Forming a Thesis, Organizing Your Evidence, & Avoiding Plagiarism

Students submit their forty (minimum) note cards.

Mr. Stone gave credit to students who brought their copy of Diana Hacker's A Pocket Style Manual (Fifth Edition).
He read and discussed pp. 104-109 and pp. 120-122 of Hacker's manual.

Mr. Stone stated that a genus differentia definition classifies the item and describes how it is different from itmes in the same class or family.

Homework:

1. Turn your primary question into a thesis statement. Since this is a factual report, the students' thesis will be a generalization of facts as opposed to an argumentative claim.

2. Arrange your subtopics into a meaningful order.

Chapter 6 Vocabulary Exercises & Notecard Review

Devotional Text: John 15:4-5

Students completed the exercises in Chapter 6 of David Popkin's Vocabulary Energizers.

Mr. Stone directed students to review their note cards.

1. Sort note cards by keyword. (The keyword from each of the student's five secondary research questions. A student may have more than five secondary questions--no more than two extra, but not less than five.

2. Check to make sure you have at least four note cards per secondary question.

3. Check to make sure you have note cards from at least two different sources for each question.

3. Check to make sure you have a total of at least forty note cards.

Homework: Complete any additional note cards needed to meet the minimum requirements described above.

First Bib Card and Note Card

After Mr. Stone shard another poem and prayed, he walked through the students' desks to make sure the students were beginning with an approved source. Students used their copy of Diana Hacker's A Pocket Style Manual to identify the type of source for which they were writing a bib card. He continued to circulate through the room to answer questions and approve the students' first bib card as they finished. Students then began to work on their first note cards. Ideally, students completed five note cards during the period.

Homework: Study the words from Chapter 4 of Vocabulary Energizers and review the previous chapters' words. Remember that the extra credit questions will come from the word origin stories of the current chapter's words (Ch. 4).

Students will take their vocabulary quiz at the beginning of the next class and then continue taking notes. Students should have fifteen note cards completed by the beginning of class on Monday (Tuesday for period seven).

On Monday, students will complete the exercises for Chapter 5 of Vocabulary Energizers in class. Students who are going on the choir trip were given a photocopy of Chapter 5 to complete. They were discouraged from taking their vocabulary book on tour.

Tuesday: How to Make a Bibliography Card and a Note Card

Mr. Stone shared the poem he wrote the night before on the bombing in Boston: "Just When We Thought We Were Finished."

Bubble Sheet

After prayer, Mr. Stone reviewed how to complete the "bubble sheet," including primary question, secondary questions, key terms, key word variations, information form/package, and information location. He emphasized the bubble sheet should be seen as a dynamic tool that the students revise as their thinking progresses during their research.

Bibliography Cards
Mr. Stone demonstrated how to use Diana Hacker's A Pocket Style Manual to create a bibliography card (aka bib card). He encouraged students to keep the Pocket Style Manual on their one side (open to p. 127 for the list of MLA bibliographic forms), a 3x5 card directly in front of them, and their source on their other side.

1. Determine the type of source from the list of forms (Start looking on p. 127.)

2. Look back and forth between the source and the Pocket Style Manual while writing the bib card. Make sure each item is in the correct order and properly punctuated.

3. Assign the bib card a letter, e.g. the first source would be A, the second B, etc.

4. Write your name and class period on the back of each bib card.

To avoid unnecessary revision of work, students should be sure and get their first bib card checked by the teacher before they take notes from that source or create additional bib cards.


Note Cards

Mr. Stone encouraged students to consult their Note Card handout as they completed their first few note cards.

Each note card will contain the page/media form, key word, source letter, the note, and an optional personal response.


(A picture will soon be inserted here.)

Homework: Locate your last three sources for a total of ten potential sources for your research paper.

Google Advanced Search

Conducting a general search through Google is a very poor way to conduct academic research. A more successful search for quality sources may be made using Google Advanced Search.

Type your selected search words into the "all these words" text box under the heading "Find Pages With . . . " and type ".edu" in the "site or domain" text box under "Then Narrow Your Results By . . . ."

This will limit your search to university websites.

Students should always be cautiously avoiding sexually explicit material. Turning on the SafeSearch option will help to minimize such unwanted material.


I would suggest typing "first century Palestine" (without the quotes) and your topic search term and/or a more specific or alternate search term in the "all these words" box. (Don't forget to select .edu in the site or domain box.)

Vocabulary Energizers Chapter 4

Students began class by writing a journal entry titled "Research Journal 1." They were directed to write for five minutes in response to two prompts: What I've learned about . . . , and What I need to learn is . . . . (Note: Students in Period 7 may completed this by the end of tomorrow's class period.)

Students had the class period to complete the exercises in Chapter 4 of Vocabulary Energizers.


Mr. Stone continued checking on students progress at gathering sources.

For Tuesday, April 16th, students should bring three more sources. (That should bring there number of sources up to seven; they need a total of ten.)

Students should bring their completed bubble sheet (primary question, secondary questions, key search terms, etc.) to class tomorrow.

They should e-mail Mr. Stone (dstone@lla.org) links to any web sources for his approval.


Tomorrow Mr. Stone will review how to make a bibliographic card and how to make a note card. Students should have at least one complete source with them, so they will be able to practice these skills.