A Grade 4 Workshop

To have a great research project, students need to know where to find quality, credible information, and they need to learn how to take great notes during the research portion of their work.  This was the subject of our two grade 4 workshops today.

After learning about the importance of finding credible and reliable sources to work from, they learned how to put their notes in their own words.  They also learned about the importance of never, ever copy and pasting information.

Their assignment was to take some great notes on the bug of their choice.  They had a lot of fun with it and were very focused on the task!

Here is the slides presentation from the workshop.

I had a lot of fun running this workshop and hope our students take away some very valuable skills.

How to Take Great Notes for Our Research Project

You are going to watch a video that takes you step by step through the process of taking notes for research.

Use Your Own Words When You Take Notes

One key thing to remember however, is to never copy word for word from a website or book.

During our first research workshop I use the example of a research project I am doing on tigers.  So if this is what the website says:

The short notes on my page might look like this;

-Tigers have an orange coat with dark stripes
-Tigers weigh about 450 pounds
-It has claws as long as house keys
-It is the largest cat in the world

Notice how I didn’t just copy each sentence exactly as it was?  When you copy things exactly, that is called PLAGIARISM and it is a no-no.  We need to try to avoid copying word for word as much as we can.  The only exception is copying down a FACT.  Something that is a fact never changes.  So if it says a tiger weighs 450 pounds, that is what I need to copy down in my notes.  I can’t invent a new number!!

Putting it Together

Once you have a page of notes about your subject, you can start putting your information together in proper sentences and paragraphs without any fear of plagiarism because you wrote little notes in your own words.  Here is what some sentences based on my notes would look like.  Notice how it looks nothing like the paragraph I found online.

Tigers are the biggest cat in the world weighing in at 450 pounds.  They are orange with black stripes.  They also have claws as long as house keys.

Have fun researching your projects.  I can’t wait to read them!