Big6 Kids

Big6 #1: Task Definition

1. Prewriting is the first step of the writing process. What does your teacher want you to do? Make sure you understand the requirements of the writing assignment. Ask your teacher to explain the assignment if it seems vague or confusing. Restate the assignment to your teacher in your own words and ask if you are correct. Write the assignment here in your own words:

2. What information do you need to include in your writing assignment? Write a list of questions to which you need to “find answers.”

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3. Put a check mark beside any questions on the list that require you to find information in an outside source such as a library book or an online database.

Big6#2: Information Seeking Strategies

1. List all of the possible sources of information that will help you answer the questions you checked in Big6 #1 Task Definition. Consider library books, encyclopedias, and web sites to which your library subscribes (ask your librarian!), people who are experts in your subject, observation of your subject, free web sites and surveys.

Make a list here:
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2. Put a check mark beside each item to which you have access and are able to use. If you need help, ask your librarian.

Big6 #3: Location & Access

1. Figure out where you will find these sources. Write the location of each source beside each item on the list in Big6 #2 Information Seeking Strategies. If it is a web site, list the web address. Try to use those online databases to which your school subscribes. Ask your librarian about these to save time. If your source is a person, figure out how you will contact him or her and make a note of this.

2. Find the sources. You may need to get and use some sources one at a time. If so, come back to this step after you locate and use each source.

3. Once you have the source in hand, you must find the information within the source. If you need help, ask your librarian, teacher, or parent.

Big6 #4: Use of Information

1. Read, view, or listen to the sources you located during Big6 #3 Location & Access. Take notes to answer the questions you wrote in Big6 #1 Task Definition.

2. Take notes on note cards, a data chart, a word processing document, or notebook paper. Try to paraphrase or summarize ideas instead of just copying information word-for-word from your sources. Be sure to cite (give credit to) your sources.

Big6 #5: Synthesis

Now it is time to complete the writing process. You should talk to your teacher or librarian if you need help with this.

1. Prewriting: You have already completed the note taking part of this step. Brainstorm other ideas you will include in your paper. Write your ideas on note cards, a data chart, a word processing document, or notebook paper. (You may want to use the same type of organizer that you used for your note taking in Big6 #4 Use of Information.)

2. Drafting: Write the first draft of your paper. Include the notes you took from your sources. Give credit to all the appropriate sources.

3. Conferencing: Ask your teacher for a content conference. Prepare at least two questions you would like answered about your paper. Focus on the content of your work rather than the grammar and spelling at this step.

4. Revising: During this part of the process, you will re-enter your writing. This is an opportunity for you to “re see” (reVISION) your writing in a different way. Your paper should be more than just a summary of other people’s ideas or what you found on the Internet. It should represent mostly your ideas and conclusions. It should be a thoughtful response to the assignment. Make changes to improve your work.

You may want to combine short sentences and begin to look at your use of grammar. Revising makes good writing even better.

Think about scheduling another content conference with your teacher after you revise your paper. Again, have one or two questions ready to ask about your paper.

5. Editing: This may be the most important part of the writing process. Your teacher or other trusted adult should give you ideas about ways to improve your grammar and spelling, if needed. You need to correct all errors. You may choose to have a peer edit your paper. Choose someone who is a good writer!

6. Publishing: Use a word processor to publish your final paper. Include footnotes or parenthetical references, a bibliography, and any other parts of the paper as assigned. The bibliography should be arranged in alphabetical order by author’s last name. Ask your teacher or librarian for information about how to write a bibliography.

Does your assignment include a product to go with your paper? If so, now is the time to make the product.

**Even though there are several steps to the writing process, it is very important to ask for feedback. You may repeat any step at any time during the process.

Big6 #6: Evaluation

Before you show your paper (and product) to an audience, be sure it is as perfect as you can make it. You should be proud to put your name on your paper.

You should be able to answer “yes” to these questions before you turn in your paper:

1. Is your final paper a thoughtful response to the assignment?

2. Does your final paper represent your ideas and conclusions?

3. Is your paper more than just a summary of other people’s ideas?

4. If you paraphrased or summarized information found in books or magazines, on the Internet, or from other people, did you cite the source at point of use in your paper (using a footnote or parenthetical reference)?

5. Did you give credit to all of your sources in a bibliography?

6. Did you do everything in the assignment?

7. Does your bibliography follow the MLA format? Find out if your teacher requires a format other than MLA.

8. Is your paper word processed (or very neatly typed or hand-written if you do not have access to a computer)?

9. Is your paper complete and does it include a title page with heading information (title, your name, your teacher’s name, date, etc.)

10. If your teacher requests these, did you include your notes, copies of each draft, and an annotated bibliography?

11. Would you be proud for anyone to read this paper?

12. Do you understand each step of the Big6 and writing processes? If not, who can you ask for help?
For Teachers and Parents
Bibliography:
1. Carroll, Joyce Armstrong and Edward E. Wilson. Acts of Teaching: How to Teach Writing. Englewood, CO: Teacher Idea Press, 1993.
2. McGhee, Marla W. Assistant Professor. Educational Administration & Psychological Services Southwest Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas. Telephone interview. November 7, 2002.

Here is a recipe for improvement. It’s a twist on an old idea. Maybe you have used a “KWL” graphic organizer before, but one Big6 modification links a series of questions to your research goal. To the old “KWL” Chart, simply add an “H”. That one change can turn an old idea into a new, best strategy when you need to make sense of your task and organize a lot of information — its now a “KWHL” Chart.

K - Stands for what you KNOW about the subject.

W - Stands for determining what you WANT to learn.

H - Stands for HOW you can learn more (sources where additional information on the topic can be found).

L - Stands for identifying what you LEARN as you read.

The KWHL Chart is a simple, yet effective organizer that you can use for planning and gathering information. Specifically, the KWHL Chart is useful when you need to access prior information on a topic or theme, identify needed primary and secondary resources, develop a plan for accessing resources, identify attributes and characteristics to research, and taking notes on what you are learning.

The KWHL Chart is an excellent tool to you can use as a plan for investigation. A KWHL inquiry chart can include questions about predictions and/or implications. Additionally, these charts can be used as a basis to formulate a hypothesis, or research question, with confirmation or refutation as your research progresses.

Throughout the research process add information to your KWHL Chart. One trick you may want to try is to use different color marking pens each time you add information to the chart. This technique will give you a visual representation of the knowledge acquired throughout your research experience.

An example of a KWHL Chart has these headings:
“What we know about _______”,
“What we want to learn about _____,”
“How can I find information about ______”,
“What we learned about _____,” and
“How This Relates to Us.”

Other questions you can ask in a matrix format are shown in the example below.
<table border=”1″>
<tr>
<td><strong>What do I already know? </strong></td>
<td><strong> What do I want to find out?</strong></td>
<td><strong>How am I going to find out? </strong></td>
<td><strong> What did I learn? </strong></td>
</tr>
</table>

Where do I start? Which source is best? I did a Web search and got 1,346,896 web sites! Help!!

Where DO you start to find information on your topic? Breaking down the task makes it much more manageable. Here’’s a good way to start:

1. Decide which types of resources will best meet your needs. Consider print (both paper and online) and human resources:

• Print (paper and online) Books, encyclopedias, magazines, professional journals, primary sources such as diaries, newspapers, personal journals, maps, photographs.

• Human sources: Practitioners and researchers such as doctors, teachers, university professors, other professionals and any other expert in the field of study. Laymen (ordinary people) can be useful when you are conducting a survey, just need opinions, or if you are finding oral history of an area.You may be a resource if you are conducting an experiment or making observation.

2. Choose the best and most authoritative sources.

How do you know which are best? Here are considerations:

Answer this question: “Which sources would the leading academics (researchers and university professors) use?”

• Look at the bibliographies and additional readings in the back of textbooks and other books on the subject.

• Use academic, refereed journals, read the bibliographies in articles that pertain to your subject.

• Ask your teacher or other knowledgeable people for ideas on the best sources.

• Read reviews of books if you are not sure. Ask your librarian where you can obtain these reviews.

• Which titles appear in several sources? Those will be most likely be the best and most authoritative.

3. Choosing the best human resources (people who are experts in the subject you are studying):

• Devise interview questions before you contact your human sources.

Find people at the following places:

• Institutions of higher education

• Businesses

• Professional agencies such as law and accounting offices

• Nonprofit organizations such as Red Cross and United Way

• Service agencies such as hospitals, clinics, and police stations, and so forth.

If you don”t have an idea for a research topic or if your teacher did not assign a specific topic for your paper, consider the following suggestions. You will almost certainly get a better grade if your topic explores more than just what you can find in library books, online subscription resources, or the free Web. Think about turning your topic into a thought-provoking question for you to explore—one in which you add value to the information you find.

Think about what is interesting to you and see if you can connect that interest to the requirements of the paper. For example, if the teacher has assigned a broad topic such as “Change over time in U.S. History” and you are passionate about Corvettes, consider connecting the topics in this way: “How has the design of automobiles over time influenced the way Americans buy and use their cars?”

Here is another example for a student who loves photography: “How has photography and its advances changed the definition of what it means to be an American?”

One more example for a student who enjoys reading literature written by women during a particular time period: “Did the lives and writings of the women in the Beat generation serve as precursors to the feminist movement in the 1970s?”

In addition:

• Browse the library shelves. (Go to the library and look at books on the shelves!)

• Browse the online reference services to which the school has
subscriptions.

• Talk to your parents, teachers and friends about good topics.

This feature section will help you get organized and complete your science fair project. Science fair can be a lot of fun if you approach it in an organized way. Here you will find links to science fair ideas and some great tools.

1. Big6 Science Fair Project Organizer
Use this handy organizer for your science fair project from beginning to end! This is a helpful tool that takes you from finding a topic to presenting and evaluating your results.

2. Helpful Science Fair Links
Cyberfair: The Virtual Science Fair
Students developed this great site for all aspects of science fair projects. You can see a sample project, get ideas for your own, look at the steps for doing a project, see sample judging sheets and much more. Created by students from Mankato, Minnesota schools–Check it out!

What Makes a Good Science Fair Project?
The California State Science Fair site explains how to make your project the best.

3. Scientific Method
The Internet Public Library’s “What is the Scientific Method?”
IPL has links to various sites that explain the scientific method.

4. Ideas for Topics
Science Fairs Homepage
“A project of the Eastern Newfoundland Science Fairs Council, this homepage is designed to aid students in the most difficult aspect of their science fair experience; getting an idea.” Click on the links for your grade level for great ideas!

All links used with permission.

Jump down to Citing Sources.

Note Taking

Taking notes in middle school and high school should be more than just copying common knowledge, facts or ideas from others. In addition to the note taking from sources such as books, web sites, journals and texts, you should add your own ideas and opinions about the information. Jamie McKenzie calls this “green ink” or fresh thinking (McKenzie, 2000). You should also use electronic means whenever possible to take and store notes. This makes notes easily accessible and searchable, as well as allowing for ease of revising, amending, and creating a final product or paper. (McKenzie, 2000)

Note taking tips:

1. Paraphrase: Don’t copy and paste huge blocks of text. If you need the information from a large amount of text, paraphrase it. Paraphrasing is appropriate for supporting information, biographical information, predictions, hypothesis, and drawing conclusions. You will put the information into your own words. This type of note taking must be cited (giving credit to its source).
2. Summarize (read a large section for overall meaning and summarize it into one or two sentences). Summarizing is typically used for beginning research, i.e., general explanatory material. It must be cited unless the information contains common facts and knowledge.
3. Copy and paste small portions of text such as specific details, facts, definitions, and statistics. Typically you don’t need to cite this kind of information if it is common knowledge, unless it is a new or unique perspective on the knowledge.
4. Direct quotes. Quotations are reserved for one or two sentence statements that prove a point or reveal an attitude. Don’t use quotations to make your point, just to back it up. They are especially appropriate for primary sources such as diaries, journals, speeches, interviews, letters, memos, manuscripts, memoirs, and autobiographies. You need to use quotation marks and footnotes. (Stripling and Pitts, 1988)

Tip to avoid plagiarism: Add quotation marks around text that is extracted directly from the source, and add brackets or some other notation to information that you summarize or paraphrase as soon as you write, type or paste the notes in the note taking form (see below). Do this so you won’t forget whether or not it is a direct quote or paraphrased when you are using the information in a paper. You will include the quotation marks around a direct quote in your final paper. You do not need to put quotation marks around a paraphrase or summary, but you do need to cite either.

Possible electronic organizers for note taking:

Word processed.

Instructions for saving the note taking form as a template in Microsoft Word:

1. Download this form created in Microsoft Word.
2. Click on File > Save As…
3. Title it with a short descriptive name such as NoteForm
4. Choose Document Template for Save as type. Notice that the folder that it will save into has changed to Templates. This will save it as a template. Click OK
   Every time you choose New Office Document, there is an icon for that form. When selected, it comes up as an untitled Word document, but it has the form fields for you to fill in.Here is the same note taking form template (in PDF format). This one is used to record notes by hand. You will need Acrobat Reader to view or print this file. However, to save time and effort you are strongly encouraged to take notes in digital form whenever possible.

Create a database.

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Citing Sources

Do it! Check with your teacher to see if he or she prefers parenthetical citation or footnotes. Here is what you need to know:

1. To create parenthetical citations you will create a Works Cited list on a separate page at the end of your paper. It is alphabetized by author (or title if there is no author). Use this page for information on writing the citations.
2. If you are using footnotes, you will cite your sources on the page on which they appear. Microsoft Word does this automatically:Type the text that you wish to cite. After the period insert the footnote (don’t put a space). Here’s how:
   • Click on Insert on the menu bar.
   • Click Footnote…
   • Click OK at the dialog box (unless you need to customize it).
   • Word will put your cursor at the bottom of the page with the footnote number. Type in the citation. The author’s name will appear in normal order (not reversed), separated from the other information with a comma. Publication data (City: Publisher, year) appears in parentheses, and no period is used until the very end of the citation.
   • Continue typing text in the body of the paper above.
   • Note: You can put more than one footnote on a page.

References

McKenzie, Jamie. (2000) Beyond Technology: Questioning, Research and the Information Literate School. Bellingham, WA: FNO Press.

Note taking tips modified from: Stripling, Barbara K. and Judy M. Pitts. (1988). Brainstorms and Blueprints: Teaching Library Research as a Thinking Process. Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited, Inc.

Middle school and high school students: Use this organizer to develop and create successful projects.