Supporting the Research Process in Elementary

I want to start off first by saying that if you want this full resource with nonfiction, controlled research, and fiction, this post for paid subscribers (with a teaser for free subscribers) includes the PDF of the resource I mention.

Below, I’ve broken down some of the key ideas in this video (though I do think watching it in its entirety is most beneficial).

Determine first: Are your kids supporting an opinion/statement or answering a question?

For the research process, we have two major “umbrella” skills:

1. Comprehension

   1. Are they understanding what they’re listening to/watching/reading?

   2. What do I, the teacher/parent, need to provide to support the comprehension process? (ex: vocabulary in advance, highlight the words you’re confident they can decode, grammar/syntax lessons embedded, chunking the information, sharing the reading to pause for understanding of content)

   3. How will I show them the skill of highlighting key details?

2. Composition

   1. This skill also demonstrates the previous skill of comprehension.

   2. How are they composing their understanding of the information? (ex: poster board, slideshow, infographic, paragraph, essay, graphic organizer)

   3. Can you break down the demonstration of this skill? (ex: each day is a different source & you close out that lesson with a summarization of that information)

3. Research

   1. Are they finding the sources?

   2. If they’re finding the sources, are you narrowing down where they can find those sources?

   3. Are you providing sources? (Maybe you’re providing the sources, but they’re choosing the topic.)

   4. How will you discuss “credible” sources? Is that something you’ll wait to discuss until a later age/part of the year?

Don’t want to become a paid subscriber but want the crow resource I discuss in the video? Find it here on Teachers Pay Teachers. It also includes work with fiction and tying the fiction into the nonfiction! I provide day-by-day lesson plans as well as all of the printables :)

P.S. Sorry there’s the TikTok logo. I film my videos in there because I can edit them. I can’t edit them on this platform.