Standard 6: Research

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

Student Actions 

Teacher Actions 

• Students will develop a practical research question.
• Students will write a clear, concise thesis that connects to the research question and sources.

• Teachers model how to create and refine a usable research question.

• Teachers provide opportunities for students to develop a well-developed research question to guide their research.

• Teachers monitor and provide opportunities for students to receive feedback on their potential research questions.

• Teachers model how to generate a thesis statement using a research question and sources.

• Teachers provide opportunities for students to write thesis statements.

• Teachers monitor and provide opportunities for students to receive feedback on their thesis statements.

Supporting Resources 

Teacher Insights

Thesis Statements (Website)

• The intention of this standard is for students to acknowledge connections between topics and sources.  At this level, students are articulating viable research questions and topics based on initial research.
• 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 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.
• Thesis statements should address all parts of the proposed question.
• Students often struggle with the difference between “topic” or “subject” so it is important that the thesis is developed from a broad topic or subject.
• Writing thesis statements requires practice to develop complex arguments that are clear and provable.
• Information from source texts should be blended into writing in a way that does not interrupt the flow of writing. 

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.