the audience members listen to each committee present its proposal for a booth, they should note on this form the contributions that were made by each particular group or institution and the effects those contributions had, both short and long term. After all committees have presented, you will be asked to vote to accept four booth proposals. You must be able to defend your selections by stating what contributions were made, the effects of those contributions and why those contributions should be showcased and highlighted.

Reflection

After each committee has presented its booth proposal, meet as a class and share the cultural contributions that were made by all groups and institutions. As a class, reflect not only on what theses contributions were but also the lasting impact they had, if any, on European society specifically and on the world in general.

In a well organized paragraph, discuss how life/society might have been different if those contributions had not been made.