Information Skills — Grade 8

Literature Biography Project

For this project, students will learn to develop the various processes used in researching and writing a biographical research paper, including brainstorming, notetaking, outlining, creating a bibliography, and writing the final draft. This project is designed to act as an independent study geared toward AG or Level 3 and Level 4 students, but each step in the research process can also be taught directly to students in the classroom.

Format: lesson plan (grade 6–8 Information Skills and English Language Arts)

By Sandra Dail.

A Road Map to Reading

Students struggle with informational texts and websites. Understanding the structure of these texts is essential to efficient information gathering. The "Road Map" is a pre-reading strategy. Like the road map in your atlas, this mapping activity will help students visualize the layout of the text before they start reading so they will have an idea of where they are going (or where to find the information they are looking for) when they start reading. This lesson will also address active-reading strategies students can use to find information for research in print and electronic sources.

Format: lesson plan (grade 8 Information Skills, English Language Arts, and Social Studies)

By Elizabeth Hubbe and Melissa Thibault.

Lesson plans on the web

Nearsightedness

This lesson gives students the opportunity to examine the nature of scientific research in the context of research pertaining to myopia, or nearsightedness. (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 6–8 Information Skills)

Provider: American Association for the Advancement of Science