Second Grade English: Mini-Research: Gathering Facts & Taking Simple Notes

When you are curious about how honeybees communicate, how volcanoes erupt, or how Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, you become a researcher! Research is the exciting process of searching for factual answers to your questions using informational books, articles, and educational websites. But finding facts is only the first half of the job; an ethical and organized researcher must know how to take notes without copying and how to organize those facts into an original report. In this chapter, you will master the three steps of mini-research: asking focus questions, taking simple bulleted notes in your own words, and giving credit to your sources.

The Three-Step Research Journey

Research moves through three structured phases.

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|                    THE MINI-RESEARCH ROADMAP                    |
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|   STEP 1: ASK FOCUS QUESTIONS                                   |
|   What specifically do I want to discover about this topic?     |
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|   STEP 2: READ & GATHER FACTS                                   |
|   Find books & articles. Search for answers to your questions.  |
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|   STEP 3: TAKE BULLETED NOTES (In Your Own Words!)              |
|   Write down short key facts; never copy full sentences!       |
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Step 1: Crafting Focus Questions

If you simply choose "Space" as a topic, you will feel completely overwhelmed because space is too gigantic! A great researcher crafts two or three specific focus questions before opening a book: Question 1: What are Saturn's rings made of? Question 2: How many moons orbit around Saturn? Now you have a specific target for your reading!

Step 2: The Golden Rule of Note-Taking: In Your Own Words!

Plagiarism is the word for copying an author's exact sentences and pretending you wrote them. Plagiarism is unfair and dishonest. To avoid copying, follow the "Read, Look Away, Jot" note-taking technique.

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|                 READ, LOOK AWAY, JOT TECHNIQUE                  |
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|  1. READ: Read a paragraph in your informational book.          |
|  2. LOOK AWAY: Turn your head away from the book or close it!   |
|  3. ASK YOURSELF: "What fact did I just learn?"                 |
|  4. JOT: Write down just 2 to 4 key words in your notebook!     |
|     (Do not write full sentences; write fragments and facts!)   |
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Fact Fragments vs. Copied Sentences

Look at how notes should look: Book sentence: "The rings of Saturn are not solid bands; they are composed of billions of chunks of ice, rock, and dust." Your Notes:
- rings are NOT solid

- made of chunks of ice, rock, dust

- billions of pieces
Notice that your notes are short bullet points, not full sentences! When you write your report later, you will use those notes to construct your own original sentences.

Step 3: Giving Credit to Your Sources

Every researcher must acknowledge where they learned their facts. At the bottom of your report, list your source: Book Source: Title of the book and the author's name. Website Source: Name of the educational website.

Practice Exercises

Exercise 1: Read the factual sentence: "Sea turtles can hold their breath underwater for up to five hours by slowing down their heart rates." Practice the "Read, Look Away, Jot" method by writing down a two-point bulleted note that captures the facts without copying the sentence.

Exercise 2: Write three good focus questions you would ask if you were doing a mini-research project on cheetahs.

Exercise Solutions

Solution to Exercise 1: A student could jot: - can hold breath for 5 hours underwater; - heart rate slows down to save air.

Solution to Exercise 2: Good focus questions include: 1. How fast can a cheetah run at top speed? 2. What physical features help the cheetah run so fast? 3. Where in the wild do cheetahs live and hunt?