I'm jumping into this thread without knowing what was discussed beforehand, and I'm sure this is not "new news" to any of you. How about giving each student a generic set of open-ended questions that they need to find answers to. Then using only their question/answer sheets, have them compose a research paper about their topic/person/etc. I did this when I taught elementary (4th/5th) and it helped eliminate plagiarism. Students didn't have the resource(s) to copy from, they only had their notes. Barbara/6th/FL
-----Original Message----- On Behalf Of PAM HORTON We are struggling with the same issue---we are trying to have one on one conferences with students during and after researching to find out what they are learning as they research. We have found 8th and even 11th graders turning in long papers, but can't tell you anything meaningful about the topic. Paraphrasing to many of them is leaving out a word or two, but not accumulating knowledge. I honestly have found that students have no idea why they are doing what they are doing. They are so used to playing "the game". _______________________________________________ The Literacy Workshop ListServ http://www.literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/lit_literacyworkshop.org. Search the LIT archives at http://snipurl.com/LITArchive
