Tried It Tuesday {Teaching Students How to Research}

I excited to link up with Holly this week because I am actually making time to write a blog post!  We have been working on expository writing for the past few weeks and and the kids are loving it!  Our district created a writing task for us to use and it requires our students to research a body system.  I am using my Spot On Research product for my lesson plan and resources. 

Before my students do any research I teach them how to take notes.  We discuss the difference between copying and paraphrasing, and practice doing this using informational text.  Students then interview a partner about the topic they are going to research, for this assignment they asked about the body system their partner chose.

Once students have an idea of what they are going to research and write about they then begin their research.  I taught them how to site a website using the "Collection of Facts" sheet and they then wrote their notes on the back of the sheet.  Students use one "Collection of Facts" sheet per resource to help them organize where they found their information.

We were lucky to have our mobile computer lab so students could spend a good amount of time researching on the Internet.  The following day students used books I checked out from the public library to continue their research.  I discussed with my students the importance of using more than one resource to find information and several different types of resources.

This week we will work on putting their research into an expository writing piece.  Since it is the beginning of the year I am looking for them to write a short introduction, body, and conclusion paragraph.  My students have really enjoyed their research and I can't wait to see what they share in their writing.

Tried It Tuesday for the busy mom, wife, teacher, maid, chef, etc.

I have seen several pins about placing salads in mason jars in preparation for the week.  My hubby and I are trying it out this week and so far so good!  It is so nice to grab a pre-made meal, one that is not frozen, in the morning and throw it in my lunch bag.  We did not put the dressing on, because I a