Every year, Kathy Degi and I assign a research project. The best part of it is that students choose their own subject. It helps them take ownership and I receive an amazing variety of subjects. From the beginning, students choose subjects that must relate to American History. Any event is acceptable, but biographies are not, neither are generalized topics. i.e. Pearl Harbor. They are required to formulate a thesis statement in their introductory paragraph and build 5 - 7 paragraphs around it. Of course, it ends with a conclusion. Sometimes the conclusion contridicts their thesis. When this happens students usually approach me in a bit of an alarmed state. "Is this okay?" "It didn't really end up like I thought it would." As far as I am concerned, contridicting ones own thesis statement shows thought and considerable research, not failure. I am concerned that they connect the research to the thesis statement in one way or another. In addition to the writing, student must have a chart or graph, or table of some kind. It must be properly labeled. I wait for it every year, and someone always comes through. It goes something like this: "Hey, wait. This is like what we do in Math! I get it. That's why they put that kind of stuff in our books."
I don't know about you, but I love that light bulb!
Now, that they've given their research presentation, I begin to read and read and read and....
The rubrics were given to each class and explained well within the time limit for finishing it. So in the next few weeks, I'll read and give feedback and score. I can't even speculate right now to their progress. If the titles of their papers are any indication, I should have a good time over spring break reading and seeing the progress. Wish me professional luck!
A good writer has to have a good mind to see things that aren't there, things that are different from his or her reality, but also able to convince the readers that those things are true or relatively true.
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