Citing+Sources+-+Abby+Kellogg

Citing sources and paraphrasing fit into the Standards for the 21st Century Learner in the following standards: 1.3.1 Respect copyright/intellectual property rights of creators and producers. 1.3.3 Follow ethical and legal guidelines in gathering and using information. 3.1.6 Use information and technology ethically and responsibly. Citing sources and paraphrasing fit into the Language Arts standards in the following indicators: 6.4.5 Use note-taking skills when completing research for writing. 6.5.3 Research Application: Write or deliver a research report that has been developed using a systematic research process (defines the topic, gathers information, determines credibility, reports findings) and that: • uses information from a variety of sources (books, technology, multimedia) and documents sources independently by using a consistent format for citations. • demonstrates that information that has been gathered has been summarized. • demonstrates that sources have been evaluated for accuracy, bias, and credibility. • organizes information by categorizing and sequencing, and demonstrates the distinction between one's own ideas from the ideas of others, and includes a bibliography (Works Cited). 11.5.10 Research Application: Write or deliver a research report that has been developed using a systematic research process (defines the topic, gathers information, determines credibility, reports findings) and that: • uses information from a variety of sources (books, technology, multimedia), distinguishes between primary and secondary documents, and documents sources independently by using a consistent format for citations. • synthesizes information gathered from a variety of sources, including technology and one's own research, and evaluates information for its relevance to the research questions. • demonstrates that information that has been gathered has been summarized, that the topic has been refined through this process, and that conclusions have been drawn from synthesizing information. • demonstrates that sources have been evaluated for accuracy, bias, and credibility. • incorporates numeric data, charts, tables, and graphs. • organizes information by classifying, categorizing, and sequencing, and demonstrates the distinction between one's own ideas from the ideas of others, and includes a bibliography (Works Cited). For the final assessment of the unit, the students will be covering many other of the content area standards as well as many others of the Standards for the 21st Century Learners. However, these are the main focus for my lesson. Audience 1: The first set of students are in 6th grade in a rural middle school. Class sizes in Language Arts classes this year range from 25 – 32. This is a relatively poor area, although they seem to be able to find the money for things that are important to the community. They recently have begun a partnership with a school in China and several teachers and students will be taking a trip to China next school year. The relatively new robotics program has received state and national awards and will be attending the world competition in April. However, technology in this district is lacking. There are approximately 8 projectors in a school which employs about 32 teachers, six of which belong to the science department exclusively. There are two buildings in this school, the newest of which was built about six years ago. While many of the teachers have been able to acquire laptop computers through textbook adoption (all teachers have a desktop computer in their classrooms), the buildings are not wired for wireless internet or wireless network, so they must still be connected to a wall. There also is only one internet port per classroom, unless a work order is submitted and the other ones in the room activated. There are student computers in some classrooms, but many. There is one computer lab per grade level; however, there are only 30 computers in the lab, and the computers are quite old, so many do not work randomly. With issues with computers not working and more than 30 students in many classes, working in a computer lab can be frustrating. The media center in this school has 8 computers. The non-fiction section of the media center still has books dating back to the mid 70s, which isn’t always bad, but sometimes accounts for information that needs to be updated. The technology skills that the students have learned in school up to this point have mainly focused on typing and that usually on a typing program. This can make typing in a Word document difficult since they do not know how to properly set up a page, use the tab and enter buttons. Many of the students do not have computers at home, so all word processing must be done during class time. Some of them may have some information literacy experiences, but many of them most likely do not. I am impressed with their ability to use the OPAC and find books in the library. They are pretty efficient at using dictionaries and encyclopedias, so I am assuming that most of their elementary library experiences focus on those types of skills. Technology motivates them greatly. They are so excited to have the opportunity to get on a computer that they will do pretty much anything you ask of them as long as it involves being on a computer at some point. Therefore, I want to give them the opportunity to be on the computer during this unit, but because of the shortage of computers, I will also need them to use books, magazines, and encyclopedias as well. In order to connect this to the real world, the students will first be reading articles and books of their choice, to learn paraphrasing and how to cite a source. Then, later, they will be researching a form of severe weather and what to do if caught in that severe weather. Audience 2: The junior level students are in the same community as the 6th graders, so the rural, lack-of-technology description still fits. These juniors would still have been taught by the former middle school media specialist, who focused completely on encyclopedia, almanac, atlas, and dictionary skills in her library lessons. Some of the middle school teachers do a decent job of incorporating technology and some information literacy skills into their classroom; however, some students may not have the privilege of having those teachers, so we may still encounter several students who are very information illiterate. This is where scaffolding will be essential. Also, when it comes to the skill of citing sources, many teachers do not require a formal, MLA style documentation. By their junior year, college-bound students should be learning how to do this properly in order to prepare for college. When I introduce this to them, I talk about the importance of knowing how to do this for college and that is usually all the motivation that they need to connect it to “real life” and apply themselves to learning the material. The classroom teacher and media specialist would be co-teaching this unit. The classroom teacher would be teaching the mini lessons on paraphrasing while the media specialist will be working primarily on teaching citing sources. They will work together on conferencing with students throughout the process and on evaluating student work. They will also work together on developing any other scaffolding lessons that need to be presented throughout the unit. For the sixth grade unit, we will also be collaborating with the science teacher as they are studying severe weather in science class and will be doing their informative paper on such. 6th grade: In the sixth grade classes, I will expect that the classroom teacher will teach/review paraphrasing skills with the students before bringing them to the library to begin this unit. We will have planned this unit together, so that will be her introduction to the unit itself. While in the library, we will be working on first learning how to cite sources. I will show them what a bibliography page looks like in an academic article. We will also conduct some activities about WHY a bibliography is necessary and then on HOW to do the bibliography itself. We will spend time with books, magazines, encyclopedias, and with articles from online databases to create bibliographies. We will use manipulatives to move the information and punctuation into the correct places without all the hassles of erasing and rewriting. Then, the students will practice it on their own using the attached worksheet (Citing Sources and Paraphrasing Practice). They will be able to choose a non-fiction book, magazine article, encyclopedia article, and article from a database on any topic they choose. Once they have a grasp on the concept of paraphrasing and citing sources, they will begin researching a severe weather topic of their choosing (hurricane, blizzard, tornado, tsunami, etc). They are going to write a short report citing their sources on the severe weather topic that they choose and how to react if caught in such a weather situation. While they are going through the inquiry process, the language arts teacher, science teacher and media specialist will be conferencing with the students to see where they are in the process and to see what other mini-lessons need to be taught as we go. The science teacher won’t be in the media center with us as we are doing the project, but she will be checking in with the students during her class time with them and working on the content area portions with them. 11th grade: Once again, I would expect the classroom teacher to cover some of the teaching and reviewing how to paraphrase. I will go over the specifics of how to cite sources. I may even do some of the same activities with manipulatives for putting the information in the correct order with the correct punctuation. Manipulatives increase interest and engagement in an activity. I would do the same type of practice activity as I did with the juniors. However, this time, they would be limited to persuasive topics to help them start to narrow their topics for their persuasive essay. We would look at some past topics that students had done for the persuasive writing assignment as well as looking at the Pro & Con series of books to pick a topic. They may then search for books, database articles, the Pro & Con article could count as a reference book, and journals (if the high school library has access to any, if not, they could use 2 database articles). They would need to paraphrase a portion of those (using a worksheet similar to the Citing Sources and Paraphrasing Practice worksheet) items they found and start thinking about exactly what they want to do their persuasive essay about. Once we feel like they have a grasp on paraphrasing and citing sources, we will begin the persuasive “term” paper assignment. Many of the documents used in this process are attached to explain how extensive this assignment is. The media specialist and the classroom teacher will continue to conference with students and will split the responsibility of checking bib cards and note cards in order to have a timely return to students and know where scaffolding and mini-lessons are needed. The media specialist will help as much as possible with the assessment and evaluation of the final product as well, to the discretion of the classroom teacher. [|6th grade Lesson.doc] [|Eleventh Grade Lesson Plan.doc]
 * Inquiry Skill**: In this unit, 6th grade and 11th grade students are going to be working on citing sources and paraphrasing. This is both an inquiry skill and a content area skill for Language Arts. Many sixth grade students have never been asked or required to cite sources while doing any kind of research, so they will definitely be starting off as novices. By exposing them to citing sources and reasons why we should cite sources, they will move beyond being novices. By having them practice writing citations and then put it into practice in a formal essay, they will move toward being an expert. Many of the junior level students may have been exposed to citing sources previously, but many of them may not have had to cite sources according to a specific standard (like MLA or APA). Often, with younger students, teachers don’t require the formal bibliography page. Many teachers just have them fill out a worksheet style page about where the quotes came from, etc. So, I will start in a similar manner to the middle school students showing what information should be included in a bibliography and teaching them how to do internal citations. Then they will be required to do internal documentation and a formal bibliography in a persuasive essay at the end of the unit. Callison writes, “The information literate student knows that giving credit is not only the right thing to do, but such strengthens his/her own communication” (//Blue Book// 470).
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[|Citing Sources and Paraphrasing Practice.doc] [|KWL_Chart.pdf] [|Works Cited Basic Formats.doc] [|MLA Scavenger Hunt.doc] [|Sample MLA Paper.pdf] [|Sample Works Cited Page.doc] [|Research paper Packet.doc] The objective for each grade level is to be able to cite sources and paraphrase accurately according to MLA format. Obviously I expect a little more from the juniors than from the 6th graders. I am using the “Citing Sources and Paraphrasing Practice” worksheet as a preliminary assessment/evaluation for both grade levels. The final evaluation will be the informative essay for the 6th graders and the persuasive research paper for the juniors. Both sets of students will also be expected to show bibliography and paraphrasing notes as they go through the process of researching for their respective papers. The media specialist and classroom teachers will be conferencing with the students throughout the process to see if they are continuing to grasp the concept of paraphrasing and citing sources as well as the rest of the inquiry and reporting process. [|6th grade Student sample.doc] [|11th grade Student sample.doc]
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Student conferences will be held throughout the entire unit. As the students are doing the “Citing Sources and Paraphrasing Practice” worksheets, the classroom teacher and media specialist will be monitoring and checking progress to make sure students are grasping the concept. While it is important that the students learn to be self-sufficient in this skill, this is also just the preliminary assignment leading up to the more extensive assignment of the research paper. We will also continue to conference with the students throughout the research process for the formal essays so ensure that all students are continuing to perform at an acceptable level. While mastering the concept is essential, the students also need to learn how to use their resources (both the OWL websites and the teacher help) as they will be able to do this in the future as well. While they definitely need to know how to paraphrase, they will always be able to look up MLA format and need to understand how to do that. The teacher and media specialist will evaluate this unit on the level of ease that the students are able to complete the formal papers. We will work together in order to conference with students and assess what changes need to be made both during the process as well as after the unit is completed for the next unit or for this unit in the next academic year. We will conference with the students at all stages of the unit as well as doing periodic formal checks of bibliography cards, note cards and of the rough draft of the paper and of the works cited page. This is will build the evidence that we need to be sure the students are grasping the concepts required of them. While it may seem that the lessons are very similar, and they are, I also am taking into consideration that the level of experience between the two groups of students that I am teaching are very similar at this point. The junior level experience may be changed in a few years once I am sure the students have had enough experience with these skills to be proficient at the beginning of the research project assignment. However, I do still hold the juniors to a higher standard than the 6th graders in many ways. I, first off, expect the juniors to read materials at a higher reading level than the 6th grade students. I expect their paraphrasing to be more sophisticated than the 6th graders’. These two expectations are exemplified mainly because the level of materials in the high school library is going to be higher than those in the middle school library. Therefore, they are going to be reading more difficult material and their paraphrases are going to be more sophisticated. The expectations of the final paper are different because the sixth graders are merely finding information and reporting it while the juniors are using that information to try to persuade the reader to believe as they do. This is a more difficult skill and requires a bit more thinking from the student. Also the length requirements and source requirements are more extensive for the juniors. The teaching roles are similar at both grade levels because I want the students to feel comfortable in their inquiry and feel that they can come to the media specialist or teacher at any point. Therefore, we will be conferencing with the students quite often. The information standard of citing sources and using information responsibly is similar at each grade level. Many teachers may not require 6th graders to use the formal MLA style of citing sources, but I believe that they are quite capable of putting the information in that format. This is why we practice it in several different ways before moving forward with the unit. For the juniors, if I know that they have previous experience in citing sources successfully, then I would eliminate some of the activities, like using the manipulatives for formatting an MLA citation.
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