Students record notes, observations and other learned information on the left page of the entry, then make some sort of application on the right. For instance, while learning the difference between a parallel and a series circuit design, students record the diagrams, experimental results and comparative data on the left page. On the right, they are asked to list five household items that run on electrical circuits, explain which circuit design they use and why they think so. When evaluating student comprehension, the teacher reviews the application pages of the journals. Using double-entry journals increases student active participation, and it enables students to apply knowledge in new situations. A wonderful side effect is an increase in the students' use of writing as a way to clarify thinking.

Students divide one page of their journal such that approximately one third of the page is separated from the rest of the page. This can be done vertically or horizontally. In the one-third-sized section, students record a summary of what was read or observed in an expedition journal entry or an associated content reading. In the larger space, they respond to the content or skills learned. An example is included below. If students are struggling with how to make a personal response to the content they read, offer a few sentence starters or reflective questions:

Sentence Starters

• I wonder why. . .
• This relates to. . .
• I disagree because. . .
• Another point of view says that. . .
• I agree because. . .
• I began to think of. . .…
• I can't understand. . .
• I know the feeling. . .
• I noticed that. . .
• I never thought about. . .
• I was surprised. . .
• I thought that. . .
• I can't believe. . .
• What if. . .
• I was confused by. . .
• If I had been the squid. . .
• It reminds me of. . .
• I think Dr. Roper should. . .

Reflective Questions

• What would you do in the same sitution?
• Examine the incident from another point of view.
• Is there an ethical dilemma here? If so, explain.
• What are your predictions for the expedition?
• Did the field researchers have to collaborate in any way? If so, explain.
• What previous experiences did the field researchers need to have in order to be successful on this expedition?
• Describe the tenacity and patience needed to be a field researchers.
• What was the goal? Was it achieved? Why or why not?
• What do you like?
• What do you dislike?

Activities in which students talk to each other yield high retention rates. In Socratic Seminars, students speak with each other, not the teacher. In fact, in most seminars students speak for 97% of the class time. Socratic Seminars are for application of knowledge, understanding and discovery, NOT presenting facts. The basic sequence is: (1) pre-seminar activities, (2) seminar, and (3) post-seminar activities.

Pre-Seminar Activities

• Shared experience (e. g., shared reading, guest speaker, lecture, field trip); these experiences are chosen for richness of ideas, issues, ambiguity, stimulus for discussion

• Students reflect on material (guided questioning, summarizing main points, raising issues, graphical organizers, asking questions, doing artwork)

• Group dynamics, ground rules and courtesy are understood and accepted.

Seminar

• Students sit in a circle with readings and notes in hand.

• Teacher asks a provocative question. (See Opening, Core, and Closure Questions below.)

• Students respond to questions and each other.

• Closure

Sample Opening Questions: (Stimulate discussion)

• What is the real issue?
• Why is this called. . .?
• What is. . .about?
• Why would someone want to. . .?
• How is. . .really about. . .?
• What are the field researchers' options?
• How is this decision going to affect future research?
• What is the museum's responsibility to the public in this situation?
• What is the scientist's responsibility to the public?
• How will this effect our current understanding of. . .?
• What are the possibilities that. . .?
• How would. . .change the outcome?
• How could such a discovery be exploited and hurtful?
• How could such a discovery be of benefit?
• What does this mean for. . .?

Sample Core Questions: (These questions are content-related and help to interpret the material being discussed.)

• What is meant by . . .?
• Who is. . .?
• Why does Dr. Roper call it. . .?

Follow-ups:

• Are you saying that. . .?
• What do you mean by. . .?
• Anyone disagree with. . .?
• Where in journal entry do you find evidence/support for. . .?

Sample Closing Questions: (These questions connect the discussion to the student's world.)

• Have we answered. . .?
• What will continued discussion reveal about this issue?
• What action could we take?
• What would. . .think of our discussion/research?
• What can we conclude about this issue?

Teacher's Role:

• Asks first question
• Takes notes for later evaluation
• Ensures clarity and group process
• Keeps mouth shut (This is very hard to do!)

Assessment:

• Pre-Seminar writings and products
• Notes from Seminar (conduct, speaking, reasoning, listening, reading)
• Post-Seminar activities

Post-Seminar Activities:

• Writings, summations, artwork, reflection, critique, analysis

Students read, listen, or view material and then reflect on the content independently for a few minutes. It is helpful to record these reflections on paper. Next students pair up and share their thoughts with a classmate. When finished, the teacher asks each team to tell the class one or two interesting comments about the content that were shared between the partners. This process gives those who are hesitant to participate in class discussions a chance to be actively involved. It also gets students' minds open and thinking, as well as provides a mechanism for summarization and personal response, two excellent ways to learn new material.

This is an excellent research experience to not only learn content, but also to learn how to learn and how to write. Doing an I-search project is particularly appropriate for studies of the natural world. Teachers who want to examine the I-Search approach should visit Educational Development Center web site on Ken Macrorie's I-Search projects:

In order to persuade someone effectively, the persuader must have a good handle on all sides of the argument. This activity forces students not to become only intimate with information, but also to be aware of audience (the reader), and to express arguments coherently. Writing to persuade is an extremely motivating structure for student research. Remind students that the best writers of persuasive essays:

• Rely on facts to make their points, not emotions or opinions
• Order their supporting arguments with the strongest arguments first and last
• Anticipate their opposition's position and offer counter arguments
• Use first person testimonies of experts, witnesses, and those directly involved with the issue, and as many primary sources as possible
• Use three or more clearly defined arguments for their position
• Appeal to the personal interests of the reader (Answer the reader's unspoken question, "What's in it for me if I accept your position?")

Get the local Forensic Club's rulebook (or any debate handbook) and follow the guidelines for presentation, argument, rebuttal, times and preparations. Students remember far more information when it is stated by their peers than when it is stated by their teachers. If the learning comes from their classmates (as debate often facilitates) it will be more effective.

When students focus on how information is organized or presented, they become intimate with the information. The content and skills become internalized. Given the time, teachers can teach students to use a variety of graphical organizer styles, then have students choose which organizer is the most appropriate for subsequent units. Later, students can design their own. The discussion about content (e.g., which fact relates to another and why, which idea is a subset of another and why, is something inductive or deductive, linear or something else) is the best case for providing this experience for students. It is intellectual and very effective.

Begin with a simple, compare-and-contrast Venn Diagram, looking at similarities and differences between deep sea habitats and epipelagic habitats (near the surface). Attributes that are similar are recorded where the circles cross:

Another graphical organizer used for compare and contrast is given below:

One of the best illustrated books available for the use of graphical organizers across the curriculum is Organizing Thinking: Book II by Sandra Parks and Howard Black. To order the book, contact the publisher: Critical Thinking Press and Software, Pacific Grove, California, 1990. Telephone: 800-458-4849. Book ISBN: 0-89455-355-0

This is an excellent way to read associated content material or those expedition journal entries that are content-heavy.

Sequence: (Teacher facilitated)

Preliminary questions
• Cursory examination of text (Note the following: titles, subtitles, bold print words, pictures, charts)
• What will the author convey?
• What do we already know about this topic?
• What will we find to be true about this topic? (Prediction)

  Questions after students read the material

• What do you think about the topic now? Read the passage that made you think this way.
• Conversation: Why do you think this way? What will be addressed next and what do you know about it?

Re-direct student questions to classmates, calling for all those involved to justify their responses. Create triads of response.

• Teacher: What's your response Jeff? (Jeff responds)
• Teacher: Beth, do you agree with Jeff's statement? (Beth responds)
• Teacher: Larry, provide the supportive detail for Beth's disagreement or agreement. (Larry responds)
• Teacher: Jeff, judge the validity of Larry's evidence. (Jeff, the original student, responds)

Identify a content reading piece about a topic you want students to learn. In this case, it could be an expedition journal entry, a page off the In Search of Giant Squid web page, or any of the downloaded articles about Dr. Clyde Roper or the technology used. Determine the key facts, words, and concepts you want students to learn as a result of experiencing the material. Then "splash" those words across a sheet of paper by writing them at cockeyed angles all over the sheet. You may want to carry a bucket containing the words written on posterboard across the room, trip on your way, and let the words scatter across the floor or desktops. Students then are asked to help put them back together.

Each group (or individual student) gets a copy of the words. Ask the students to put the words together so that they make sense. You will get some wild connections with this, especially since it is new material, and the students have no frame of reference. Then pass out the content reading material and ask students to read it, looking for the relationship among the key facts, words, and concepts. Ask the students if their initial understanding was correct.

Then, as small groups or individually, ask the students to arrange the words properly, and share their new sequence of connections with the class. The class decides if a particular group's interpretation of the content is correct or if it needs revision. This activity is very engaging for all students.

To the students:

Interviewing a knowledgeable person about your topic is one of the best ways to gather information. Your understanding of the information will be much greater than what you gather from an encyclopedia. In addition, your research becomes more personal and relevant to you.

Creating a Good Question:

There are good questions with which you get a lot of information, and poor questions with which you get little or no information. To ensure the best interview questions, choose questions that:

• Cannot be answered by simple yes's or no's.
• Sharpen the issue or topic, preventing too general of answers.
• Avoid frightening or embarrassing the interviewee because the questions are too personal.
• Cause some debate (because then people can elaborate)
• Allow you to use follow-up questions
• Are relevant to the subject

Examples (Good and Bad!):

• Do you think middle school students should be allowed to smoke? (You will get a "yes" or a "no." This is too boring. Do not use this type of question.)

• What do you think about middle school students who smoke? (This type question might be too general. The replies may ramble around a lot and could be boring. Avoid this type of question unless you have good follow-up ideas to focus on the topic.)

• Did you smoke as a child? [Asked of an adult] (This type question may be too personal. Usually this kind of question causes embarrassment, perhaps even evasions. Do not use this type of question.)

• A politician said recently that smoking for 12- and 13-year-olds should be legalized. How would such legalization affect middle school students? (This type question should work. It will get the person talking in a focused direction.)

Important Ideas:

• Write your questions out on paper ahead of time.
• If you plan to tape record the interview, ask permission before you begin.
• Go with the interviewee's ideas with follow-up questions. You can always go back to your own list of questions later in the interview.
• Possible techniques to use would be: tape record the interview, listen to what is being said and write later, or write during the interview itself.
• Make the person interviewed as comfortable as possible. Be sensitive.
• Take pictures if possible. They add a lot to your presentation.
• Choose questions that would be interesting to your readers, other students, your teacher, and your parents.
• Paraphrase thoughts shared by the interviewee so he or she knows you heard him or her correctly.
• Write a letter of thanks to the person a day or two later.
• Your interview subject should do more talking than you do.
• Speak clearly and confidently.
• Maintain eye contact and pay attention.

Do Your "Homework"

Do not look like a fool. Ask intelligent questions. Do your other research before doing your interview. Then you will know about the things the person shares with you. He or she will be impressed with your maturity and scholarly approach. For example, if you were to interview an author, you would have read some of his or her books before interviewing him or her. If you were to interview a scientist about DNA structure, you would have looked up what is already well known and what some of the issues are before doing the interview.

Possible Interview Formats: face-to-face, telephone call, by mail

Suggested Procedure:

• Contact a person knowledgeable in the field of your topic. Call or talk to him or her personally to schedule the interview.
• Do other note-taking research before conducting the interview.
• Design at least six questions you intend to ask of your "interviewee." Base some of your questions on your earlier research.
• Write a letter to him or her that confirms the interview date, time, and place, as well as explains the purpose of the interview and some of the areas you wish to discuss.
• Conduct the interview. Be courteous. Dress, speak, and act with respect toward the person. Record your notes on paper and/or cassette tape. Ask permission beforehand to use a tape recorder if you intend to use one.
• Remember to write a letter of thanks to the person after the interview. If you feel comfortable, send him or her a copy of your report.
• Incorporate what you learned from the interview into your report.

Good luck and have fun! Who knows, you may discover a new friend in the interview process. Whatever happens, you have made research information come alive.

Additional Activity: Analysis of an Interview

Find an interview in a magazine, read it well, then write an analysis that responds to these questions:

• Article basics
  • Who wrote the article?
  • What was the topic?
  • Name three interesting facts about the topic.

• List the steps you believe the author took in order to write this article.
• Describe the attitude the author had toward his or her subject.
• Describe the attitude you believe the person being interviewed had toward his or her interviewer (the author).
• What made the author such a good interviewer?
• What made the author such a good writer?

One more Interview activity: Demonstrating an Improper/Proper Interview

Invite a local professional to your class and conduct an interview with him or her. While interviewing, demonstrate both proper and improper interview techniques and have your students record what you did well and what you did poorly. They can reference earlier notes or handouts (provided above) about interviewing as they do so. Let your interview subject know ahead of time what you are demonstrating, inviting him or her to admonish you (gently) or give feedback on how it feels to be interviewed by someone who is not courteous or does not follow acceptable practices. After the interview, let the class tell you what you did wrong and what you did correctly.

There are many ways for students to express what they have learned. In addition to traditional objective tests, teachers can ask students to incorporate learned information in a different style. This weaving of the facts into a new forum facilitates a more thought-provoking process--students synthesize their learning to create something new. An additional benefit is that the teacher does not fall asleep grading 125 of the same style essays, tests, or projects. Some popular alternatives to traditional tests or writing assignments include the following: