Standard 6: Research

Students will engage in inquiry to acquire, refine, and share knowledge.

12.6.R.1 Students will use their own viable research questions and well-developed thesis statements to find information about a specific topic.

Student Actions 

Teacher Actions 

• Students will continue to create questions to help with researching a topic.
• Students will continue to develop viable thesis statements.

• Teachers remind students how to use questions to gather research.
• Teachers monitor and provide opportunities for students to receive feedback on the viability of their research questions.

• Teachers remind students how to compose thesis statements.
• Teachers provide opportunities for students to write thesis statements for brief and extended research tasks.
• Teachers monitor and provide opportunities for students to receive feedback on thesis statements.

Supporting Resources 

Teacher Insights

How to Write Research Questions (website)

• The intention of this standard is for students to acknowledge connections between topics and sources. At this level, students determine what sources provide relevant, targeted information for specific questions.
• Viable research questions will include words like how and/or why.
• To be viable, the question needs to be not so broad that it can be easily answered or that is has too much information to explore.
• The question should also be not so narrow that there are too few resources to choose from and not enough information to prove credibility.
• A thesis statement is the guiding, arguable statement or claim an essay attempts to prove through evidence and reasoning. 

Due to recursive nature of the standards, it is essential that teachers are aware of how all objectives within and between strands work together for optimal instruction.