RaeAnne Locke, LMS at SES, recently reintroduced the Big6 to 4th graders before they began research for their biome unit. In order to help students identify with the steps of research, she decided to tweak the lesson to include a student reflection -- a quick write demonstrating how the steps directly impacted their daily work. In the quick write students were asked to think about the step they enjoyed the most and why, which one they felt they did the best and why, and which one they wanted to improve on and why.
She found this to be an easy, quick and valuable enhancement to the traditional Big6 check- off list because it helped give ownership to them as researchers and demonstrated how the Big6 impacted them personally. Once the biome unit is over, there will be another Big6 reflection to see what changes there will be based on more experience.
Some of the student reflections included:
- “I like synthesis best because it is like the whole job coming to life. It is fun to see your work on board. I think I should work harder on evaluation because I don’t spend enough time evaluating my work.”
- “My best step is Location and Access (step 3) because I like going to the resources, using the tools, and getting information. I would like to get better at step 4 because I need to work at putting things in my own words.”
- “I like step 3 the best because I like to read a sentence and figure out what it means. I like to read magazines and websites a lot. I want to do synthesis better because I get shy when I present.”
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