### Lesson Plan: Research Skills
### Year Group: Year 8
### Subject: Language Arts
### Duration: 60 minutes
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#### Objective:
- Students will understand the importance of research skills.
- Students will learn to locate, evaluate, and synthesise information from various sources.
#### Materials Needed:
- Whiteboard and markers
- Laptops or tablets with internet access
- Notebooks and pencils
- Printed handouts (Research checklist and Evaluation criteria)
- Dictionaries and thesauruses
---
### Lesson Outline:
### Introduction (10 minutes)
1. **Engage:**
- Begin with a question: "Why is research important?" Encourage students to think about scenarios where research is needed (e.g., planning a holiday, writing a paper, choosing a new phone).
- Write their responses on the whiteboard.
2. **Objective Introduction:**
- Explain that today's lesson will focus on developing their research skills, which will be useful in both academic and everyday contexts.
### Instruction (20 minutes)
1. **Finding Reliable Sources:**
- Discuss different types of sources (books, academic journals, websites, news articles, etc.).
- Explain the difference between primary and secondary sources.
2. **Evaluating Sources:**
- Introduce criteria for evaluating sources (e.g., author credibility, publication date, purpose, and audience).
- Distribute the "Evaluation criteria" handout and go through it together.
3. **Taking Effective Notes:**
- Discuss various note-taking methods (bullet points, summarising, highlighting key information).
- Stress the importance of recording bibliographic information for citations.
### Activity (20 minutes)
1. **Research Activity:**
- Students will be divided into small groups.
- Assign each group a different topic (e.g., climate change, medieval history, modern technology).
- Each group will use laptops/tablets to find and evaluate at least three sources of information about their topic.
- Students will take notes and fill out the "Research checklist" handout provided.
### Conclusion (10 minutes)
1. **Group Presentations:**
- Have each group briefly present their findings and discuss one source they evaluated.
- Encourage them to explain why they chose the sources they used and how they determined their reliability.
2. **Discussion and Reflection:**
- Facilitate a class discussion about the difficulties they encountered and how they overcame them.
- Reflect on what they learned and how they can apply these skills in the future.
### Homework:
- Assign a short research project on a topic of their choice, incorporating the skills learned in the lesson. They should find at least three reliable sources and take detailed notes, which will be presented in the next lesson.
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### Assessment:
- Monitor group discussions and evaluate the quality of sources chosen during the activity.
- Review the notes and research checklists filled out by students to assess understanding.
- Evaluate homework projects based on the application of research skills discussed in the lesson.
### Additional Resources:
- **Website:** [www.easybib.com](http://www.easybib.com) – for citation help
- **Book:** "The Researcher's Toolkit: The Complete Guide to Practitioner Research" by David Wilkinson