What should I expect (ballpark) for a research paper from an 11 and 9yo? more....

[battlemaiden]

We are in between history curriculums- with a two week gap expected- and I plan on filling the time with our first full research paper.

 

I'm looking through my Writer's Express and Write Source 2000 books for input, but I'm not finding just what I'm looking for. I want to assign them a research paper on Hawaii- including multiple topics like geography, history, flora and fauna, etc.

 

Essentially it will be a lesson in research at the library and a report written in Encyclopedia format- but with less detail, of course.

 

Perhaps there is a good resource you could direct me towards? Or let me know how much you would expect for a topical paper like this.

 

Thanks so much--again :).

 

Jo

[angela in ohio]

I would approach it as a series of mini-papers - one paragraph each - on the separate topics, then put it all together into a book or some other report form. At those ages, the process of researching and documenting their sources will need plenty of explanation, so I would only expect a paragraph at a time of writing (maybe 2-3 paragraphs for the 11 yo, depending on his previous writing experience.)

[Beth in Central TX]

Wow, that's impressive. I don't think I could do this with my sons right now, and they are about the same age as your kids. My oldest was excited the other day because his book report was almost a page and a half long. It's usually a struggle for him to meet the one page requirement.

 

My plan was to assign research papers in high school...

[Storm Bay]

I'm having my girls do their first big project now, but I'm giving them more like 6 weeks. I'm expecting them to research, take notes, outline, do a rough copy and then a good copy. Because they're into drawing, I expect them to draw some illustrations. My eldest will type her good copy and then I'll teach her some Word Processing skills and show her how to scan her drawings (at least, that's the plan--we may skip the scanning part and glue drawings to the back side).

 

This is the first time I'm having them do this, and I expect a lot more from my 12 yo than my 9 yo. I'm not sure how long to make it yet, but I'm planning to ask a few kids their ages what they do in school (not that that will be my standard necessarily.)

[Lux Et Veritas Academy]

When my daughter was 10 in PS, they did a 5 page paper broken into sections that they worked on over time.

[Lizzie in Ma]

We use IEW and have a class with another family 2 hours once a week.

They are doing a biography.

The first week we found resources, wrote an MLA bibliography page and began reading sources and creating an outline from each one. Pulling overall topics.

The second week the same (sources had to be one internet, one video, one encyclopedia, one series and 2 books)

The third week she worked on a "fused outline", combining all the outlines into one from which she began her rough draft on the first section. Section one worked out to be family and childhood. The overall theme is overcoming adversity. This week is write rough draft of second section, next week the rough draft of the conclusion and the following a re-write with all the dress-ups, openers, IEW style stuff and typed up properly and the last week the final draft will be due.

Each section is a minimum of 3 paragraphs so far if not 4 or 5. Looks like 6 or 7 weeks that we are working on this one.

Were we working independantly, we could clearly work faster but the input stage every week in an hour or more and invaluable to the kids.

sorry, have to scoot out the door to Awana, hope that helps.