TeachersFirst's Research Strategies
Today's students must learn the valuable skill of research and research strategies. Students will find research skills helpful for future studies and possibly their careers. Finding necessary information and resources necessitates planning, execution, and digging deep. Students must learn to raise the right questions about what they listen to, watch, or read. They should have opportunities to practice research strategies and decipher quality research from mediocre to find the best places for good resources. This collection of resources includes lesson ideas, activities, and resources for teaching research skills for all grade levels.
Click here to view our complete collection of tagged research resources. You may also be interested in our tagged list of resources about media literacy, citations, and summarizing.
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A Research Guide for Students - A Research Guide
Grades
6 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): expository writing (31), literature (217), persuasive writing (55), plagiarism (34), process writing (38), Research (83)
In the Classroom
Use this site on a projector or interactive whiteboard to discuss and informally assess prior knowledge as you start a research project. With younger students, you may want the class to go through each step together before beginning the next step. However, let gifted students work ahead. The beauty of this site is that it is great for classroom differentiation for independent work. With older students, you may want to show them the different steps and have them start where they think they need help and share examples. Be sure to post a link to the site for students and parents to access at home.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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Barat Primary Source Nexus - Barat Education Foundation
Grades
2 to 12tag(s): advertising (24), black history (123), cross cultural understanding (157), history day (40), immigration (64), journalism (72), Juneteenth (22), lincoln (60), martin luther king (43), poetry (189), presidents (121), primary sources (115), professional development (394), roosevelt (12), slavery (75), writing prompts (58)
In the Classroom
Take a look at the free professional development for using primary sources for teachers. Search for Connecting to the Common Core, where there are writing prompts for K-5 plus a link to the triangle activity. Download and use the PDF for the Thinking Triangle. Have older students research an interest and report to the class using a tool like Slides, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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All About Explorers - All About Explorers
Grades
5 to 8tag(s): explorers (64), internet safety (113), media literacy (102), webquests (21)
In the Classroom
The trick in using All About Explorers is to keep the real lesson a secret at the beginning and allow students to come to their own conclusion. Processing that "aha!" moment when students recognize that there is a hidden agenda here will have a much more lasting impression than simply telling students they cannot believe everything they read. Deep inside, students often believe they can easily tell the difference between the Truth and something that is misleading or downright false. All About Explorers will help them see how difficult that can be. They might also learn something about explorers in the process! Extend this lesson by having student groups find another suspect site and create a screencast of that "suspicious" site, pointing out characteristics that indicate an unreliable source. A tool such as Screencast-o-matic, reviewed here, or Screencastify (Chrome app), reviewed here, will allow them to create a "tour" of the fallacies they find.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Scrible - Scrible
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): citations (34), curation (35), Research (83), summarizing (22)
In the Classroom
Your students' online research will be efficient and effective with Scrible. Students can take notes on their bookmarks. They only need to bookmark the part of the website they need for their assignment. Students can collaborate with peers on their research. Post articles and documents online for your students to highlight and annotate. Bookmark this tool on your website or blog for your students to access in or outside of the classroom. Use Scrible to annotate professional development articles or to highlight important information for your students. The best part? It will instantly create your bibliography for you!How many times have we heard students complain during a group project, "But I couldn't get to his or her house to work on it?" Tell them to use Scrible to interact online. The research and conversations created through highlighting and annotating what they read can greatly enhance both their research skills and their online interaction on academic level skills. Or use the site to post and share discussion assignments on specific articles or even parts of articles using the highlighting tool. Find a relevant article to your subject. Highlight the part that you want students to read. (If students are younger, keep it short to reduce the intimidating reality of too much information for kids.) Attach a note with a discussion question for the students. Have them comment on the link in a "class discussion" as an outside assignment. If you are fortunate enough to have all students with computer access in your class and at home, such as in one to one laptop (or BYOD) program schools, you can use this essentially to run your class. Post assignments or post readings. Science teachers can post online interactive labs, and more.
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RADCAB - Steps for Online Information Evaluation - Karen M. Christensson
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): evaluating sources (28), internet safety (113), media literacy (102), Research (83), rubrics (33)
In the Classroom
Share this site and content on your interactive whiteboard or projector as you begin a project involving research. Demonstrate how to use this site before allowing students to explore on their own. Print and use the rubric available on the site. Require that students (or groups) complete the rubric on their chosen sources for research. Share a link to the site on your class website and classroom computers for easy student (and parent) reference at any time. Another idea: to enhance student learning is to assign cooperative learning groups one part of the acronym. Each group could create a presentation to share with the class about what they learned about their part of the evaluation process. Have students create online posters individually or together as a class using a tool such as Web Poster Wizard, reviewed here, or PicLits, reviewed here. Students will LOVE finding and sharing examples of "bad" sources!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Cube Creator - Read Write Think
Grades
2 to 12tag(s): back to school (63), biographies (93), firstday (22), mysteries (19), printables (37), summarizing (22), word study (58)
In the Classroom
Use the Cube Creator for virtually any lesson or activity as a substitute for a paper and pen project. Try printing on heavier card stock so cubes are durable. Create a cube to practice math problems, describe habitats, outline important story events, and much more. Have students create a cube and share with other students to practice retelling, summarizing, adding synonyms, or review for tests. Have each of your students create an All About Me cube for parents to view at Open House or to get to know each other during the first week of school. Have others guess which cube belongs to which classmate. Create a cube review game where others must answer the question that comes up when you "roll" the cube. The possibilities are endless. Challenge your gifted student(s) to create a "Who Am I?" cube about a famous person they research. Use the Bio Cube option with one variation: DO NOT include the person's real name. Share the cube as a game for the rest of the class to guess (and then create their own similar cubes). Your gifted students may also come up with new ways to Create Your Own Cube that could become a class game! Invite them to try their creativity.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Infotopia - Dr. Michael Bell and Carole Bell
Grades
2 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): search engines (50)
In the Classroom
Share this site with students in class. Have students use this site for research. Be sure to link to this site on your blog, wiki, or class website. Make this site the home page for your classroom computer.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Critical Past Stock Footage Archive - Jim and Andy Erickson
Grades
6 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): 20th century (59), afghanistan (8), africa (137), american revolution (81), china (62), europe (75), north america (14), south america (36), video (257)
In the Classroom
Use photos or videos on Critical Past to help illustrate what students are learning in history. Ask students to be "eyewitnesses" of history and watch a video before they have context for it. Students can write or blog about what they think they are witnessing. Afterward they can research the event in more depth and write a follow-up reflection on what was actually happening in the clip. Challenge your students to use a site such as Sutori, reviewed here, to create timelines of topics researched on the site. Use images from public domain sites, such as the collections, reviewed here, to illustrate the events.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Zotero - Center for History and New Media at George Mason University
Grades
8 to 12tag(s): citations (34), curation (35), evaluating sources (28), note taking (34), primary sources (115), Research (83)
In the Classroom
Depending on school computer settings, you may need to have tech support install the program for you. Use Zotero to collect and organize classroom resources. Share with older students as a resource for gathering and citing information. Demonstrate how to use the site on an interactive whiteboard or with a projector, including showing the quick-start video. One of the advanced features of the site is the creation of groups. Share this with students who may be capable of using the feature to collaborate with others.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Embracing Research - Identifying Reference Resources - TeachersFirst
Grades
1 to 8tag(s): Research (83)
In the Classroom
Mark this Help! guide in your Favorites for use and review when planning your next research project or whenever students need to "lookup" something. The resources and ideas will help every student be successful. Adapt for weaker readers by using resources or ideas from lower grades. Don't forget to look at other resources "tagged" research here on TeachersFirst.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Research Building Blocks - Read, Write, Think - International Reading Association
Grades
3 to 12tag(s): book reports (28), interactive stories (21), Research (83)
In the Classroom
View the Hints About Print interactive with your class on your interactive whiteboard (or projector) to demonstrate different concepts on choosing appropriate resources for research. If you don't have an interactive whiteboard, create a link on your classroom computers for students to view as a center. This site is perfect to use with older students who may have already done research projects as a review for choosing materials. ESL and Special Education teachers may want to use materials included in this lesson as an aid for students who have been assigned research projects.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Summarizing - Educational Development Center, Inc.
Grades
4 to 8tag(s): assessment (147), quizzes (90), reading comprehension (141), summarizing (22)
In the Classroom
Once students have completed the last quiz with this tool, ask them to create a summarizing activity from their favorite childrens book for their peers to complete. Use Quizalize, reviewed here for this activity.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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