The following sources served as inspiration or in other ways contributed to the creation of this unit. Their creators have my gratitude.
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A Big6 Skills Overview
This page includes an outline of the steps of the Big6 as well as some discussion of its applications. I referred it a lot during my discussion of the Inquiry Model.
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The Big6 for Kids - Grades 3-6
This page was extremely helpful as I laid out the steps of the Big6 on the Student Pages. The explanations in this "kid-friendly" version of the Big6 model were so good, I included a link on each student page to the appropriate step.
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KWHL Technique - by Debbie Blaskowski
I used this page to develop my KWHL Chart.
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Gather, Cluster and Refine Search Terms worksheet - by Debbie Abilock at NoodleTools.com
This served as the inspiration for my keyword diagram.
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Rating Sources for Notetaking - by Debbie Abilock at NoodleTools.com
I liked the idea of rating a source after background reading but before taking notes.
- NoodleTools: The Ethical Researcher article on
The Four Phases of
Notemaking and Notetaking
This article helped me integrate different phases of notetaking into my overall unit plan and also to decide which part of notetaking I would focus on in my detailed lessons.
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Four Square Perspective
I liked the idea of using a scaffold of this kind to help students look at the issue of global warming from all perspectives as they were preparing to develop their group product.
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Declaration of Independence from Plagiarism article by Gary Hopkins at Education World
I used this lesson as the inspiration for how to teach paraphrasing. I adapted it to also include an oral paraphrasing exercise.
- Note-Taking (Grades 4-6)
I thought this skit performed by the classroom teacher and media specialist was a clever way to relate notetaking to students' real lives and engage their interest.
- How to Cite Sources from the Oregon
School Library Information System
I love this resource! It's a kid-friendly way to explain all sorts of information skills. I used it when thinking about teaching citations.
- Notes, Quotes, and Fact Fragments
- a lesson plan by Lisa Storm Fink
This lesson plan from ReadWriteThink served as the inspiration for all my use of fact fragments in note-taking.
- Fact Fragment Finder Interactive
from ReadWriteThink
An interactive tool that would be good for further practice.
- Reading for Information: The Trash-N-Treasure Method of Teaching Note-Taking
(Grades 3-12) an article by Barbara A. Jansen
This article from the Big6 website helped me put together all my ideas on fact fragments and note-taking. A very useful tool.
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Persuasive Essay: Environmental Issues a lesson plan by Laurie Henry
This lesson plan from ReadWriteThink would be a great one to integrate into this unit. It helped me decide on how Language Arts would factor into my unit.
- Plagiarism vs. Documentation lesson by Joyce K. Valenza
I use a slightly modified version of these examples of plagiarism and correct use of information during my detailed lesson.
- Summarizing, Paraphrasing, and Quoting by Joyce K. Valenza
Pieces of this article form the basis of my paraphrasing lesson.
- Tolkien, J.R.R. The Hobbit, p. 1. HarperCollins, 2001.
I used a passage from this book as an example in the paraphrasing lesson.
- Armstrong, Jennifer.
Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World:
The Extraordinary True Story of Shackleton and the Endurance, p. 2. Crown Books for Young Readers, 1998.
I used a passage from this book as an example in the paraphrasing lesson.
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World Book Encyclopedia.
"Bears, "Elephants," and "Global Warming." World Book, 2004 edition.
Three articles from the World Book Encyclopedia serve as examples and exercises in the fact fragment/notetaking lesson.
- Your Choice Real Estate Company - an information inquiry unit by Katie Baker
I looked at this project from a previous semester to get ideas about how to organize my unit in a webpage format.
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The "Write" Stuff: Become Your Favorite Author - an information inquiry unit by Janette Fluharty
I liked the organizational layout of this WebQuest so much that I used it as a template for my own project. I feel that it provides easy access to all parts of the unit framework.