Take Action! A New Approach to the Research Paper #AdobeEduAwards #EngChat

As an English Teacher, I'm always looking for new and different ways to approach the traditional parts of my curriculum. One of parts of the curriculum that has been a constant struggle to get kids excited about it the research paper. Year in and year out, students do not like the process and the end product. I have integrated more tech and have moved to social bookmarking to help students share resources, but it still ends in a standard paper. I see the value in the paper, but I have always wanted to change it up but have never been able to think of a different way to do it. Well, thanks to Erika Veth and her submission to the Adobe Education Exchange, I think my prayers have been answered.

Erika submitted this awesome lesson to the Adobe Education Exchange and is currently in first place in the Higher Ed Cross Curricular category. Here is what had to say about her lesson,


As an English composition instructor, I realized that students needed to do something more engaging than writing a boring research paper. So, I broke the final research project into three parts: A descriptive portion, a research portion, and a persuasive portion. For the final part, students had the opportunity to replace the written persuasive aspect with a form of digital media--video, audio, or web. Finally, though students could choose their topic, I stipulated that it had to be about the natural environment. It worked wonderfully!!

Here is an example of a video one of her students created for a research lesson on Native Alaskan hunting rights.

 I simply love this. I have been toying with the idea of having a media portion on my final exam. I wanted student to watch a video and write about what they saw. This takes my idea one step further and has the students create the media to convince a person of something based on the research they have conducted. The research paper is not part of my curriculum in American Literature this year, but I might have to work it back in and use this idea. 

On the Adobe Education Exchange, Erika has posted PDF files that explain the lesson in more detail. If you want to check out this lesson, I encourage you to join the Adobe Education Exchange and check out this, and many more amazing lessons.

Erika has a chance to win some great prizes because he decided to share is awesome lesson with teachers on the Adobe Education Exchange. You could also be in the running for great prizes. Join the Adobe Education Exchange and submit a lesson. Pass it around to your friends so they can join up and vote for you. Check out my last post for more details on the contest and how you can participate.

- @TheNerdyTeacher

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