Research Project: Female Authors

The following lesson was designed with the purpose of teaching students how to properly conduct a research project. This lesson could be differentiated by picking a different overarching subject to educate the students about. The original lesson was designed to educate students about female authors, during women’s history month, however because it is a research geared lesson the overarching topic can be anything, from art history to the causes of the civil war.

Know: Students will be able to know basic research skills, such as finding a credible source and identifying relevant and important facts. They will also know how to format a research paper (intro paragraph, two substance paragraphs [childhood, adulthood] and conclusion paragraph).

Understand: Students will be able to understand the methods of proper research, and the importance of research.

Do: Students will each compose a presentation about the author that they researched, telling the class about her life, her career, and her work.

 

Overview of lesson: The lesson will be started with a class discussion where we determine, as a class, what makes a good research paper. We will then watch a TED Talk, to learn about the importance of different perspectives. We will have an open discussion about what kinds of different perspectives we should attempt to incorporate into our classroom, focusing in specifically on female authors. Each student will then pick a female author they wish to research, tying in the beginning of the lesson where we outlined key factors in research papers and the idea of getting a fresh perspective and avoiding looking at things only one way.

            During the research portion students will fill out a worksheet which identifies the key things they need to know about their author (date of birth/death, early life, adulthood, writing career etc.) Each kid will then create a paper to be handed in and graded by me. They will also create a presentation, of creative choice, to do with what they want; for example a comic about their authors life, a power point, create a mix tape that fits their author and present their project (or ideas about their project if the project itself is more abstract) and facts about their author to the class.

            After all the presentations are complete we will have a class discussion on importance of female authors and looking at things with new perspective.        

            Objectives: Students will be able to recognize and apply proper research techniques. They will also be able to employ creative thinking and emotional intelligence to understand the importance of perspective.

            Assessment: Students will be graded on the content of their research papers and presentations. They will also be graded on participation and inclusion during class discussions.