What Juniors Want to Know (perhaps not what you'd expect?)

As juniors continue working on the first of the two major research papers they will complete this year, we provide feedback as they reach the following checkpoints:

• Research questions
• Works cited lists
• Thesis statements

This research paper, which is assigned in English, uses The Great Gatsby's examination of social class, equity, and The American Dream as a launchpad for research. Students choose their own topics for research. We classified our juniors' research questions into 11 broad categories:

• Civil/Equal rights/Discrimination/Social justice
• Cultural messaging
• Education
• Family
• Law enforcement/Military/National security
• Mental/Physical Health/Wellness
• Politics
• Prosperity/Business
• Science
• Social pathology
• Technology

The chart below shows how many students gravitated to each topic. 

As one reviews the above classifications, it is surprisingly easy to let ones' personal viewpoints influence expectations about the subcategories that could nest under each parent classification. Go ahead. Give it a try.
... pause

Our juniors are independent thinkers who are grappling with current issues in their own way. They are bringing their experiences, interests, and ideas to their understanding of, and predictions about the world they will inhabit as adults.

We compiled all 138 research questions we have seen so far into word clouds, which are images composed of research questions in which the size of each word indicates its frequency of use.

This deep dive into our junior's curiosity provides us with ideal collection development information. We are building a research pathfinder to help our learners access seminal work on their topics in a variety of formats.

• articles
• books
• radio or podcasts
• video

and also ideas and people that/who are getting a lot of traction in the media.

The pathfinder is a work in progress. This exercise will guide our next additions and revisions. For example, our book recommendations need to be reorganized. We have the right books, but our classifications do not consistently align with students' research questions. For example, we placed books on race relations under civil rights, but student research questions in that category focused on women's rights. Students who chose to examine race did so through the lens of either education, law enforcement, or prosperity.

Student work informs our practice. Co-teaching with our colleagues empowers us to improve our collection, our instruction, and ultimately student achievement. We are very fortunately to teach in such a collaborative learning community. Have a wonderful holiday. 

December is a Flurry of Reading, Research and Writing Good Questions

NCHS Reads

There is a general perception that teenagers do not read. Our data collection tells a different story. We've circulated nearly 1,700 books this year. Clicking through the slides below tells us that students prefer print reading for fiction and digital reading for research. Our students read more books on social sciences and history than any other Dewey classification. The database chart suggests that students carefully align their database use with their inquiry research tasks. While Gale (comprehensive one-stop-shop for K-12 research) usage was high in September, it dropped off in October. On the other hand, JSTOR (scholarly research) and EBSCO (primarily eBooks and academic research) usage surged in October. Overall database usage increased in October. Once we get the statistics, November will likely show a surge in ProQuest usage. This is our National Newspapers database, which is a core resource for the Junior Research Paper.

Freshman Reading

Ms. Magilnick and Ms. Fitzpatrick's students selected books for literature circles. Their books will prime students for research on a theme explored in their chosen narrative. They will deliver a speech on their inquiry findings as a culminating experience to conclude the unit. Students were presented with a selection of 25 or so possible titles. What follows is a list of the books students chose. 

Ms. Hamill launched a graphic novel reading unit. Her students will read one of the following two books. 

Research Begins with Inquiry

Teacher-Librarians are co-teaching with English teachers to give juniors feedback on research questions, thesis statements, and works cited. Juniors analyze their research notes to develop original thesis statements and create properly formatted works cited that reflect the in-text citations used in the research paper.

Citing Sources MLA Style

Freshmen are learning how to cite sources using Modern Language Association formatting. Students watch video tutorials at their own pace and complete a short assessment to practice creating proper works cited.  

Makerspace Moves

World Language students creatively prepared for International Day.

AP Government and Politics students designed a Presidential Election Game that had a mix of strategy and luck. The game addressed ideas, such as assembling a campaign staff, Invisible Primary, and Electoral College.

AP Economics classes investigated market structures, specifically monopolistic competition, by creating hamburgers. The student's work demonstrated why fast food restaurants are excellent examples of this type of market. Very similar, but with important differences, students worked to create the "best" burger and then marketed their design to the class in the following period.