Before the lesson

Please ensure you have read the guidance in our Pre-lesson guidance - 'Before you start'.

Then, if you haven't already, ensure you have shared the planning documents with correct students before the lesson starts.

Open one group document at a time and click Share in the top right of the screen.

 

 

You can also share directly from the Drive folder without having to even open the Docs. To do this just right-click the title of the document and choose Share. From there the share process is the same as described below.

Then copy the group members' email addresses from document you prepared earlier. 

And then paste them onto the Add people and groups box of the share window.

You can then add a message if you want to, check they are all listed as Editors and then click Send, and then Done.

You can then close the document. The students will then get a notification email and the document will be waiting for them in the Shared with me section of their Google Drive.

Introduction

This project is about the students working in teams to research information on a topic of your choice and then present it as a collaborative team website. So begin by asking the students what they know about research:

• What does research mean?
• Where can we get information if we want to research a topic?
• What makes good research?
• What makes bad research?

Discuss researching skills in general with your students.

Kathleen Morris describes the process of teaching research skills to students in this useful blog post: 

http://www.kathleenamorris.com/2018/02/23/research-filter/

She summarises things into this simple 5-step process:

 

 

Group planning

Introduce the project to the students and tell them the groups they will be working in. Show them the planning document they will be completing. If they are unfamiliar with Google Docs you may need to take some time to explain what they are and how they work, as well as etiquette when collaborating. They will all be editors and have the ability to change the doc and edit each other’s work. This means they need to respect each other’s work and not change anything that they haven’t been asked to. 

There is a revision history in Google Docs so you can roll things back if there are problems in a group and things get accidentally (or otherwise) deleted). Click on File > Version history > See version history.

 

 

The revision history will open up on the right of the screen. 

Get them logged into their Gmail accounts. Show them how to get to Drive from the waffle (9 dots) in the top right of their Gmail inbox.

 

 

Once Drive opens direct them to Shared with me so they can open their planning document.

 

 Ask them to: 

1. Get together in their groups and have a conversation. They need to decide:

• Who is going to be the team manager? They will have overarching responsibility for their team, supporting their team members if needed and checking the quality of work that they are producing. 
• Who is going to research each part?
• What do you want to find out for each part?

 

2. Go back to their computers and fill in the YELLOW top part of their planning document.

3. Begin to look at the web links in the GREEN section. Decide which ones might be useful to each team member.

4. Read, read, read the sites and any other resources you provide them with (books, objects, music, videos and anything else you can think of) - Collect what is USEFUL, make notes as they go and add their notes into their section in their group planning doc in the PINK section. They should only add notes and not copy and paste huge chunks of information.

Discuss:

• Fact and opinion
• The 5 W’s
• Skimming sites for info
• Putting things into your own words, crediting other people for their ideas and work.

Ask managers to keep checking over the work of others in their group as they work. They should consider:

• Are they happy with the content?
• Does anyone need any help?
• Are people adding useful notes or just copy and pasting?

Ask them to feedback to their group as they go.

 

Plenary

Towards the end of the lesson ask groups to have a discussion (lead by the manager) about their progress so far. Decide what is still needed:

• Where are they short of information?
• What needs more detail?
• What is fine and can be left alone?

They may want to reassign research roles for the following lesson.

Ask someone in the group to add a few notes to their planning doc about what needs doing next week.

Take brief feedback from each group about their progress.