Stop the Copying with Wild and Wacky Research Projects

(Paperback)

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Description

Did you know A famous French chef created her greatest recipe BEFORE she learned to cook! The first airmail letters went by train. McDonald's opened its first restaurant as a barbecue stand. The best way to prevent a toothache is to wear a dead mole around your neck. These and many other wacky but true facts serve as springboards to research about people, places, food, animals, and historical events. Students are asked to create poems, games, quizzes and other products in lieu of traditional written reports in this new book of ideas keyed to standards in writing, reading comprehension and information literacy. Based on one of Nancy Polette's most popular workshops (Research Without Copying), this book will appeal to school librarians and teachers in grades 4-8. Extensive bibliographies of recommended resources add to the usability of this title.

Reviews

This is a fresh and appealing approach to teaching upper elementary and middle school students how to present their research creatively and without plagiarism. Polette's premise is that by changing the way students present their work, they are forced to think about the information they find and assess it critically and independently rather than just regurgitating it. The author uses Ripley's-style Believe-it-or-not fact tidbits as a hook and offers unusual and creative presentation formats, such as cinquains, acrostic poems, quizzes, and graphic organizers. Each section is organized around a theme: food, transportation, medicine, crime, presidents, unusual people in history, unexplained events, etc. Each thematic part concludes with a list of literature resources. The bizarre facts that Polette has discovered, and the interesting options she offers for presenting researching, are guaranteed to make the SLMS the favorite teacher in the school. * School Library Journal *
Nancy, the clever, provides a plethora of quickie projects kids can do in the library during their library time that are just a half-step up from the typical cut and paste worksheet.this is not a book to pass by. * Teacher Librarian *
If you are at a loss for how to garner intermediate and middle graders' interest in research, this may be your ticket for getting your foot in the door.This book has everything you need to use the ideas as is or to use the ideas she provides as a springboard for tailoring her ideas to your student's ability level and needs. * Library Media Connection *

Author Bio

Nancy J. Polette is professor of education at Lindenwood University, St. Charles, MO, author of more than 100 professional books, and an in-demand speaker at state and national library, gifted, and reading conferences.