6th Grade Research Skills

Grade: 6th

Class: ELA

Teachers: Maliszewski, Williams-Hopper, & Lanham

Duration:
3 full class periods.
Day 1: Lessons 1 & 2 (with time to check out if possible) Narrowing a Topic
and Identifying Relevant Details.
Day 2: Lesson 3 Determining Reliability & Relevance of Sources
Day 3: Lesson 4 Plagiarism & Citations
Williams-Hopper 1/13 1/15
Lanham: Dates 1/22 1/26

Literacy Standards on Research:

Grade Level Expectations:
GLE 0601.4.1 Define and narrow a problem or research topic.
GLE 0601.4.2 Gather relevant information from a variety of print and electronic sources, as well
as from direct observation, interviews, and surveys.
GLE 0601.4.3 Make distinctions about the credibility, reliability, consistency, strengths, and
limitations of resources, including information gathered from websites.
State Performance Indicators:
SPI 0601.4.1 Select the most focused research topic.
SPI 0601.4.3 Determine the most appropriate research source for a given research topic.
SPI 0601.4.5 Discern irrelevant research material from written text.
Common Core State Standards:

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.6.8 Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources; assess the
credibility of each source; and quote or paraphrase the data and conclusions of others while avoiding plagiarism and
providing basic bibliographic information for sources.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.6.9 Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and
research.

Lesson 1: Narrowing a Research Topic

Taught by: Teacher-Librarian
Materials:
Worksheets
Signs that say too broad too narrow and just right
Tape to hang signs
Powerpoint & Answer Key
Activities:
Introduce the topic by connecting to the story Goldilocks and the Three Bearstalking
about how sometimes things have to be Just Right.
Explain that research questions need to be just right also.
Some questions are too narrowthey can be answered in a sentence or two (see
examples on powerpoint).
Some questions are too broadthey would take a BOOK in order to answer completely.
Our students want questions that are Just Righttopics that have enough information to
cover completely in one paper, but that do not go overboard or get too specific.
Talk about words that can help narrow topicssome or several
Use the example questions on the powerpoint to have the students do an activity. Post
the 3 signs around the roomToo Broad on one side; Too Narrow on the other, and Just
Right in the middle.
Have the students walk to the side of the room that they think best fits each question
projected on the screen. As you get to each, ask students in each group to justify their
answers aloud.
Discuss the correct answers and ask some students to explain what they did wrong if they
got it wrong.
Then, do a think-pair-share on a piece of scratch paper and have kids write questions that
are too broad, too narrow, or just right by doing one together about the Civil War.
Discuss your answers.
Assessment:
1) After the instruction described above, give each student the assessment worksheet.
2) Have the students identify the questions listed as too broad, too narrow, or just right
and fix them.
Lesson 2: Identifying Relevant Details
Taught by: Teacher-Librarian
Materials:
Worksheets
Highlighters
Instructional PowerPoint
Activities:
Introduce the lesson to students by reminding them/asking them what the term relevant
means, and giving examples (Ex: if youre writing about a swim meet and then suddenly
add in some details about your pet iguana, that might not be exactly relevant to your
topic).
Model this, with student help, by using the topic: What are the eating habits of lions?
Click on the link in the powerpoint to bring up the website
Have students list details about that topic that WOULD be relevant, and details that would
NOT be relevant.
Then, together, go through a passage and highlight only the relevant details.

Have the students practice this a second time by working in partners. Have each pair
share with their table-mates to determine how they did and make any changes before
coming back together as a group to share together.
Assessment:
1) After the instruction described above, the teacher will give students a third reading passage
and ask them to highlight only the details that are relevant to their particular research topic.
2) When students are done independently, have them share in pairs and make any changes they
think are necessary.
3) Go over the passage together so students can orally justify their choices.
Lesson 3: Learning about Relevance and Reliability of Sources
Taught by: TEACHER-LIBRARIAN
Materials:
Powerpoint
Example Materials on Elvis.
Practice worksheet (sources 1 - 4)
Worksheets for group activity on colored paper.
Dry erase markers/eraser.
4 sources & cards for each pair/group.
Worksheet for each kid in small groupone source analysis.
Activities:
1) Review the terms reliable and relevant.
2) Talk about how you judge sourcesquality, authority, timeliness, relevance.
3) Explain that sources fall into one of 4 categories.
4) Look at examples about Elvis. As a class, decide where each resource should fall by
commenting on its quality, authority, timeliness, and relevance.
5) Put that source in its correct box on the reliability/relevance chart.
6) Then, rank those sources from BEST to WORST and justify. Discuss which sources would
actually be useful for research and why.
7) Then, students will work in pairs or groups to try this on their own.
8) Each group will get a card with a topic question on it and 4 resources they could use.
9) TSW then have to rank the items from MOST to LEAST relevant and justify their choices in
writing.
Assessment:
1) Grade student work on their group task.
Lesson 4: Plagiarism & Citations
Taught by: Teacher-Librarian
Materials:
Guided Notes & Practice Worksheet.
Pencils
Instructional PowerPoint
Access to computers.
Activities:
Introduce the lesson by talking about copyright laws and how not to break them.
Discuss that research uses others ideas and is ONLY okay if you give CREDIT to those
ideas.

We do this by CITING using a format called MLA.

Model how to do this with a BOOK, DATABASE, and WEBSITE.
Have students PRACTICE this on one side of the worksheet by doing this together.

Assessment:
1) After the instruction described above, the teacher will have students choose a book on a state
as their topic.
2) TSW cite the book.
3) Then, TSW use World Book and cite a database entry on that state.
4) Then, TSW cite a WEBSITE (found using google) on that state.
5) At the end, students should analyze the 3 different types of sources.

Name: __________________________________________ Date: ___________ Choosing a Just Right

Research Topic

General
Researc
h Topic

Possible Topic
Question

Circle one of the choices

to tell if this question is
too broad, too narrow,
or just right for writing a
research paper.

Spain

What is the
capital of
Spain?

TOO BROAD JUST RIGHT

NARROW

TOO

Dolphin
s

How are
dolphins
adapted to
survive in the
Ocean?

TOO BROAD JUST RIGHT

NARROW

TOO

Space

What are all

the
characteristics
of the planets
in the Milky
Way?

TOO BROAD JUST RIGHT

NARROW

TOO

Civil
War

How many
Union soldiers
died during
the Civil War?

TOO BROAD JUST RIGHT

NARROW

TOO

Rosa
Parks

How old was

Rosa Parks
when she
died?

TOO BROAD JUST RIGHT

NARROW

TOO

Music

What types of
music were
popular in
America in the
1980s?

TOO BROAD JUST RIGHT

NARROW

TOO

If your question is Too Broad or

Too Narrow, write a BETTER
question that would be Just
Right.
If your question is Just Right
already, write JUST RIGHT.

What is daily life like in the

Spanish city of Madrid?

Farming

How has
farming
changed in
America?

TOO BROAD JUST RIGHT

NARROW

Name: ___________________________________
Details Practice

TOO

Date: ________ Finding the Relevant

Directions: The following is the World Book article about Clara Barton. If you were researching
about Clara Barton in order to answer the question below, please HIGHLIGHT or UNDERLINE ONLY
the information that is RELEVANT to this topic question.

TOPIC QUESTION: What are Clara Bartons major accomplishments in American

History?

Barton, Clara (1821-1912), was the founder of the American Red Cross. She was born in
North Oxford, Massachusetts, on Dec. 25, 1821, and began her career as a teacher. She
served as the first female clerk in the United States Patent Office (now the Patent and
Trademark Office). Soon her humanitarian interests led her into the field of health. After
the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, Barton carried supplies to soldiers and nursed wounded
men on the battlefields. Her deeds attracted national attention and appreciation. Barton was called
the Angel of the Battlefield. At first, the United States government refused to give help or encouragement.
But in 1864, she was appointed superintendent of nurses for the Army of the James. When the war ended,
Barton formed a bureau to search for missing men. This bureau marked more than 12,000 graves in the
Andersonville National Cemetery in Georgia.
The Red Cross.
Barton's work during the Civil War left her exhausted and weak. In 1869, she went to Switzerland
for a rest. There, she learned of the International Committee of the Red Cross, an organization based in
Geneva. She took part in Red Cross activities at the battlefront during the Franco-Prussian War (18701871).
In 1873, Barton returned home. In 1877, prompted by the outbreak of war between Russia and
Turkey, she started to convince people of the need to take an active part in Red Cross work. Her
campaign resulted in the establishment of the American branch of the Red Cross in 1881. She became its
first president and held that post from 1882 to 1904. She also urged the United States government to ratify
the Geneva Convention, which the government did in 1882 (see Geneva Conventions). Barton realized
that the Red Cross could be useful to civilians as well as to soldiers. She originated the clause in the Red
Cross constitution that provides for relief in calamities other than war. She took charge of relief work in the

flood at Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in 1889, and the hurricane in the Sea Islands off the coast of Georgia
and South Carolina in 1893. She also helped during the Russian and Armenian famines in 1891 and 1896.

Her other work. Barton wrote several books, including The Red Cross (1898) and A Story of the Red
Cross (1904). After she retired in 1904, she lectured widely on topics related to the field of health. In 1906,
she organized the National First Aid Association of America. Barton died on April 12, 1912. Her 38-room
house in Glen Echo, Maryland, which served as the headquarters for the American Red Cross for several
years, became the Clara Barton National Historic Site in 1974.

Citation:
Manning, Kenneth R. "Barton, Clara." World Book Student. World Book, 2013. Web. 28 Feb. 2013.
Name: ________________________________
Details Assessment

Date: ________ Finding the Relevant

Directions: The following is the World Book article about Claudette Colvin. If you were
researching about Claudette Colvin in order to answer the question below, please HIGHLIGHT or
UNDERLINE ONLY the information that is RELEVANT to this topic question.
TOPIC QUESTION: What was Claudette Colvins role in the American Civil Rights
Movement?

Claudette Colvin
Claudette Colvin (born 1939). Teenager Claudette Colvin was arrested in 1955 for
refusing to give up her bus seat to a white person. Her brave action came nine months
before Rosa Parks also refused to give up her seat. It was Parks's action that sparked the
U.S. civil rights movement.

Colvin was born on September 5, 1939, in Birmingham, Alabama, and later lived
with her family in Montgomery. She attended a high school for African American
students, where she was inspired by Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, and other
important African Americans in history. Colvin and her classmates also discussed
the unfairness of segregation.
On March 2, 1955, when Colvin was 15 years old, she was riding a bus in
Montgomery, Alabama, when the driver asked her to give her seat to a white
person. Colvin refused, saying that she had paid her money and had a
constitutional right to sit there. Her action, however, went against the
segregation laws of Montgomery. Two police officers dragged Colvin off the bus,
put her in handcuffs, and took her to jail. She later was made to pay a fine.
Claudette Colvin.
Farrar, Straus and
Giroux/AP

While some members of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People thought
that Colvin's case could bring attention to the injustice of segregation, others felt that Colvin was
too immature to represent the struggle for civil rights. In the end, Parks became the symbol of the
movement. Still, Colvin challenged bus segregation laws in court. She and three other African
American women participated in a legal case that made it to the U.S.Supreme Court. In 1956 the
Supreme Court ruled in favor of the women, making segregation on buses illegal.
Colvin later moved to New York City, where she worked in a nursing home for 35 years before
retiring. Her story was largely forgotten until the early 2000s. In 2009 a book about her life
Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice, by Phillip Hoosewon the National Book Award for young
people's literature.
Citation:
"Colvin, Claudette." Compton's by Britannica. Encyclopdia Britannica Online School Edition.Encyclopdia Britannica, Inc., 2013. Web. 28 Feb. 2013.
<http://www.school.eb.com/comptons/article-9601328>.

Answer Key: Too Broad? Too Narrow? Just Right?

Question
What historical events have shaped the continent of
Africa?

Too Broad, Too Narrow, Just Right

Broad

What venom is produced from rattle snakes?

Narrow

What was Dr. Martin Luther Kings contribution to the

Civil Rights movement?

Just Right

Who wrote the book Wuthering Heights?

Narrow

What holidays do people celebrate around the world?

Broad

What were some of the causes of dinosaur extinction?

Just right because of the word

SOME
Broad

How has agriculture (farming) affected the United

States?
Why did Scientists classify Pluto as a dwarf planet
instead of a planet?

Just right

Who was the inventor of the iPhone?

Narrow

Name: ________________________________________________ Date: _______________ Evaluating Sources

Topic Question: _______________________________________________________________________________
Source #1:
Title of Source: (book or article title)

Authority (Who wrote it?):

Quality (Does it use academic language? Is it organized well? Does it have tools to help
you like table of contents, glossary, links, etc.?):

Timeliness (When was it written?):

Relevance (Does it actually have information on your topic question?):

Based on your notes above, this source is

Based on your notes above, this source is

RELIABLE

RELEVANT

NOT RELIABLE

Because.

NOT RELEVANT

Because.

Source #2:
Title of Source: (book or article title)

Authority (Who wrote it?):

Quality (Does it use academic language? Is it organized well? Does it have tools to help
you like table of contents, glossary, links, etc.?):

Timeliness (When was it written?):

Relevance (Does it actually have information on your topic question?):

Based on your notes above, this source is

Based on your notes above, this source is

RELIABLE

RELEVANT

Because.

Source #3:

NOT RELIABLE

Because.

NOT RELEVANT

Title of Source: (book or article title)

Authority (Who wrote it?):

Quality (Does it use academic language? Is it organized well? Does it have tools to help
you like table of contents, glossary, links, etc.?):

Timeliness (When was it written?):

Relevance (Does it actually have information on your topic question?):

Based on your notes above, this source is

Based on your notes above, this source is

RELIABLE

RELEVANT

NOT RELIABLE

Because.

NOT RELEVANT

Because.

Source #4:
Title of Source: (book or article title)

Authority (Who wrote it?):

Quality (Does it use academic language? Is it organized well? Does it have tools to help
you like table of contents, glossary, links, etc.?):

Timeliness (When was it written?):

Relevance (Does it actually have information on your topic question?):

Based on your notes above, this source is

Based on your notes above, this source is

RELIABLE

RELEVANT

Because.

NOT RELIABLE

Because.

NOT RELEVANT

Group Members Names: ______________________________________________________________

Assessment: Ranking Sources based on Reliability & Relevance to your Topic
Your Topic Question: _____________________________________________________

Resource Title

Justification

(In order from MOST

useful to your research
project to LEAST useful.)

(Explain why you chose this particular

order. Think about the author, the
quality of the source, when it was
written, and if it answers your research
question.

This text is the most reliable and relevant. I know

this because
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
This text is the next most reliable and relevant. I
know this because

This text is the third most reliable and relevant. I

know this because

_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________

_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________

This text is the least reliable and relevant. I know

this because

_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________