Elementary Library Homepage: Research Skills

Use the Wonder Wheel with EY-Y2 students to facilitate questioning skills.

Use the Question Wheel with Y2-3 students to facilitate questioning skills during inquiries and interviews.

Use this resource when examining artifacts with Y2-3.

Use the Q-Chart with Y4-6 students to support in developing questions for varying purposes.

Use Question Trekking with Y4-5 students when brainstorming questions around an inquiry, or when preparing for an interview.

Use the Keyword T-Chart with Y4-5 students are about to begin gathering information around an inquiry independently or in small groups. Students establish what they already know and what they need to know, and then use this information to create search terms to guide their research.

Use with Y5-6 students as they explore deeper questioning within their lines of inquiry. Students will write three levels of questions with varying degrees of complexity. Could also be used to write factual, conceptual, and debatable questions.

Use this resource with Y6 students when preparing their own research question, for example, during PYPx. Students choose question starters and focusing words from a bank to give power to their question.

Use while learning to keep track of and give credit to source material.

A blog post on SLJ on the merits of teaching lateral reading to evaluate sources, with video support (student facing) and instructions for teachers with lesson ideas.

Journal template for students who are completing an independent inquiry within the PYP context.

Read through Jennifer Gonzalez's summary of research into note-taking to consider what the research shows us about the benefits of different types of note-taking at different ages.

Use Boxes and Bullets with Y2-4 as a notetaking strategy and template. Boxes and Bullets can also be used as a writing organizer to help students organize their ideas into paragraphs.

Use this more advanced version of Boxes and Bullets in Y4-5 as a transition to Cornell Notes. Students continue to sort notes by main idea and supporting details, but must summarize each box in their own words.

Use Initial Investigations with Y4-6 students to help them organize their notes by source when learning how to give credit to their sources. Initial Investigations will give students a template to take notes, track their sources, and plan next steps in their research.

Use with students who have previously used Boxes and Bullets for note taking.

Following this video from "From Verbal to Visual" to learn more about how sketch noting can be combined with Cornell Notes to improve student learning.

Use the MISO Research Plan with Y5-6 students when planning independent inquiries.

Common Sense Media's guide to search tips and tricks for elementary students.