Students Sourcing Skills - Research Project Proposal

Joslyn Hunscher-Young
July 2016
Research Purpose
As I sit amidst a whirlwind of reports about possible plagiarism in public speeches in a world where
Pokmon are being seen and collected on street corners, I am reminded of why I must teach, and
specifically why I must figure out how to more effectively teach the critical thinking skills involved
in sourcing. It essential that what we enable young people to question, interrogate, and critically
examine all that they find in their real and virtual worlds so that they can determine what to
investigate, trust, and act upon in their own lives. This need is real and it is one that deserves
attention and focus now, which is why I hope to examine my own teaching of the skill of sourcing
to ninth grade students.
In addition to this overarching need for sourcing, as many excellent teacher research projects before
mine, this purpose connects to my own reflection on my practice. At the end of last year, my
department met and decided that we need to focus on this particular skill with our students. We
have always taught it, but recognized that students still need more support, instruction, and practice
with writing source evaluations - a task they must ultimately also perform on their International
Baccalaureate (IB) exams since we are an IB school. Furthermore, for many of students, the source
evaluation often turns into a stressful word vomit where they write everything they possibly can
about a source, its origins, purposes, values, and limitations without ever clearly addressing why it is
useful for them as a researcher. In thinking about my own teaching of this skill last year, I realized
that my students struggled to make connections between the origins and/or purposes of a source
and its possible values or limitations. They also had trouble articulating why a source would be
useful to them and why a source should be used even with its biases. I know that I can do a better
job of creating a learning environment that avoids these pitfalls and encourages students skill
development, which is why I am doing this investigation.
Definitions
Before moving on, the following terms must be defined as they will be important for understanding
this research project:
Historical Thinking:
a set of skills used by historians for reading, writing, and thinking to
participate in the discipline that includes sourcing, contextualization, and corroboration
(Monte-Sano, De La Paz, Felton, 2014)
Historical thinking includes sourcing, contextualizing, close reading, using background knowledge, reading the
silences, and corroborating (Wineburg, 2010). It also examines multiple perspectives, analyzes primary sources,
and looks at the claim-evidence connection (Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media, 2016).
Sourcing:
critically examining a source for its origins, purposes, values, and limitations in order
to better understand the source and its messages
Sourcing has been described as the ability to think about a document's author and its creation (Wineburg,
2010), interrogate historical texts by recognizing authors and their biases (Monte-Sano, et al., 2014), and
consider its origins to help us make sense of it Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media, 2016).

Assumptions
As a teacher, I am always trying to find ways to make things better for my students, so I am
assuming that my students will learn more and benefit from the teaching strategies that I am
proposing to try in this research project. I assume that my students will learn more from the
modeling I use, the opportunities to use peer response while thinking and writing historically, and
targeted mini-lessons to focus on these historical thinking and writing strategies through modeling
and analyzing model texts.
I may also have some students who are reluctant to share their work with other students or with
particular groups of students. This may be a trust issue from past experiences, but it for some it may
also be a challenge to some religious expectations about genders interacting and sharing. Similarly,
there may be some reluctance to shift viewpoints or interpretations of particular texts, like religious
texts, because of other identities or beliefs that limit the ability to view the text as a historical artifact
rather than a type of religious gospel.
Research Question
What happens to ninth grade students historical thinking skill of sourcing as demonstrated in their
writing when the teacher models historical thinking and peer groups critically respond to each
other's ideas and writing while using mentor texts?
Sub-Questions
Will students annotate sources more often? With more detail? With more notes about the
specific historical aspects (origins, purposes, values, limitations) we look for in source
evaluations?
What will their annotations look like at the beginning, middle, and end of the year?
Will students mimic the thinking and/or annotating styles I model?
Will students mimic the argument and/or writing styles of the model texts?
Will students feel comfortable in their peer response groups? Will they be comfortable
socially? Will they be comfortable sharing their writing and thinking?
Will students find the modeling and/or peer response groups helpful in developing their
thinking and writing?
Data Collection & Analysis Plan
Included below is an outline of the types of data I hope to collect for this project as well as my plans
for analyzing them throughout the year.
Name

Description of Data

Analysis Plan

Artifacts of
Student Work

Students will write a short answer and

source evaluation for data collection at
least three times during the year
(August, November, and February). The
short answer will be answering the
question, How do you decide if you

I will collect each set of source

evaluations. The written source
evaluations will be graded based on the
International Baccalaureate Middle
Years Programs rubric for Critical
Thinking in Individuals & Societies -

Documentation
of Lessons

can use a source? For the source

evaluation, they will receive a short
reading from a textbook accompanied
by a primary source. They will annotate
both sources with a specific research
question in mind and write a source
evaluation for the primary source.

Year 5 and/or with a specific source

evaluation rubric (still in
development). The annotations will
also be read to identify common
trends or themes. Scores will be
recorded in a spreadsheet, and the
themes/trends of the annotations will
also be recorded in a research memo I
write after each collection.

I will write and save lesson plans for the

lessons that include teacher modeling of
source evaluation thinking and writing
strategies and/or student peer response
groups for source evaluations. After
each lesson, I will also take reflective
field notes about how the lesson went
and any changes for the future.

I will collect the lesson plans with

reflections into a folder and read
through them to look for successes,
failures, and trends in the teaching
strategies.

(If possible, I may have at least one

lesson videotaped through a connection
with the U of M Rounds Project.)

(If videotaped, I will watch the

recording and/or look at the
transcription to further note successes,
failures, and trends in the teaching
strategies.)

Reflective Field
Notes &
Research Memos

I will write reflective field notes as I go

through the year for my ninth grade
classes. These will likely be quick notes
in a journal and/or emails to myself
after each class. The field notes will
include my teaching strategies and also
focus specifically on observations of
peer response groups. Then, at the end
of each week, I will write a research
memo to report, review, and reflect on
the notes from that week.

I will collect the notes and memos into

a folder and read through them to look
for trends, themes, and differences
across classes, within classes, and
across students as well as within my
own teaching.

Student
Interviews

I will interview at least 1 student in each

class section at the beginning, middle,
and end of the year (after grading their
short answers and source evaluations) to
discuss their thinking process while
doing the assessment and get their
feedback on the modeling lessons,
model texts, and peer response groups.
Occasional student interviews during
class work time or group response time

Interviews will be recorded and

relevant portions will be transcribed
and coded for themes and trends
about the teaching strategies, peer
response groups, model texts, and
students historical thinking and
writing strategies.

may also be included.

Proposed Timeline
The timeline below describes how I aim to complete this research by the end of March 2017.
Time Frame
August 2016

Tasks
Identify at least 3 model texts to use
Create 3 different student assessments (short answer prompt, readings, and
source evaluation prompt with research question)
Administer first student assessment to 9th grade class sections
Grade/Record 9th assessments (group 1)
Week 1 Field Notes & Memo
Week 2 Field Notes & Memo
Write Source Evaluation I Lesson Plan
Make peer response groups

September
2016

Interview selected students from each class section

Week 3 Field Notes & Memo
Week 4 Field Notes & Memo
Week 5 Field Notes & Memo
Week 6 Field Notes & Memo
Write Source Evaluation II Lesson Plan
Make/Adjust peer response groups

October 2016

Week 7 Field Notes & Memo

Week 8 Field Notes & Memo
Week 9 Field Notes & Memo
Week 10 Field Notes & Memo

November
2016

Administer second student assessment to 9th grade class sections

Grade/Record 9th assessments (group 2)
Write Source Evaluation III Lesson Plan
Make/Adjust peer response groups
Week 11 Field Notes & Memo
Week 12 Field Notes & Memo
Week 13 Field Notes & Memo
Week 14 Field Notes & Memo

December
2016

Interview selected students from each class section

Week 15 Field Notes & Memo
Week 16 Field Notes & Memo

January 2016

Week 17 Field Notes & Memo

Week 18 Field Notes & Memo

February 2016

March 2016

Week 19 Field Notes & Memo

Week 20 Field Notes & Memo
Write Source Evaluation IV Lesson Plan
Make/Adjust peer response groups

Administer third student assessment to 9th grade class sections

Grade/Record 9th assessments (group 3)
Interview selected students from each class section
Compile findings
Reflect on process
Write up & share findings

Support & Resources

I hope to include the other ninth grade teacher(s) in doing these lessons and student assessments
with me so that we can share ideas, reflections, questions, and resources with each other throughout
the process and compare our findings. I will also share this process and work with the social studies
department and give updates at our bi-weekly departmental meetings to help hold myself
accountable for the work and to get their insight and feedback. I hope to also have at least 2-3 other
teachers come to observe at least one of the source evaluation lessons as part of our rounds program
at my school, and to then get their feedback and input. Ill also check in with and use the questions
and support of the Eastern Michigan Writing Project members throughout the year.
I will also need to get the support and buy-in of my students, families, and administrators, so I will
be sharing letters of permission with the families at the start of the year and also share this research
proposal with my principal for permission and feedback.
References
References listed here were directly used in this proposal. Other resources that informed the design
and plan of this project are included in the annotated bibliography.
Monte-Sano, C., De La Paz, S., Felton, M. (2014).
Reading, thinking, and writing about history: Teaching
argument writing to diverse learners in the Common Core classroom, grades 6-12
. New York City, NY:
Teachers College Press & Berkeley, CA: National Writing Project, p. 7.
Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media. (2016). What is historical thinking?
TeachingHistory.org: National History Education Clearinghouse. Accessed from
http://teachinghistory.org/historical-thinking-intro
Wineburg, S. (2010). Historical thinking: Memorizing facts and stuff?
Teaching with Primary Sources
Quarterly, Winter 2010.
Retrieved from
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/tps/quarterly/historical_thinking/article.html
.