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Intro/Background Information:
During Quarter 2, 5th grade students will be expected to choose a topic of interest to research. In the classroom teacher’s curriculum docs, Module 1 (which will last approximately 3-4 weeks) is devoted to reading complex nonfiction texts, focusing on Epic and reviewing text structures. At the beginning of Module 2, they are modeling using World Book Kids and Britannica to start with a larger topic (scientists) and narrow it down (zoologists) before coming up with questions to ask/research about the smaller topic. Teachers and staff have access to a Google Site labeled 'Q2 ELA Research' in Classlink that walks them through the Big 6 Research steps. The goal of the suggested lessons below is to front load/refresh students’ knowledge of these two resources and model how to make the articles more complex by moving up levels within the resources. Please make sure to talk with your 5th grade teachers to see how you can best support their students before they embark on the research portion of this quarter and make any adjustments necessary. LMT ELA Supports Website
Lesson 1: Review online resources
Explain to students that this quarter they will be working on a research project in the class. While they won’t have to pick their topic and start for a few weeks, they are going to start exploring some of the possible topics our online resources have to offer, since they are credible sources and a good starting point. Project Classlink, asking students to guide you through (or model depending on need) where to find our online resources. (New in 2024-2025 the folder is now called 'Information @ Your Library). This lesson will focus on World Book Kids and Britannica-Elementary. Explain that part of the reason we start with these is because they are shorter, easier articles to help give us some background knowledge about a topic to help us decide if we are interested and want to learn more about it. Choose whichever resource you feel the class could benefit seeing modeled and use the ‘Explore’ button to open up the broad topics. You can ask students for their choice of topic to narrow down or choose one on your own. As you continue to ‘dig deeper’ the goal is to get to a specific article. After clicking on an article, point out the different parts and how to have the article read aloud. At the bottom of a World Book article, before the citations, there is a direct link to World Book student the ‘grown up’ version of World Book kids with an article on the same topic at the top. With Britannica, students can click on the small number 2 located at the top right corner of the article to access the middle school version. With either resource, discuss the difference between the two versions of the same resource (the second version of the article is longer, has more information, etc). Give students time to explore either resource, searching for any topic of their choice. The goal is to have them find something they are interested in and toggling over to the 'more complex' version of the article. A possible extension activity would be using the linked exit slip (paper copy or digital copy in google classroom) to have students record what article they found and what new info the second article had.
Lesson 2: Evaluating Websites
Ask students what the differences are between our online resources and websites they can find searching google. Guide students to the realization that our online resources are put together and reviewed by a team of experts, made specifically for students, websites online can be created by anyone. That doesn't mean we can't use other websites to learn information, we just have to be smarter about the sites we pick. Show Brainpop video titled 'Online Sources' with or without pause points. Once video is done, review with students what important pieces of websites we should look at to determine if it is a reliable site. (Publisher, author, content). Now that they know what to look for they are going to have to play 'Two Truths and a Lie' with a partner. Link the corresponding slide in google classroom for students to access three different websites - two that are real sites, one that is a fake site. After they explore each site they will answer whether they think it is real or not and give their reasoning.
Lesson 3: Mythbuster (Thanksgiving Edition)
Now that students have gotten a refresher on some of our online resources in Classlink, as well as evaluating online websites, they are going to use their choice of resources to be a mythbuster, focusing on Thanksgiving. Link the google doc below in Google Classroom and have students work in pairs to debunk some of the Thanksgiving 'facts' that people believe. They will not only type the correct fact for each myth, but also link the web address and or name of website they found their information. While they will hopefully take the time to make sure the website is reliable, the true goal of this assignment is to make sure students can copy a website link into a document and understand that Google is a search engine NOT a source.
Lesson 4: A Creator's Rights and Responsibilities (Common Sense Media)
Use the linked lesson to discuss copyright information. (Brainpop has copyright video as well, include here or use it in January to review?) You can connect this to the student's research project in quarter 2 and, using the linked google doc below in Google Classroom, have students start searching for reliable websites on their topic and/or searching for topic ideas if their teachers have not gotten to that point.
Standards for the Month:
I can be safe, legal, and ethical when sharing information using technoloy and media. AASL 6.2
I can practice and encourage others in safe, legal and ethical behavior when using technology and interacting online, with guidance from an educator. ISTE 2b
I can understand the concepts of technology and appropriately use technology. ITL EL2
I can identify and use outlines, bullets, and diagrams to acuire information. KUSD R5.1 and R5.5
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