Post 5 Round 2 of #28daysofwriting: Problems with Student Research

Last night I made 2 mistakes.  Firstly, I checked my school email at 10:00 pm, then I opened one from a parent!  Fool!

The grade 7s are doing a research project in science on a chemical element. Part of the assignment requires that they look for a problem that their element solves and discuss the science of the solution. Unfortunately, much of the information found on the internet is too difficult for them to understand.

We have asked them to consult with the teacher or with me if they are going to use a source other than the ones we have provided on the libguide or that they found in the library. The parent email addressed this problem.  A parent asked if two sources she had found for her daughter's project could be used.   Of course there are two problems here.  The parent had done the research and as I was to discover, the sources were unreliable and written at a level that was too difficult for her 7th grader to understand.

Our school uses a test of mathematics and English skills called MAP.  Part of the test results gives us the lexile levels of our students, in other words, their reading level.  As an international school we have many students who have English as a second or third language.  Therefore, it's no surprise that in a number of our grades (year groups) 50% of the students are reading below the grade level expectations.  If you add this to the fact that much of the information our students find is also written at a level beyond their ability, this could be a recipe for disaster, including parent involvement in completing the work, or plagiarism as students copy and paste from internet articles because they are unable to write the information in their own words.

What is the solution?  I shall ponder this tonight and see if I can't offer some ideas tomorrow.