Today we talked about……….
As part of our unit study we are learning how to write “thick questions” and then how to research and find information that addresses our question. Thick questions are questions that require more than yes or no, or a one or two word answer. We learned a thick question should at least require a paragraph or more to answer it.
We discussed plagiarism. What is that you ask? Well that is copying a whole lot of writing out of a book or off a web site and copying it word for word. I have already seen a little of this is some student posts!!! I hope I won’t come across it again. Someone else wrote it, they own it! IF YOU COPY IT YOU BREAK THE RULE OF COPYRIGHT. It looks like you might have written it, but most teachers can tell the difference most of the time.
We then looked at how we might use those people’s wisdom and learning in a fair way. We first of all note our source, that is the Title and Author of the book, or the Website that we got the information. We then looked at how we might take notes from this, an important word here and there that will jog our memory. Try and think, “Do I really need this word?” pretend each word costs money.
Later when we have explored a number of sources we can turn our notes into our own words and answer our questions in writing. Of course we will give the sources that we used at the end.
If all we learn in this unit is to:
1) ask thick questions
2) take notes and keep track of your sources
3) turn your notes into your own writing
we will have achieved an enormous amount.
