Reflective Practice: Grade 9 Research Skills Again!

Marcos, my IT integrationist colleague, and I have spent a lot of time thrashing out the various issues we had identified with teaching research skills to grade 9s (year 10) in stand alone classes.  We didn't want to have the final two classes turn out to be as unsuccessful as the first two.  We came up with several ideas and abandoned them before we finally decided on going back to basics.  Our pre-mortem, was similar in some cases to the original and looked like this:

This project will not be successful if :

1. The wifi doesn’t work
2. Students don’t have the devices or other resources needed for the class
3. Students already know what we would like them to learn*
4. Students aren’t ready for what we would like them to learn
5. There’s a fire drill, photo session, or other activity scheduled at the same time

It will also be unsuccessful if:

1. Students are not engaged and do not take ownership.
2. Students are not actively involved in the class.
3. Students are not involved in a collaborative (paired or group) activity
4. Teachers are expected to teach something they do not feel comfortable doing.
5. The sessions aren't structured so that there are clear instructions, some sort of timer to keep everyone on track, and  

 *In this case if some of the students know some of what we would like them to learn, that would be an advantage, as you shall see.

The Research Classes

 First Session (Click on link for google slides)

We decided that we wanted to ensure that students understood how the bells and whistles of a search engine worked and using my experience with student research identified the following as a starting point, with the plan to introduce others in grade 10 (year 11):

1. Web Browser vs Search Engine
2. Verbatim or the use of " "
3. Creative commons licences 
4. Searching using date ranges
5. Reverse image search
6. How to exclude terms from a search

We also wanted students to do most of the work in order that they were more actively engaged in the learning.  Thus, we decided that each class would be divided into 6 groups and that each would choose or be assigned one of the topics above.   It would be the responsibility of each to research their topic and prepare 3 slides to be used in a 2 minute presentation to teach the rest of the class about the topic.  During the 40 minute class time, each group was expected to:

• decide how the work was to be divided among the group members, eg. time keeping, research, slide preparation, editing;
• research the topic;
• ensure that they understand it well enough to explain it to others and answer questions;
• prepare the slides and ensure they are succinct; 
• keep to the time allotment for the activity
• ensure that the slides have been sent to the designated slide compiler for that class

The presentations were given in the following class, with each designated group presenter, taking the class through their topic using the slide presentation and answering questions.

Second Session (Click on link for google slides)

Our second session with the students was in a double block (90 minutes) and after the presentations were given, it focussed on evaluating websites and googleable vs non-googleable questions.  In the first instance, part of the activity involved students working alone. However, they came together after completing the task to discuss their decisions with their group.  The activities on googleable and non-googleable questions were all group activities, culminating in whole class discussion.

Reflections

I am just starting on the process of reflecting on these classes, despite the fact that they finished in early March.  Unfortunately, my colleague came down with Covid and I was away from school on bereavement leave during the classes. 

However, I did come to some conclusions about them:

1. Students were engaged (according to teacher feedback).
2. Teachers were comfortable with their involvement.
3. Our google slide presentations helped keep everyone on track and gave them a set structure.
4. Giving time limits for each part of the activity ensured that students kept on track (timer on slides).
5. It would be useful to create a survey for students and teachers to complete after the two sessions, to give us feedback on the activities.
6.  We should have sent out an immediate email to all teachers alerting them to the search engine skills their students had been introduced to so that they could have reinforced them. (I will do this now!) (Forgot to do it then and will do it now...hopefully!)