Hi, I am wondering if anyone has any tips on helping a second grade student write a research paper! I have two third grade students and one second grader. I've been trying to teach them expository writing by having them pick a topic (with my help), come up with questions (again, with my help, or I give them questions) and use the encyclopedia or Internet to find information. Even in "kids' encyclopedias" online, the reading level is usually far too difficult for my second grade, even when read aloud. My second grader doesn't struggle with reading on his level, but I can't seem to find any sources that would be appropriate for him. I hate to not let him do research when the other two are doing it (he hates being "left out"). Currently we're researching inventions. His topic is the television, and he has 4 questions. I've tried finding age-appropriate sites that state (on his level) the information he's looking for, but can't find any! Does anyone have any ideas for early-reading (like 2-3 grade level) resources that I could use? Thanks!
I think I would work backwards. Find internet sites that are kid friendly. Make a list.Then tell the kids to use those sites, and assign topics that can be found there. Is research REALLY an objective for a 7 year old???
When I did my ST in 2nd, the kids were researching Australian Animals (Australia was one of the social studeies topics, and the research his on a lot of the writing objectives). They either picked or were assigned various animals (they'd already started when i got there, so Im' nto sure how groups were assigned). There was a particular website that we used to get the info, that WAS appropriate for 7-8 year olds. They had a list of questions to answer while they were researching from that site. Then we worked on paragraph writing I wonder if Discovery Kids has anything appropriate?
Thanks! In the ELA Standards for my state Standard 1 is "Students engage in the research process." They are supposed to choose a research topic, list questions related to a topic of study, use a variety of reference tools to access information (i.e., tables of contents, dictionaries, internet). I usually create the questions (we tried making our own but it didn't really work). The main problem is finding age-appropriate materials. My school doesn't have a library other than the books in my classroom, so maybe I'll check out the library in town. I'll check out Discovery Kids...I was just under the impression while looking around online that lots of schools seem to have their 2nd graders write full-fledged "research papers" (albeit short), and the lesson plans talked about how to teach paragraphing, etc., but didn't discuss WHERE to actually find the research information! I'll try Discovery Kids.
I don't know if DK will have anything helpful, but they're probably the first site I'd try. When I did my ST, they learned multi-paragraph writing in 3rd, so I just introduced them to how to write a GOOD paragraph. Most of the kids did really well with that. I would guess that multi-paragraph writing would be hard for most kids that age, but I'm not an expert... I'm working on talking in sentances, lol
I taught my second graders how to do research last year. They used index cards and wrote the title on top of each card. So, if they were researching a person they might have one about Birthday/Hometown, a family card, childhood, education, accomplishments... It made it really easy for them to search out the information. Plus, I took them to the library at the school and they all checked out books on their person. Most of the books were on their level.
We use IIm research method. http://www.iimresearch.com/ Great help for teaching them about resources and laying the foundations for bibliography.
How about some of the Seymour Simon books? http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Volcanoes/Seymour-Simon/e/9780060877170/?itm=5&usri=volcanos
I think research papers for a 2nd grader is too much. However, I wouldn't have him find answers to questions, but have him pick a topic, find a book about it and write down 4 items he learned. That would be the beginning step to me.
Encyclopedia Britanica has an elementary section... may be a smidge difficult but it's at least written at a lower level. Maybe Reading A to Z has something?
