Essays, articles, books on delaying writing instruction (making young kids write research papers)

[lewelma]

arrg just lost my post...

 

I'm sorry that you have had a bad experience with the science fair projects.  When we have done these large projects we have done them *instead* of other work rather than *in addition* to other work.  I think that large projects are just too big for young kids to organise-- they don't have the executive function skills.  But also, if you are motivating a kid who is un-interested, then it is just an uphill slog.  That is why my younger did not do a project this year -- it became clear to me that he was not that keen and that it was going to end up being *my* project.  

 

As for references and research papers, my older boy was not interested in doing either to support his science fair project in 7th grade and we definitely know that it negatively affected him in the competition.  But, you know what, he really did not want to do the research or document the research or do a bibliography, and I was not going to *make* him.  There is enough time for that later.  My goal was the love of science and the understanding that you can get answers to your questions by collecting data and designing experiments.

 

As for APA research papers, my older boy just finished his first at age 15, and he did not love it.  He is much more use to supporting his arguments with mathematical proofs rather than documentable sources.  He did it, and will do another, but I do not think that it is super critical that does heaps and heaps.  I want him to be able to write a thesis driven essay that has appropriate support.  This goal will take him a long time to master.  I would never even try to do thesis driven writing or APA research papers with an elementary school student, and I am only doing thesis driven writing with my middle schooler because he is a pretty good writer.  For elementary school my goal is learning to say something meaningful and being able to organise those thoughts.  Only by middle school am I looking for a thesis and support and only with a heck of a lot of scaffolding. 

 

I just think that what I do with my 11 year old now, can't be done with a roomful of kids.  Instead of doing a few well thought out papers with lots of help, a classroom teacher instead assigns lots and lots of writing so that kids will eventually figure it out for themselves.  That is the reality of 1:30.  And it does work for a lot of kids, it just takes more required writing assignments than a 1:1 approach with targeted feedback.

 

Ruth in NZ

[J&JMom]

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[Dmmetler]

That is a perspective that I had not considered. Thank you for posting.

 

 

 

I have reflected several times during the course of this project on how you do science fair projects with your children.

 

My daughter is curious about birds and would have loved to have spent time reading about them. She said she is particularly interested in learning how robins find earthworms in the ground.

 

This obligatory, big-chunk-of-your-grade, parent-must-sign-contract science fair project required a testable hypothesis experiment and so while I know she could have found research on the bird topic utterly captivating, I didn't feel like she, er, we, er I could pull off some testable hypothesis with wild birds (except for maybe something like counting birds at the bird feeder.) Trying to get that idea off the ground seemed scary and hard to manage. Maybe we could have done something along those lines and had a great adventure together, but we were also saddled with this picky research paper. Also, the research paper had to be handed in before the beautifully organized testable hypothesis results poster. The deadlines loomed like dark clouds of doom. The school offered some limited classtime support for the paper, but everything else was to be managed, performed, decided at home.

 

Her paper was wretchedly thought out and the teacher gave her a very nice grade. Perhaps all that truly mattered was the format.

 

The other child I had in this school, after hearing about what was to be required, asked if he could stay home and only go back to school in mid-December once the science fair was over. This was not your typical (and expected) 10 year old boy grumbling-over-a-bit-of-necessary-homework, for which I would have prescribed the usual response of go-and-do-your-work; this was the quiet pleading of a young boy who knew he was going under. For that reason and because he had 1-3 hours of additional homework every night once he came home from school, we just went ahead and decided that we would bring him back home to homeschool. He then VOLUNTEERED to read about plant cells and happily built a model. At home. Something learned and a good time had by all.

 

There is nothing about this science fair project, or writing this odious paper that is worth the price paid. And the parents who are having to do this project, uh, I mean, support their students in this project, know the truth. The fact that the parent is made to sign a contract is proof that this is a developmentally inappropriate project and that the school is relying on the parent to be the chief teacher, chief nag, chief organizer, chief doer of the science fair project and paper.

 

Having lived through 13 previous elementary school science fair projects, I really thought I had seen the height of what a school could demand of kids and families. In those pre-homeschooling years, we even brought home some prize winners. Truly, those blue ribbons do seem to wipe away some of the anguish and strife of the experience. For about 10 seconds.

 

This school just really takes it to a new level of ridiculousness. It's justified because "everyone else is now doing it too."

 

And do you know how many scientists this is going to inspire? Probably not many And no writers, either. Just survivors. But we don't know that because there is virtually no research on the benefits or detriments of forcing this on kids.

What frustrates me is that the Science fair project truly seems designed to lead kids to the packaged, same result every time projects with no new learning. It is highly likely that if your daughter had come up with a project on birds or earthworms it would have been disallowed in many fairs, or had reams of additional paperwork added. My DD's project-involving not only 2 years of learning to write and research, but 2 years of building ponds and studying frog use, isn't acceptable in our local fair because it a)took too long. Apparently science projects are supposed to happen in maybe 2 MONTHS and b) involved live animals. (Despite having a veterinarian and state wildlife agency sign-off on it). That is actually why she submitted an abstract to the conference-she'd done the work and wanted to share it somewhere!

 

The result is that it ends up a plug and chug, buy the kit and put it together project, and I do agree that it tends to turn kids off of science (and science writing), not on to it.

 

One thing I will suggest if you have kids who want to learn science writing-follow the #scicomm tag on Twitter. A lot of really good science writers, especially the more popular science ones (the ones writing for magazines and blogs) are on there, and many are great at supporting kids. There are also often scicomm tracks at conferences, and a lot of these folks are really good speakers as well, so it can be worth it to pay for a day registration to go to those talks if it's local.

[Stellalarella]

Lewelma, everything you just wrote about your approach to your kids' projects makes sense to me. I wish I could teleport you here to share your wisdom with the school.

 

[Stellalarella]

 

One thing I will suggest if you have kids who want to learn science writing-follow the #scicomm tag on Twitter. A lot of really good science writers, especially the more popular science ones (the ones writing for magazines and blogs) are on there, and many are great at supporting kids. There are also often scicomm tracks at conferences, and a lot of these folks are really good speakers as well, so it can be worth it to pay for a day registration to go to those talks if it's local.

 

 

To respond generally to your post, I agree with you and with other previous posters that if you have a student who is expresses serious interest that you let their passions lead the way.  If Becky the 11 year old wants to write research, help Becky write research--even if you, the teacher, find the writing odious.  

 

This is the best advantage of homeschooling--the student leading the charge to learn.  And I'm all for it.