research based lesson plan in english

Research Based Lesson Design

Here is the presentation used at the Dig Deeper into RBLD training .

In Anaheim Elementary School District, our core audience is English learners.  Tier one instruction must be designed to meet the needs of at least 80% of students which typically includes English learners.  While all students benefit from Explicit Direct Instruction (EDI), English learners need EL scaffolds in conjunction with EDI.  With Research Based Lesson Design (RBLD), English learner strategies are planned for every instructional phases of EDI.  For a one page printable handout of the EL scaffolds in RBLD,  click here .

Both Concept Development and Guided Practice are taught using  a gradual release of responsibility .

For lesson planning, the  sequence that RBLD phases are planned  differs from the order in which they are taught.  Grade level teams are encouraged to collaborate in planning lessons.  A lesson using RBLD can be planned using different formats.  Some possible options are in a  PowerPoint , on paper and pencil, on a poster, or using this optional  template  (Click “File,” then “Make a copy.”)  Contact your Curriculum Coach for any support.

Learning Objectives

Activate prior knowledge, lesson importance, concept development, skill development, guided practice, lesson closure, independent practice, strategies used throughout a lesson.

Content objective is defined, displayed, and reviewed orally.

Visuals/TPR as appropriate for clarification

Highlight, circle, color code

Academic language restated in more comprehensible language

Sentence stem

Prior lesson visual support

Primary language connections (e.g. cognates)

Write, draw, share, TPR during Interact Step

Bridge Map to connect new learning

Multi-Flow Map that shows the effects from learning the lesson’s objective

Examples are visually displayed

Sentence frames or stems

Contextualized definitions  and  vocabulary charts

Discovery Education clips (Web 2.0 support)

Visual indications for examples v. non-examples

Pictorial support ,  TPR ,  realia

Highlighting, circling, underlining, color coding

Thinking Maps

Flow Map for procedure

Note-taking/process grids

Partner support

Sentence frames

Visual support/TPR

Color coding

Access to visuals from the lesson

Structured Think Pair Share

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8 Module 8: Research-Based Instructional Strategies

Guiding Questions for Module 8

• What are research-based teaching strategies?
• How do effective teachers think about teaching strategies?
• How do effective teachers maximize the use of research-based teaching strategies?

Introduction

The act of teaching is a performing art. Like musicians or actors, teachers are always focused on their audience. We aim to engage, inspire, and inform. Like other performers, we know some of our techniques are more effective than others, and we consistently seek to hone our craft. A master violinist practices scales every day to improve her performance. In a similar way, a master teacher attempts to think of more interesting questions, meaningful examples, and useful feedback. The act of teaching is both art and science, imagination and skill.

The Universe of Effective Teaching Strategies

Scores of variations and combinations of teaching strategies exist from which teachers may choose. The best teachers are aware of the universe of teaching strategies and carefully select the right combination while teaching a particular subject to a particular group of students. Again, there is no “magic bullet” or perfect strategy, and all require a skillful, competent, artistic teacher to breath life into them. The first step, however, is understanding something about the universe that is available to you–the article below does just that.

Read: Beck, Charles R. “A Taxonomy for Identifying, Classifying and Interrelating Teaching Strategies.” The Journal of General Education JGE. 47, no. 1 (1998): 37-62.

Research-based Teaching Strategies

Researchers have studied teaching strategies for decades and we now have evidence of those strategies that seem to have greatest influence on academic achievement.  Robert Marzano (2017) conducted a meta-analyses of education research on teaching strategies to see which strategies seemed most related to student academic achievement—at all levels and across all subjects. Interesting ideas.

Here are Marzano’s top nine teaching strategies in order of effect size (i.e., actual effect on student achievement):

• Comparing, contrasting, classifying, analogies, and metaphors . (Effect size=1.61 or 45 percentile points)
• Summarizing and note-taking . (Effect size=1.0 or 34 percentile points)
• Reinforcing effort and giving praise . (Effect size=0.8 or 29 percentile points
• Homework and practice . (Effect size=0.77 or 28 percentile points)
• Nonlinguistic representation . (Effect size=0.75 or 27 percentile points)
• Cooperative learning . (Effect size=0.74 or 27 percentile points)
• Setting objectives and providing feedback . (Effect size=0.61 or 23 percentile points)
• Generating and testing hypotheses . (Effect size=0.61 or 23 percentile points)
• Cues, questions, and advanced organizers . (Effect size=0.59 or 22 percentile points)

Read: Hoover, Clara. 2006. “Research-Based Instructional Strategies.” School Library Monthly 22 (8): 26–28 .

Marzano’s strategies, however, are only as good as the teacher employing them. His list of “high-yield strategies” are popular throughout the United States; however, Marzano warns about their possible misuse.

Read: Marzano, Robert J. 2009. “Setting the Record Straight on ‘High-Yield’ Strategies.”  Phi Delta Kappan  91 (1): 30–37.

EDCI 702: Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment Copyright © 2020 by Thomas Vontz and Lori Goodson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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The ABCs of Rigorous Lesson Design

Cognitive Rigor Is More Nuanced Than You Think

Depth of knowledge in action, putting it all together: lesson design moves, (a)sk a series of probing questions that increase in depth and complexity to uncover thinking., (b)uild schemas in each content domain., (c)onsider ways to strategically scaffold learning for different specific purposes., (d)esign complex tasks that emphasize evidence-based solutions., (e)ngage students in metacognition and self-reflection before, during, and after each learning opportunity or lesson..

Shifting Teacher–Student Roles Using Depth of Knowledge Planning

Hess, K. (2018). A local assessment toolkit to promote deeper learning . Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Hess, K., Carlock, J., & Walkup, J. (2009). What exactly do "fewer, clearer, and higher standards" really look like in the classroom? Educational Research in Action. Retrieved from https://01fd4346-c1b0-45d9-899e-3654cb2c37d5.filesusr.com/ugd/5e86bd_2f72d4acd00a4494b0677adecafd119f.pdf

Karin Hess, EdD , is founder and president of Educational Research in Action and author of the Hess Cognitive Rigor Matrices. She is a former classroom teacher and school administrator with more than 40 years of experience in curriculum, instruction, and assessment. She is an internationally recognized leader in applying the concepts of cognitive rigor, depth of knowledge, and learning progressions to the design and development of state and school-based curriculum and assessment systems. An expert in multiple content areas, she specializes in the design and use of performance-based assessments for preK–12 students.

Hess has authored or coauthored more than a dozen books in the field of education, including A Local Assessment Toolkit to Promote Deeper Learning (Corwin, 2018).

ASCD is a community dedicated to educators' professional growth and well-being.

Let us help you put your vision into action., related articles.

Creating Autonomy Within Fidelity

Been to a Good Lecture?

Taking Risks with Rough Draft Teaching

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Leading for a New Vision of Science Teaching

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9 High-Yield Research-Based Instructional Strategies and How I Would Use Them

Written by Joshua Prieur, Ed.D.

Teachers , see how Prodigy's game-based learning tools can enhance your everyday teaching strategies!

• Teaching Strategies

What is a research-based instructional strategy?

What are the 9 high-yield instructional strategies, 9 ways i would use high-yield instructional methods in my teaching strategies, how prodigy uses research to support game-based learning.

• Research-based instructional strategy vs practice

In my eight years as a classroom teacher and a school administrator, I came across many different instructional strategies that educators can use to help their learners engage with curriculum content.

But did you know research has shown that some teaching strategies are more effective than others?

In this article, I cover the nine types of high-yield instructional strategies! I also provide examples for each so that you can put impactful, research-based instructional strategies to work in your classroom to get the best student learning outcomes possible.

Research-based instructional strategies are strategies that have been identified, by independent research, to be the most effective at influencing student learning outcomes and student achievement.

For years, researchers have worked tirelessly to understand the most effective teaching methods with the goal of improving classroom instruction.

Here are some influential educational research studies about instructional strategies:

Dr. George L. Gropper's 1974 book entitled Instructional Strategies

His text covered several competencies that instructors should have, including:

• Understanding how to properly sequence instructional content
• Considering the variety of content that should be provided to learners
• Determining the volume of practice that learners need to attain skill mastery

Dr. Charles R. Beck’s 1998 article entitled A Taxonomy for Identifying, Classifying, and Interrelating Teaching Strategies

This article helped develop categories for the various instructional strategies that are commonly implemented to engage students in learning content.

His goal was to bring cohesion to professional development and further advance the field of research in this area.

Drs. Robert J. Marzano, Jane E. Pollock, and Debra J. Pickering’s 2001 book entitled Classroom Instruction That Works: Research-Based Strategies for Increasing Student Achievement

This book made a huge splash because it identified 9 “high-yield” instructional strategies that were shown to have an outsized impact on student learning. In 2012, a second edition was published.

In order of impact, the 9 “high-yield” instructional strategies that Drs. Marzano, Pollock, and Pickering defined are:

• Identifying similarities and differences
• Summarizing and note-taking
• Reinforcing effort and providing recognition
• Homework and practice
• Non-linguistic representations
• Cooperative learning
• Setting objectives and providing feedback
• Generating and testing hypotheses
• Cues, questions, and advance organizers

1. Identifying similarities and differences

There are four key cognitive elements to this strategy, “comparing, classifying, creating metaphors, and creating analogies” as outlined by Connie Scoles West and Dr. Marzano .

To make the most of this strategy, you’ll want to make sure that you’re anchoring yourself on a clear definition for each of the four key cognitive elements.

Once you’ve done that, you can model best practices for your students and keep them focused on the critical content. You might also support them by providing them with tools like graphic organizers.

2. Summarizing and note-taking

An instructional guide on this strategy published by Dr. Ria A. Schmidt and Dr. Marzano outlines some of the important steps associated with this strategy and, luckily, there are a plethora of ways to implement them.

You help students with summarizing by asking them to create mnemonic devices or even by giving them the opportunity to re-enact scenes from books you’re teaching.

3. Reinforcing effort and providing recognition

Sometimes a little bit of praise can go a long way. But what behaviors should be praised?

Like Dr. Carol Dweck’s concept of a Growth Mindset , it’s important to direct praise towards reinforcing behaviors tied to the level of effort students put forth in their work rather than providing holistic (but unspecific) praise like saying, “you’re so smart!”

As an example, let’s say you have two students in class who have worked on an assignment, but time is tight, and you only have time to give one of them positive reinforcement.

One student has struggled to get through it but has taken the extra time and effort to really learn the concept and content while the other student breezed right through it effortlessly.

In this situation, you’d focus your praise on the student who worked extra-hard to persevere because it reinforces the behavior to work through challenges as learning occurs.

This works no matter the age and across content areas– all the way up to high school (and even beyond)!

4. Homework and practice

Regardless of whether it’s at home or at school, there is a reason for the saying “practice makes perfect.”

Students need to have the opportunity to engage in meaningful practice with the content they’re aiming to learn.

According to Drs. Marzano, Pollock and Pickering, an important consideration tied to the amount of homework that students get is their age. Ideally, younger students are assigned less work to complete at home while students who are older can take on a little bit more.

The great news is that homework or practice doesn’t need to be tied to rote bookwork that can be tedious.

There are many different ways that you can make it exciting for students such as encouraging students to practice learning through digital games like Prodigy Math or Prodigy English !

5. Non-linguistic representations

Asking your students to create non-linguistic representations of the material they need to know is a great way to encourage creative thinking (especially for your visual-spatial learners) within your instructional practices.

Sometimes, creating a graphic representation of something you need to learn is a great way to cement a picture in your mind for recall or application later.

This highly creative strategy can be easily applied in the classroom by asking small groups of students to put together a thinking map or storyboard to help them outline critical elements of a text they’re working through.

6. Cooperative learning

Get your students working in small groups! That’s the name-of-the-game for this instructional strategy. However, there are a few key elements to keep in mind to make the most of it

Ideally, you’re able to take the time to carefully formulate groups so that they include students with varying ability levels. Once you’ve got the groups formulated, it’s best practice to ensure that the students are assigned roles so that each has ownership over the task.

In addition, cooperative learning often works best when you’re able to circulate around the room to monitor the small groups and provide support.

When you need to have students complete highly rigorous and complex tasks — especially if those tasks benefit from students who each bring unique abilities to the table — then getting students working in a small group is a great way to help them build interpersonal skills while also sharing ownership in the finished product.

7. Setting objectives and providing feedback

A strategy that’s commonly used to drive effective meetings is to start by stating the overall goal so that participants know the planned outcome right from the start.

That same anchoring strategy can be effectively used by teachers in the classroom.

By writing the educational standard (or a version of it that is in more student-friendly language) up on the board, students will know where their learning journey will take them for the day.

8. Generating and testing hypotheses

Get your students thinking by asking them to generate hypotheses. This strategy can be a fun way to get all of your students engaged.

Asking students to determine what’s about to happen and then having them participate in an experiment is a great way to get them active in their learning.

But hypothesis generation isn’t just reserved for science class. Reading a new book? Show the students the front and back cover and ask them to write down their hypothesis for what will happen at the beginning, middle and end of the book!

9. Cues, questions and advance organizers

It can be a real challenge to help students get a sense of which material they should be focusing their attention and energy on.

One great way to help students learn how to focus is to provide them with advance organizers or a list of guided questions that they should be thinking about as they engage with learning materials.

Ready to start a new book but want to keep your student focused on certain elements of it?

Create an advance organizer that covers the specific material you want to cover. It could be a list of vocabulary words, character descriptions, or even a plot graph.

This can be a great tool to support metacognition, which is helping students think about the way they think!

1. Visualize similarities and differences with tools

Identifying similarities and differences can be simple. Let’s say that you’re teaching 2nd grade and you’ve just read the class a book.

After reading, you can start a discussion about similarities and differences and use a Venn Diagram tool, such as Read Write Think by NCTE .

2. Use note-taking templates

Most students don’t have natural-born summarizing and note-taking skills. They’ll need your help to learn how to take effective notes.

Taking the time to train them to take effective notes using templates can help them to learn what to focus on — and is a skill that will help them in higher education!

3. Display students' work often

When students have worked extremely hard on a task, it’s a great opportunity to reinforce effort and provide them with some well-deserved recognition .

One great way to recognize students, in addition to verbal praise, is to post the student’s work up on the classroom wall for everyone to see as an example.

Best of all, this can be done across all subjects, like English, math and social studies.

4. Make homework fun with game-based learning tools

Getting students to complete homework and get much-needed practice can sometimes be a challenge.

Students may have after-school sports, family responsibilities, or other things that compete for their attention. It can also be tough to motivate students to crack open a textbook and start answering math questions.

This may be the perfect opportunity to leverage Prodigy Education’s digital game-based learning tools .

Tools like these can provide a fun way for students to interact with the learning content they need to know.

5. Foster learning with audible or visual representations

An interesting way to get your students involved in non-linguistic representations is by having them tap into their creative side and build out storyboards.

As you’re working through literature and focusing on key events in the text, students can create storyboards or generate thinking maps as a means of showing what they have learned in a way that isn’t writing-based.

This can help them to create a mental picture in their minds that’ll help them to remember content!

6. Try a group-based approach

Getting students involved in cooperative learning is a great way to promote student engagement. One fun way to do this is through a group-based book study.

First, strategically prepare balanced groups so that each group has a mix of students with different learning styles and personalities. Then, choose texts that are leveled appropriately for the students in the group.

Depending on their age, you may want to support them in introducing the task and defining roles for the different members of the group.

Once they start their group work, you can circulate between the groups and support them through the process!

7. Align on learning goals and display them clearly

You can implement setting objectives and providing feedback super easily!

Section off a portion of your whiteboard using painter’s tape and keep the learning goals in the same place so that students know exactly where to look when they want a refresher.

By referencing the goal during your lesson, you reinforce the connective tissue between your lesson and what students need to know, especially as you conduct formative assessments like quizzes to monitor for growth towards academic achievement.

8. Encourage experimentation

One fun way to help students generate and test hypotheses is through group-based science experiments in class.

To accomplish this, you’ll need to prepare a few sets of experiment materials and carefully consider the composition of your groups.

As students work to test their hypotheses, you can observe how they’re working together on their problem-solving journey.

Want some inspiration? Here’s a list of 60 easy science experiments !

9. Incorporate reciprocal teaching techniques into your lessons

You may enjoy implementing the reciprocal teaching technique as you employ the questions, cues and advance organizers strategy.

Since this follows the ‘I do, we do, you do’ formula, you can create an advance organizer for students to reference throughout the lesson.

You can include key questions that students should be thinking about as they’re completing their learning activities.

You can also make advance organizers for any lesson as an accommodation for special education students as appropriate.

We believe that game-based learning can be one of the most effective strategies that teachers and parents can use.

We’ve carefully looked at academic research to help inform how Prodigy Math and Prodigy English are designed.

According to Partovi & Razavi (1998), digital games can create high levels of motivation in students. That’s why our philosophy of education, Motivation First! helps continuously guide our thinking and helps us to build a meaningful and fun learning experience for students. 

We also think hard about how we’re presenting students with learning content, which is why we take a student-centered approach to pedagogy .

We’ve specifically built learning supports like hints and video lessons into Prodigy Math, because we believe in supporting students with various learning styles.

We’re proud to continue to invest in understanding the academic and attitudinal impact of Prodigy Math , and we’re excited to do the same for Prodigy English.

The difference between a research-based instructional strategy and a research-based instructional practice

Research-based instructional strategies are strategies that were shown to have an outsized impact on student achievement in a large-scale study and cover broad categories that educators can leverage in their classroom.

Putting any of these strategies into action categories can help you as you aim to deliver research-based instructional practice (i.e., choosing to use what has previously shown to be impactful in student learning).

Want more professional development from Prodigy? Check out five PD strategies to help make your next session even more effective.

Sign up for your free teacher account for Prodigy Math and Prodigy English today and put game-based learning to work in your classroom!

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Research-based Principles of Learning & Teaching Strategies

Eberly center for teaching excellence, carnegie mellon university.

• Administer a diagnostic assessment or have students assess their own prior knowledge ( See “Selected Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs) for Getting Feedback on Student Learning” ).
• Use brainstorming to reveal prior knowledge.
• Identify discipline-specific conventions explicitly.
• Ask students to make and test predictions (See “ Teaching for Retention in Science, Engineering & Mathematics ”). 
• Connect the material to students’ interests.
• Provide authentic, real-world tasks (See “ Teaching for Retention in Science, Engineering & Mathematics ").
• Show relevance to students’ current academic lives.
• Provide rubrics ( See “Best Practices for Designing & Grading Exams” , and “Sample Laboratory Report Rubrics” ). 
• Provide students with the organizational structure of the course.
• Share the organization of each lecture, lab, or discussion explicitly ( See “Teaching Strategies" ).
• Make connections among concepts explicit.
• Ask students to draw a concept map to expose their understanding of how course material is organized. 
• Provide isolated practice of weak or missing skills.
• Give students opportunities to practice skills including low-stakes, ungraded assignments ( See “Selected Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs) for Getting Feedback on Student Learning” ).
• Give students opportunities to apply skills or knowledge in diverse contexts.
• Specify skills or knowledge and ask students to Identify contexts in which they apply. 
• Be explicit about your goals in your course materials ( See “Strategies for Effective Lesson Planning” ).
• Stage assignments by breaking tasks into smaller assignments.
• Look for patterns of errors in student work.
• Prioritize your feedback ( See “Responding to Student Writing – A Sample Commenting Protocol” ).
• Incorporate peer feedback. 
• Make uncertainty safe.
• Examine your assumptions about students.
• Model inclusive language, behavior, and attitudes ( See “Diversity and Inclusion in the Classroom” ).
• Establish and reinforce ground rules for interaction ( See “Guidelines for Class Participation” ).
• Use the syllabus and first day of class to establish the course climate ( See “Creating your Syllabus” ). 
• Check students’ understanding of the task.
• Have students do guided self-assessments.
• Require students to reflect on and annotate their own work.
• Prompt students to analyze the effectiveness of their study skills.
• Have students engage in peer feedback. 

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Interactive Science: How to Design Research-based Science Lessons

Recently, a school district administrator emailed me and asked, “If you were going to blend strategies that work into a science lesson, how would you do it?” That question really piqued my interest. Mixing instructional strategies that are proven to work with best practices in science teaching and learning sounds like a win/win. After much thinking, here’s how I would accomplish this, based on the research.

Step #1: Set Goals for the Science Lesson

Dr. John Almarode, who wrote Visible Learning for Science , suggests setting the following goals for science lessons. The goals are straightforward and represent a wonderful response to the question asked.

• Get students interested in lifelong learning and science that works.
• Give students more control over their own learning.
• Build in ways to assess students to discover where they are, and then match strategies to what they need to learn.

The first goal is practical and makes learning relevant to the learner. The second ties into John Hattie’s strong belief in the need for students to be self-regulated learners, individuals who must have agency and ownership over their learning and are able to track their progress. In tracking their own growth towards learning targets, they can make decisions, which gives them voice and choice.

Step #2: Pre-Assess Student Learning

When determining what students already know about a topic or skill, you have to ask, “How do we pre-assess students where they are at?” This leads to the question, “What are some formative assessments we could use?” These assessments provide insights into where students may fall on the SOLO Taxonomy. SOLO stands for “Structure of Observed Learning Outcome.” This isn’t the first time I’ve mentioned SOLO , as have many others.

Let’s revisit what SOLO Taxonomy offers:

SOLO illustrates the qualitative differences. It indicates the differences between student responses and their levels of understanding. It classifies outcomes, relying on complexity and understanding.

SOLO does this so that you can make a judgement on the quality of student responses to assessment tasks . It relies on five levels of understanding:

Prestructural: at this level the learner is missing the point

Unistructural: a response based on a single point.

Multistructural: a response with multiple unrelated points.

Relational: points presented in a logically related answer.

Extended abstract: demonstrating an abstract and deep understanding through unexpected extension.

This FutureLearn chart clarifies the levels:

The Structure of the Observed Learning Outcome (SOLO) taxonomy (Adapted from Biggs & Tang, 2011) as cited in source

The main benefit of the SOLO Taxonomy is that it gives you, as the teacher, a set of specific terms (e.g., Unistructural, Multistructural, Relational) that can describe a student’s level of understanding. This level of understanding pinpoints what strategies may work best for them as they more through the learning process.

For students who are unistructural, they are in the surface phase of learning. This means that you might rely on those types of strategies, which could include vocabulary programs, direct instruction, and/or flipped classroom.

For learners who are relational, in the deep learning phase, different strategies work best. These may include concept mapping, metacognition, and reflection.

Knowing where a child falls on the taxonomy helps identify their level of understanding. It also assists you in knowing what to do next and to set success criteria.

What Is Success Criteria?

This phrase involves students knowing and understanding the answer to a simple question. That is, “How will I know I have learned it?” It is sometimes expressed as a statement, “I’ll know I’ve got it if….” You may want to revisit COLOSO in this blog entry .

Step #3: Build Learning into the Science Lesson

Ready to start on lesson design? Let’s take a look at the process Dr. John Almarode elaborates on. I’ve included a few resources for each area. What would you add?

“Science education needs a mix of demonstrations, labs, and experiments. It also needs reading, writing, and discussing with other scientists,” says Almarode. To that end, the lesson process he describes looks like this:

a) Paired Demonstration and Writing Down Observations

• Demonstration
• Encourage students to write about what they observed

b) Clarifying Terms and Vocabulary

• Discussion about vocabulary terms
• Have students revise their writing using correct terms
• Final wrap-up

One key point that jumped out at me?

Every lesson (surface, deep, transfer) needs to have a clearly articulated learning intention. That learning intention must connect to success criteria. Remember, that is “What am I learning?” (learning intention) and “How will I know I have learned it?” (success criteria).

That’s quite a jump. To help the process make more sense, I put this diagram together that captures my understanding. Don’t be afraid to share your version.

Get a copy of this image via Google Slides or via Diagrams.net (requires you to authorize Diagrams.net in Google Drive account).

As you can see from this diagram, there’s a lot going on. To complicate matters, I’ve included some additional tools and strategy suggestions. How would you approach lesson design in your classroom with these three steps?

Matching Process to Resources

To provide some support, please find some relevant resources organized by the step in the process. I’ve organized them into a meta-collection in Wakelet. Explore and have fun.

Feature Image Source

Photo by author.

Miguel Guhlin

Transforming teaching, learning and leadership through the strategic application of technology has been Miguel Guhlin’s motto. Learn more about his work online at blog.tcea.org , mguhlin.org , and mglead.org /mglead2.org. Catch him on Mastodon @[email protected] Areas of interest flow from his experiences as a district technology administrator, regional education specialist, and classroom educator in bilingual/ESL situations. Learn more about his credentials online at mguhlin.net.

How to Make Interactive Maps with Google Slides and a Digital Whiteboard

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Princeton University Library

Toolkit for teaching research at princeton.

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Database/catalog searching, developing and narrowing a research topic, teaching how to evaluate sources, citing sources/citation management, orienting departmental majors to library resources, lesson plans for teaching remotely.

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(These were created for writing seminars but can be used for other courses)

• The Great Library Treasure Hunt Created by Kachina Allen and Audrey Welber for a Writing Seminar
• Library Treasure Hunt (Created by Audrey Welber for "Celebrity" Writing Seminar)
• You Love the Library Treasure Hunt created by Raf Allison
• First and Second Session Lesson Plans by Darwin Scott for "Decoding Dress"
• Library "Jeopardy" by Elana Broch
• Slavery WRI; library research & assessing sources R. Friedman w/N. Elder
• Intro to the Library Collaboration and Search Techniques
• Developing a Research Topic (Shannon Winston)
• Topic Formation in Library (Caswell-Klein)

(These were created for writing seminars but can be used for other courses.)

• Finding Your Dream Source Created by Greg Spears and Audrey Welber for "Music and Madness"
• Dream Source Sample Exercise Created by Sam Garcia and Audrey Welber
• Library Discovery Session Exercises Created by Writing Seminar Faculty member Cecily Swanson
• Advanced searching tips for Articles+ and the Library Catalog Intended as a Pre-draft assignment for Unit 3; it can easily be split up into two separate assignments/lessons.
• WRI 146 - session 1 R. Friedman w/instructor E. Ljung; exploring library resources and museum objects
• Narrowing Your Topic
• CRAAP Test for Evaluating Sources Created by Alex Davis for "Politics of Intimacy"
• Evaluating resources UC-Berkeley LibGuide: General, Scholarly vs. Popular, Primary and Secondary
• Evaluating Sources Created by Raf Allison
• Zotero Libguide (created by Audrey Welber)
• A short "getting started" video tutorial A 5 minute crash course on using Zotero at Princeton. Zotero can save you hours of frustration because it enables you to quickly import and organize your materials as you do your research and easily insert citations into Word (and google doc, Scrivener, Latek, etc) as you write. Zotero also generates a bibliography based on the sources you've cited (but can also create a standalone bibliography.)
• Endnote, Basic
• MolBio Junior Tutorial
• MolBio Tutorial Reflection reflection of how the lesson went

Preparation for your Zoom session:

A 10 minute getting started video from Zoom company

Preparation for your Zoom session for the Writing Seminars/important details about using Zoom with a class (culled from brainstorm session with many teaching librarians on 3/20)

Lesson plans/exercises:

Research Clinic

Outline Session #1

One of Audrey's lesson plans for first session

Elana's plan (4 short sessions)

Denise's plan for a Freshman Writing Seminar

Research Clinic             Research clinic sample plan

Mini exercises

Videos created for flipped classroom  ("asychronous" learning)

Thomas Keenan: 5 videos for a Writing Seminar Discovery Session

Wayne Bivens-Tatum: Zoom video creation tutorial (for a subject area class)

Audrey Welber: Articles+, Catalog, and Zotero

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• Last Updated: Mar 28, 2024 11:08 AM
• URL: https://libguides.princeton.edu/teachingtoolkit

• Our Mission

Resources and Downloads to Facilitate Inquiry-Based Learning

Find information, strategies, protocols, and tools to promote curiosity and engage students in asking questions, thinking critically, and solving problems.

Discover the Benefits of Inquiry-Based Learning

• A Case for Curiosity : Hear from one educator on the value of asking “why?” and learn how to preserve and nurture a curious mindset. (Edutopia, 2016)
• 3 Rules to Spark Learning : Watch a short video to understand how student questions seed real learning. (TED Talks, 2013)
• Why Curiosity Enhances Learning : Read about findings of a neurological study on curiosity. (Edutopia, 2014) 
• Designing Learning That Matters : Learn about the benefits of inquiry-driven, deep-learning experiences. (Edutopia, 2015)
• The Research Behind Choice and Inquiry-Based Education : Explore a collection of research and success stories. (A.J. Juliani)
• Excerpt From  Teaching for Meaningful Learning : Check out a book excerpt to review existing research. (Edutopia, 2008) 

Create Learning Environments That Foster Inquiry

• How to Bring ‘More Beautiful’ Questions Back to School : Take a look at five ways to create learning environments that value questions. (KQED’s MindShift, 2016)
• Creating a Culture of Inquiry : Understand how to honor inquiry within assignments and assessments. (Edutopia, 2015) 
• Preparing a Classroom Culture for Deeper Learning : Examine five cultural transitions to initiate. (Edutopia, 2015)
• Ten Tips for Launching an Inquiry-Based Classroom : Dive in and try a few of these tips yourself. (KQED's MindShift, 2015)

Plan Curriculum That Supports Inquiry

• Inquiry-Based Learning: An Approach to Educating and Inspiring Kids : Scan an in-depth inquiry-based learning guide for information on techniques and strategies for doing inquiry-based projects in any educational setting. (YouthLearn, 2016)
• Quality Instruction + Differentiation : Find out how to help students relate work to overarching questions. (Edutopia, 2015)
• Four Phases of Inquiry-Based Learning : See how to break out inquiry-based learning into four distinct stages. (TeachThought)
• Teaching Through Inquiry : Learn about "engage, explore, explain, and extend" as an instructional framework. (ASCD, 2013)
• Inquiry-Based Learning in a Literacy & Social Studies Classroom : Take five steps to launch a journey of historical inquiry. (Teaching Channel, 2013)

Use Strategies to Increase Inquiry in the Classroom

• Curiosity: The Force Within a Hungry Mind : Explore ten ways to encourage students to be curious. (Edutopia, 2015)
• Fostering Student Questions : Read about four protocols that can help scaffold student questions. (Edutopia, 2015)
• The Power of Asking the Right Questions : Understand when and how much to help students refocus questions. (Edutopia, 2015) 
• Encouraging the Einstein and Edison in Everyone : Discover how to teach creativity. (Edutopia, 2015)
• Learning to Work and Think Like an Artist : Find steps to develop artistic thinking. (Edutopia, 2015)
• Avoiding Learned Helplessness : See how to stop giving answers and instead ask more questions. (Edutopia, 2015)

Conduct Activities That Promote Inquiry

• Query Books : Ask students to chronicle their ideas, ponderings, and questions. (Edutopia, 2014)
• Hackathons : Check out a hackathon playbook to plan activities that provide experiences with overcoming failure.  (Edutopia, 2015)
• 20 Percent Time : Try out Genius Hour (a.k.a. 20 Percent Time). (Edutopia, 2013)
• Adventures with Dr. Smallz : Inspire students' need to know with a microscopic doctor lost in a patient's body. (Edutopia, 2014)
• Questions Before Answers : Use great questions that motivate learning. (Edutopia, 2014)
• School in the Cloud : Ask students to investigate a Big Question within a Self-Organized Learning Environment. (School in the Cloud)

Downloads and Examples From Schools That Work

Edutopia's flagship series highlights practices and case studies from K-12 schools and districts that are improving the way students learn. Below, find downloads used by practitioners at featured schools, and dive into real-world examples of inquiry-based learning.

Inquiry-Based Learning: Developing Student-Driven Questions

At Wildwood IB World Magnet School, teachers use student questions to drive lessons, and channel student curiosity into student-centered projects. These are a few of Wildwood's inquiry-based teacher tools.

• Curriculum Map for Grades K-5 : Download this chart to understand how Wildwood aligns its lines of inquiry to specific curricular themes, central ideas, and key concepts throughout the year.
• Personal Project Questions : Download a worksheet that includes prompts to help students focus and think through the topics of their research.
• Sample Research Worksheet : Download a sample "My Personal Project" worksheet to learn how teachers at Wildwood help students organize plans for projects; students record questions, research notes, unfamiliar vocabulary, and how they will demonstrate what they've learned. For another resource of this type, see Wildwood's Personal Project Planner .
• Personal Project Skills Survey : Download a project skills survey to discover how Wildwood students reflect on the skills they've tapped and personal work habits they've practiced while working on their projects.

Inquiry-Based Learning: From Teacher-Guided to Student-Driven

See how Ralston Elementary School teachers guide the inquiry process over a series of lessons and teach students how to ask deeper questions to prepare them to lead their own inquiry into specific problems.

"I Wonder" Questions: Harnessing the Power of Inquiry

Learn how educators at Crellin Elementary School use students' "I Wonder" questions to drive lesson planning, differentiate instruction, and foster student curiosity.

Inquiry-Based Learning in the Science Classroom  

Science students at Casey Middle School begin with a central question and seek answers through research, experimentation, and data analysis. Review a sample question and lesson plan to understand how this works in practice.

• Research Skills

50 Mini-Lessons For Teaching Students Research Skills

Please note, I am no longer blogging and this post hasn’t updated since April 2020.

For a number of years, Seth Godin has been talking about the need to “ connect the dots” rather than “collect the dots” . That is, rather than memorising information, students must be able to learn how to solve new problems, see patterns, and combine multiple perspectives.

Solid research skills underpin this. Having the fluency to find and use information successfully is an essential skill for life and work.

Today’s students have more information at their fingertips than ever before and this means the role of the teacher as a guide is more important than ever.

You might be wondering how you can fit teaching research skills into a busy curriculum? There aren’t enough hours in the day! The good news is, there are so many mini-lessons you can do to build students’ skills over time.

This post outlines 50 ideas for activities that could be done in just a few minutes (or stretched out to a longer lesson if you have the time!).

Learn More About The Research Process

I have a popular post called Teach Students How To Research Online In 5 Steps. It outlines a five-step approach to break down the research process into manageable chunks.

This post shares ideas for mini-lessons that could be carried out in the classroom throughout the year to help build students’ skills in the five areas of: clarify, search, delve, evaluate , and cite . It also includes ideas for learning about staying organised throughout the research process.

Notes about the 50 research activities:

• These ideas can be adapted for different age groups from middle primary/elementary to senior high school.
• Many of these ideas can be repeated throughout the year.
• Depending on the age of your students, you can decide whether the activity will be more teacher or student led. Some activities suggest coming up with a list of words, questions, or phrases. Teachers of younger students could generate these themselves.
• Depending on how much time you have, many of the activities can be either quickly modelled by the teacher, or extended to an hour-long lesson.
• Some of the activities could fit into more than one category.
• Looking for simple articles for younger students for some of the activities? Try DOGO News or Time for Kids . Newsela is also a great resource but you do need to sign up for free account.
• Why not try a few activities in a staff meeting? Everyone can always brush up on their own research skills!

• Choose a topic (e.g. koalas, basketball, Mount Everest) . Write as many questions as you can think of relating to that topic.
• Make a mindmap of a topic you’re currently learning about. This could be either on paper or using an online tool like Bubbl.us .
• Read a short book or article. Make a list of 5 words from the text that you don’t totally understand. Look up the meaning of the words in a dictionary (online or paper).
• Look at a printed or digital copy of a short article with the title removed. Come up with as many different titles as possible that would fit the article.
• Come up with a list of 5 different questions you could type into Google (e.g. Which country in Asia has the largest population?) Circle the keywords in each question.
• Write down 10 words to describe a person, place, or topic. Come up with synonyms for these words using a tool like  Thesaurus.com .
• Write pairs of synonyms on post-it notes (this could be done by the teacher or students). Each student in the class has one post-it note and walks around the classroom to find the person with the synonym to their word.

• Explore how to search Google using your voice (i.e. click/tap on the microphone in the Google search box or on your phone/tablet keyboard) . List the pros and cons of using voice and text to search.
• Open two different search engines in your browser such as Google and Bing. Type in a query and compare the results. Do all search engines work exactly the same?
• Have students work in pairs to try out a different search engine (there are 11 listed here ). Report back to the class on the pros and cons.
• Think of something you’re curious about, (e.g. What endangered animals live in the Amazon Rainforest?). Open Google in two tabs. In one search, type in one or two keywords ( e.g. Amazon Rainforest) . In the other search type in multiple relevant keywords (e.g. endangered animals Amazon rainforest).  Compare the results. Discuss the importance of being specific.
• Similar to above, try two different searches where one phrase is in quotation marks and the other is not. For example, Origin of “raining cats and dogs” and Origin of raining cats and dogs . Discuss the difference that using quotation marks makes (It tells Google to search for the precise keywords in order.)
• Try writing a question in Google with a few minor spelling mistakes. What happens? What happens if you add or leave out punctuation ?
• Try the AGoogleADay.com daily search challenges from Google. The questions help older students learn about choosing keywords, deconstructing questions, and altering keywords.
• Explore how Google uses autocomplete to suggest searches quickly. Try it out by typing in various queries (e.g. How to draw… or What is the tallest…). Discuss how these suggestions come about, how to use them, and whether they’re usually helpful.
• Watch this video  from Code.org to learn more about how search works .
• Take a look at  20 Instant Google Searches your Students Need to Know  by Eric Curts to learn about “ instant searches ”. Try one to try out. Perhaps each student could be assigned one to try and share with the class.
• Experiment with typing some questions into Google that have a clear answer (e.g. “What is a parallelogram?” or “What is the highest mountain in the world?” or “What is the population of Australia?”). Look at the different ways the answers are displayed instantly within the search results — dictionary definitions, image cards, graphs etc.

• Watch the video How Does Google Know Everything About Me?  by Scientific American. Discuss the PageRank algorithm and how Google uses your data to customise search results.
• Brainstorm a list of popular domains   (e.g. .com, .com.au, or your country’s domain) . Discuss if any domains might be more reliable than others and why (e.g. .gov or .edu) .
• Discuss (or research) ways to open Google search results in a new tab to save your original search results  (i.e. right-click > open link in new tab or press control/command and click the link).
• Try out a few Google searches (perhaps start with things like “car service” “cat food” or “fresh flowers”). A re there advertisements within the results? Discuss where these appear and how to spot them.
• Look at ways to filter search results by using the tabs at the top of the page in Google (i.e. news, images, shopping, maps, videos etc.). Do the same filters appear for all Google searches? Try out a few different searches and see.
• Type a question into Google and look for the “People also ask” and “Searches related to…” sections. Discuss how these could be useful. When should you use them or ignore them so you don’t go off on an irrelevant tangent? Is the information in the drop-down section under “People also ask” always the best?
• Often, more current search results are more useful. Click on “tools” under the Google search box and then “any time” and your time frame of choice such as “Past month” or “Past year”.
• Have students annotate their own “anatomy of a search result” example like the one I made below. Explore the different ways search results display; some have more details like sitelinks and some do not.

• Find two articles on a news topic from different publications. Or find a news article and an opinion piece on the same topic. Make a Venn diagram comparing the similarities and differences.
• Choose a graph, map, or chart from The New York Times’ What’s Going On In This Graph series . Have a whole class or small group discussion about the data.
• Look at images stripped of their captions on What’s Going On In This Picture? by The New York Times. Discuss the images in pairs or small groups. What can you tell?
• Explore a website together as a class or in pairs — perhaps a news website. Identify all the advertisements .
• Have a look at a fake website either as a whole class or in pairs/small groups. See if students can spot that these sites are not real. Discuss the fact that you can’t believe everything that’s online. Get started with these four examples of fake websites from Eric Curts.
• Give students a copy of my website evaluation flowchart to analyse and then discuss as a class. Read more about the flowchart in this post.
• As a class, look at a prompt from Mike Caulfield’s Four Moves . Either together or in small groups, have students fact check the prompts on the site. This resource explains more about the fact checking process. Note: some of these prompts are not suitable for younger students.
• Practice skim reading — give students one minute to read a short article. Ask them to discuss what stood out to them. Headings? Bold words? Quotes? Then give students ten minutes to read the same article and discuss deep reading.

All students can benefit from learning about plagiarism, copyright, how to write information in their own words, and how to acknowledge the source. However, the formality of this process will depend on your students’ age and your curriculum guidelines.

• Watch the video Citation for Beginners for an introduction to citation. Discuss the key points to remember.
• Look up the definition of plagiarism using a variety of sources (dictionary, video, Wikipedia etc.). Create a definition as a class.
• Find an interesting video on YouTube (perhaps a “life hack” video) and write a brief summary in your own words.
• Have students pair up and tell each other about their weekend. Then have the listener try to verbalise or write their friend’s recount in their own words. Discuss how accurate this was.
• Read the class a copy of a well known fairy tale. Have them write a short summary in their own words. Compare the versions that different students come up with.
• Try out MyBib — a handy free online tool without ads that helps you create citations quickly and easily.
• Give primary/elementary students a copy of Kathy Schrock’s Guide to Citation that matches their grade level (the guide covers grades 1 to 6). Choose one form of citation and create some examples as a class (e.g. a website or a book).
• Make a list of things that are okay and not okay to do when researching, e.g. copy text from a website, use any image from Google images, paraphrase in your own words and cite your source, add a short quote and cite the source. 
• Have students read a short article and then come up with a summary that would be considered plagiarism and one that would not be considered plagiarism. These could be shared with the class and the students asked to decide which one shows an example of plagiarism .
• Older students could investigate the difference between paraphrasing and summarising . They could create a Venn diagram that compares the two.
• Write a list of statements on the board that might be true or false ( e.g. The 1956 Olympics were held in Melbourne, Australia. The rhinoceros is the largest land animal in the world. The current marathon world record is 2 hours, 7 minutes). Have students research these statements and decide whether they’re true or false by sharing their citations.

Staying Organised

• Make a list of different ways you can take notes while researching — Google Docs, Google Keep, pen and paper etc. Discuss the pros and cons of each method.
• Learn the keyboard shortcuts to help manage tabs (e.g. open new tab, reopen closed tab, go to next tab etc.). Perhaps students could all try out the shortcuts and share their favourite one with the class.
• Find a collection of resources on a topic and add them to a Wakelet .
• Listen to a short podcast or watch a brief video on a certain topic and sketchnote ideas. Sylvia Duckworth has some great tips about live sketchnoting
• Learn how to use split screen to have one window open with your research, and another open with your notes (e.g. a Google spreadsheet, Google Doc, Microsoft Word or OneNote etc.) .

All teachers know it’s important to teach students to research well. Investing time in this process will also pay off throughout the year and the years to come. Students will be able to focus on analysing and synthesizing information, rather than the mechanics of the research process.

By trying out as many of these mini-lessons as possible throughout the year, you’ll be really helping your students to thrive in all areas of school, work, and life.

Also remember to model your own searches explicitly during class time. Talk out loud as you look things up and ask students for input. Learning together is the way to go!

You Might Also Enjoy Reading:

How To Evaluate Websites: A Guide For Teachers And Students

Five Tips for Teaching Students How to Research and Filter Information

Typing Tips: The How and Why of Teaching Students Keyboarding Skills

8 Ways Teachers And Schools Can Communicate With Parents

10 Replies to “50 Mini-Lessons For Teaching Students Research Skills”

Loving these ideas, thank you

This list is amazing. Thank you so much!

So glad it’s helpful, Alex! 🙂

Hi I am a student who really needed some help on how to reasearch thanks for the help.

So glad it helped! 🙂

seriously seriously grateful for your post. 🙂

So glad it’s helpful! Makes my day 🙂

How do you get the 50 mini lessons. I got the free one but am interested in the full version.

Hi Tracey, The link to the PDF with the 50 mini lessons is in the post. Here it is . Check out this post if you need more advice on teaching students how to research online. Hope that helps! Kathleen

Best wishes to you as you face your health battler. Hoping you’ve come out stronger and healthier from it. Your website is so helpful.

Comments are closed.

Research Lesson Plan

This lesson plan accompanies the BrainPOP topic, Research , and can be completed over several class periods. See suggested times for each section.

Students will:

Activate prior knowledge about how to do a research project.

Identify the sequence of events for conducting research.

Use critical thinking skills to analyze how and why having a focus is key to conducting research and doing a research report.

Demonstrate understanding through creative projects, such as producing a movie using research they gathered, or coding a game that challenges players to sort the different research steps.

Present projects and reflect on new understandings.

TEACHER PRE-PLANNING

For background on the Research Topic , click the Full Description link below the movie player.

The INVESTIGATE and CREATE sections of the lesson require students to use Make-a-Map, Make-a-Movie, and Creative Coding projects. Assign the Research Make-a-Map to the class in advance of the lesson. 

Approximate time: 20-25 minutes

Begin the lesson plan by activating students’ prior knowledge and making real-life connections.  Then show the movie to introduce the topic. 

• DISPLAY this Anchor Question on whiteboard and read it aloud: What are the signs of a good research question? Tell students they will investigate this question over the course of the lesson and will return to it at the end.
• ACTIVATE BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE by having pairs or small groups share with each other steps they’ve taken for doing a research project, including what has and hasn’t worked.
• READ ALOUD the description below the movie player.
• MAKE CONNECTIONS by asking students to share specific research projects they’ve worked on and what they learned from the experience. 
• WATCH the movie Research as a whole class on the whiteboard. Turn on the closed caption option to aid in comprehension.    

INVESTIGATE

Prompt students’ inquiry and critical thinking skills by having them find key details to build knowledge and understanding.

FIND EVIDENCE

• Students open their Make-a-Map Assignment and select or create a sequence map. They type the question they will investigate at the top:  What are the steps to conducting research for a research report?
• As students watch the movie again, they identify the steps for doing a research report. Evidence can include text, images, and movie clips. ADDED CHALLENGE : Prompt students to include evidence for why research isn’t always a linear process; why returning to earlier steps is sometimes a key step to conducting research. SUPPORT TIP: Help students by identifying the first step or two for doing a research report, and add it to the concept map.
• Students SUBMIT their maps when they are done.

Approximate time: 45-60 minutes

Students demonstrate their understanding by synthesizing their ideas and expressing them through one or more of the following hands-on, creative projects.  They can work individually or collaborate. Remind them to use evidence from their concept maps in their creations.

APPLY KNOWLEDGE   

• Research Memes :   Code a research meme. It can be about a research topic, the research process, or even a famous researcher.  Your meme can be funny or serious!
• A Research Tutorial : Produce a mini tutorial for classmates describing a research report you’re working on now, and the steps you are taking. Include your research question. 
• Research Steps Game : Code a game challenging players to identify when in the research process different steps happen: beginning, middle, or end.

Wrap up the lesson with student presentations and a final reflection on learning.

PRESENT : Students present their completed projects to their classmates. 

WRAP UP : Draw attention to the Anchor Question again: What are the signs of a good research question? Students answer the question using their new knowledge.

Lesson Plan Common Core State Standards Alignments

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