Process Apart from Product: Two Not-Really-a-Paper Research Papers

by Alyssa Mandel and Christina Pommer, December 2021

Separating the process of conducting research from the product of the research paper itself allows for improvements to both. Typically, middle and high school students are asked to develop research skills for inquiry-based assignments at the same time they are learning to write a cohesive, well-supported essay with in-text citations and a formatted bibliography. That is not necessarily the best recipe for success. We are both experienced solo librarians for two independent schools of similar disposition in southwest Florida and over time have realized that both process and product are stronger in later work when they're originally introduced in discrete parts. The time spent on strengthening skills such as topic refinement, search strategies, and note-taking transfer naturally across disciplines and mean that students can approach subsequent writing projects with a solid research base that gives them more time for writing and revisions.

Librarians are key collaborators in teaching students to be more confident in their research skills, not only because of our training, but also because we are generally a voice outside of their (often) graded classroom environment. The feedback you provide is equivalent to giving them the steps before they're asked to dance. In particular, for both projects we're describing in this article, the "No-Paper Research Paper Project" and the "Not-Quite-Paperless Research Paper Project," the end goal is the same. Assessment of the research process is evaluated on a step-by-step basis with opportunities for students to practice individual steps, complete them as distinct tasks, submit them to a teacher-librarian team, and reflect on any feedback that indicates a step hasn't been fully mastered. Both iterations are built into the 9th-grade curriculum so that students connect with their library (and librarian) as a trusted source throughout high school and in later projects where students are indeed assessed solely on the quality of their final papers. The flexibility regarding topic selection develops student ownership in gaining knowledge on a subject of interest. We've each been adapting this framework over the past decade to meet the needs of our students and these overarching goals and hope you'll consider how you can modify them in your own school.

Alyssa's No-Paper Research Paper Project: Really, Truly Paperless

There really is no paper due at the end of the No-Paper Research Paper Project (NPRPP). Instead, the deliverable is a bibliography of seven sources, each one annotated with at least two or three sentences, culled from a list of requirements that includes several different databases, one website, and some "others," meaning whatever tool was best for the job, such as a print book, video resource, or personal interview. This teaches students not only how to navigate our own databases and instills skills to navigate others they will encounter, but also that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to research. Some topics will be better served by consulting print books, while others benefit from a personal interview and periodical articles.

Speaking of topics…Each member of the 9th-grade class researches a different topic, such as chocolate, the Great Wall of China, quilombos, black holes, or yoga. These topics are broad by design, in order to facilitate the skill of narrowing an area of research as well as to give a sense of agency to the students doing the research, as they are free to take their inquiry in a direction that is satisfying for them. Topics are pre-vetted in order to ensure they can be researched successfully, and they are reviewed every year for quality control. I aim to ensure the array of topics reflects many cultures, time periods, and interests and that our databases, which do periodically change, can support them. History or current events can complicate topics too: this did not feel like a year in which assigning vaccines as a topic would be a good idea for a two-week project. Pandemic constraints forced me to find a digital equivalent to my previous method of passing around a bowlful of paper strips cut from my topics spreadsheet, and Wheel of Names has proven so ideal that I have no plans to return to the paper-strip model. Students have an opportunity to choose between only two randomly selected topics, and they must decide within about one minute. This method has proven useful for my version of the project for several reasons:

• It gets the project underway immediately, without casting around for the "right" topic
• It avoids the issue of a student researching a subject he or she already knows well
• It proves that students can research anything, familiar or not
• In most cases, it introduces students to subjects with which they have no experience

The finished bibliography includes an appropriately formatted heading, a 2-4 sentence annotation for each source to ensure they have evaluated them well, and it must include a thesis statement of 3-5 sentences to ensure all of their sources make sense together as a list rather than a random assortment. This guides their research along a clearly defined path and more closely mimics the process one would take for an actual essay or research paper. Also required is at least one 15-minute individual meeting with me about halfway through the research process so I can check progress, offer targeted help, and introduce them to the practice of making reference appointments.

"That's it?" said one student incredulously. "Just…seven annotated sources and a little thesis statement thingy?" "Yes," I said, nodding. "There is a lot to know, but not a lot to do." Last year, as many of you did, I spent considerable time creating lessons and tutorial screencasts for remote and hybrid teaching, as I described in a previous SLC article from January 2021. This year, I was able to turn many of those screencasts into EdPuzzle quizzes assigned outside of class. I use the results of these quizzes to reinforce any concepts that need attention during the next class session, such as what constitutes plagiarism or why a journal is different from a magazine.

As a bonus prize for the English teachers who give up class time to host this project, I always grade the finished bibliographies myself—including the annotations and thesis statements—in time for them to include the scores as part of the overall course grade. And that's that! The NPRPP truly is paperless, and ensures students can move on to focusing on effective writing in their next essay or project rather than trying to learn research and writing skills at the same time.

Christina's Not-Quite-Paperless Project

If you have teachers who are not yet sold on the NPRPP, students can still be encouraged to separate out the process of research from a final paper. At Saint Stephen's Episcopal School, we have a Not-Quite-Paperless Research Paper Project. In consultation with the English and social studies departments and after examining opportunities for writing within our curriculum, it made sense to keep our 1,750-word 9th-grade research paper. However, we separate out the research process by offering general checkmark grading on all of the steps of the research process that lead up to the paper. We joke with the students that 60% of their grade during the four-week research unit is simply keeping up with the daily tasks, and even if they chose not to write the paper, they could still have a 100% up to that point.

We have observed that many of the students seem to lack confidence in their writing ability. The checkmark grades are a simple yes/no, 10/0 mark in the gradebook, with assignments that are zeros allowed to be resubmitted for full credit. Because we've noticed the high correlation between students who struggle with long-term research projects and with time management, they do lose a point for each day an assignment is late. A shared Google spreadsheet is key to keeping track of daily progress. As the teacher or I review each student's daily task—e.g., think of three potential research topics, fill out the Wikipedia evaluation sheet for your chosen topic, write one Chicago citation, find one source from a database, etc.—we each can quickly check off yes or no. If students have attempted the task but have done so incorrectly, they are responsible for finding me to show me their revised work so that I can check for understanding. This has the dual purpose of encouraging students to spend more time on material with which they have struggled and building an association with the library as a reference point throughout the research process.

This project serves as a bridge to students beginning more advanced research, and the goal in future projects may be a paper, a presentation, or simply skilled real-life research. In my experience, individual conversations are worth the time because they build relationships and help with metacognition about the individual task at hand. With open-ended questions such as, "what made you click on that link" or "tell me how the author's background influences their perspective," it's possible to allay students' fears about being judged wrong. Meeting them on their turf and using their reflections builds understanding in relation to their topic and the research process as a whole. It's also a way to reach the wide variety of learners in a classroom. Some students will try to hide through the process, and the checkmark grades help students and their families understand that completing work is a baseline. Other students could write a paper of this length in a week on their own, and this helps them think about how to organize their time for longer projects with more nebulous deadlines.