Arthur O’Shaughnessy in his 1874 poem “Ode” wrote: “Yet we are the movers and shakers/Of the world forever, it seems.” I love the term “mover and shaker” because it reminds me of dancing, but what it really lends is to people who make an impact on the world. It is no secret that one of my favorite units to teach is research. I love the choice, the process, and the hard work it takes to produce the product. I also love seeing middle schoolers wrap their brains around the formatting of this project (MLA), and how they get excited about solving problems. One of my favorite things, after all, is to solve problems.

The MLA Research Paper unit I do each winter going into spring focuses on activism. Students identify a problem in their school, community, or world and then research that problem, Inevitably, they see causes, effects, and hypothesize solutions as well. This post will walk you through some mentor texts and resources, strategies, and pacing of the overall unit.

Independent learning is always the goal. Biographical reports each year mark one of the first big projects where the gradual release of responsibility actually happens. Biographies are more than about choosing a person that seems interesting, it is about giving students the ability to show interest and make choices in what they are learning. The goal of all teachers should be to teach our students to go find the answers that they seek. A natural curiosity is what drives the passion behind real learning. There is always a moment with this project that I step back, listen to the fingers clicking and clacking on keyboards, see the focus in eyes on screens and books, and the drive to write down facts, and I think to myself: “Learning looks like this.” This post outlines my entire process from directions to the beginning of assessment for biographical report writing in my middle school English Language Arts classroom.

Before we begin the project, students are guided through practice paragraphs. It is always interesting to me where teachers think students should and should not be in terms of writing ability when they reach middle school. Year after year, the review of paragraph writing is one of the critical elements in moving forward into larger projects later on in the year. I start by finding 4-5 articles that are about interesting people. They are specifically high-interest people to start gaining traction with the project before we begin. The first people I grabbed this year were Serena Williams, Bethany Hamilton, Helen Keller, and Nina Simone. We take notes on paragraph writing, watch video clips, hear audio clips, and then practice writing a biographical paragraph together. After that, I assign clockwork partners and release them to practice on their own with other classmates.

The research unit is my favorite unit of study, but it is also the toughest for a variety of reasons. Students are granted the freedom to do their own research and not given all of the materials needed to produce a piece of writing (our curriculum is heavy novel based with literary analysis). In sixth grade, they get to choose from a list of topics that are focused on a theme. Choice is still an option, but with limitations. Students need freedom in their writing to make choices, yet restrictions to allow for structure with the assignment.

The main components of the checklist include lessons on:

1. Plagiarism

2. Source Evaluation

3. Resource Location

4. MLA Formatting/Other Format

5. Great Student Exemplars