Hoyt G. Sorrells
Using the I-Search approach allows students to be original and creative. Students choose an aspect they want to research drawing comparisons between the traditional accounts of American History to the accounts of some of those who found themselves subject to the process of making that history as opposed to being willing participants in the making of that history. The entire I-Search process is based upon the student's personal interests. The I-Search is the brain child of Ken Macrorie, Professor Emeritus of English, at Western Michigan University and was first presented in, Searching Writing, 1980.
The I-Search Process has four essential elements after the student has chosen a topic of real interest to him/her: (1) what the student knows about the topic; (2) why the student is writing about the topic; (3) the student provides a detailed description of the search itself, that is, what the student did or did not learn as well as what research results means to the student; and (4) the bibliography. The I-Search is ideal for giving the student ownership. The results are presented in the student's own voice, hence the temptation to engage in plagiarizing material is greatly reduced. Claiming ideas as their own in traditional research formats can be overwhelming for middle-school students. Macrorie writes, "...;(A)lmost never do we detect plagiarism, because the project is weighted so heavily toward reporting the writer's searchings...;"(Macrorie, p.3) There is the necessity to identify sources, but the true essence of the I-Search is the narrative or story. The 'Search' section wherein the student, "...;describes the process of researching."(Macrorie, p.3) In this, 'Search' section the student writes what they know and do not know about their topic, what assumptions they have made and what they think about the topic. In this narrative the student discusses: what he/she wants to learn through the I-Search Process; if they expect to make discoveries; and any predictions they might want to make about their topics. At this point the student goes to work looking for answers to the questions they offered in their I-Search Proposals. Their search will either be benefited by good note taking habits or improve students' note taking skills, as students must keep track of what they find, where they find it and what the process of discovery was like for them. As most middle school students tend to be pleased with achieving results, especially when they feel like they have done it themselves, it is here that students hopefully begin to truly enjoy the search. The I-Search Paper, also known as the Personalized Research Paper, is a method of writing a research paper based on students', "...;own genuine desire to know something."(Macrorie, p2) Students can use any number of sources, including personal interviews where possible, to find answers to their questions. Point values will be attached to each step of the I-Search Process. For example, each team will receive points for a correctly completed I-Search Proposal. Additionally, bonus points can be awarded for artistic portrayals, illustrations and the quality of their presentations.
Once students have settled on the topic they wish to pursue, they should list what they know and do not know about their topic; what assumptions they have made about their topic and what they think generally about their topic. Next students should indicate what they hope to learn about the topic, any discoveries they expect to make and any predictions they want to make about their upcoming research. Teachers can help direct students by constructing questioning and interest inventories to help students generate questions for which they want to find answers. Students can then seek the answers they require on the Internet, in books, through interviews or other avenues.
One important goal of this unit is to begin the development of independent thinking among the middle school students who participate in this process. It is the professed goal of every teacher, department chairperson, district supervisor and superintendent to help students become critical thinkers. Critical thinking lends itself to questioning context. Forming an opinion or other point of view and finding the necessary details to support that point of view. Critical thinking helps students to look at an issue from a different angle. Independent thinking compliments critical thinking. The independent thinker should be one who not only questions context, but is willing to question the content of a discipline. Students, even middle school students, do this naturally. Have we all not heard the questions: how is this subject going to affect me? Or, why do I need this information/knowledge or skill? The answers to these questions vary depending on the discipline, whether we teach Language Arts, a foreign language, Math, Science or Social Studies. No matter which discipline we teach, truth is the guiding principle for answering these questions. While the opinion of a critical thinker may be based in truth or fantasy, the independent thinker should be a seeker of truth wherever it leads. Is the information presented in this textbook about the lives of Mexicans, Native or Africans the truth or someone's perspective? If members of either group were telling this story would it be the same? These are the types of questions an independent thinker might ask.
Students must possess or develop good note keeping skills as they must keep track where they find their answers and the process of their discovery. The I-Search is more about the experience of finding answers, than about necessarily finding answers the student wants to find. Hence, the following is just a short, hopefully thought provoking, list of possible questions that students could ask to open their I-Searches:
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Did the removal of Native Americans from their tribal homelands compare to the black migration of freedmen from the south after the Civil War?
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Could the U.S. Government accomplish the same or similar results geographically without shedding so much blood and displacing so many indigenous people?
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Was John L. O'Sullivan's belief that, "...;God (Providence) had given the United States a mission to spread republican democracy throughout North America...;" (en.wikipedia.org) the driving force behind expansion in early America?
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Did the existence here of Mexicans and Native Americans entitle them to any "unalienable" rights?
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What role did feelings of racial superiority play in the physical formation of America?
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Why should the first inhabitants not be entitled to the blessings of liberty for themselves and their posterity?
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This unit is designed to align with Social Studies curriculum. Unit Five of the Eighth Grade textbook is titled, "The Nation Expands,"(Dorf, p.309) and is the point at which these auxiliary lessons will best serve to increase students' understanding of the costs and benefits of American expansion.
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Students will read about life in the North and the South in the textbook.
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They will read about the industrial nature of life in the North and the agricultural life of the South.
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They will read about the slave system; the growth of cities and the influx of primarily European immigrants in this period of America's development.
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Students will read about advances in literature, the sciences and the arts.
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Students will read about the commencement of the women's rights movement and the gradual successes of the abolitionist movement.
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Students will compare/contrast textbook historical accounts of the United States' westward expansion with accounts by African Americans, Mexicans and Native Americans
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Students will compose questions that explain similarities and differences between those historical accounts.
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Students will build vocabulary.
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Students will improve their recognition of context clues.
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Students will be exposed for the purpose of developing an appreciation for African and Native American dialects.
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Students will enhance Library and Tech Center research skills.
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Students will improve or devise better note taking skills.
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Students will organize research into a written/oral/visual presentation.
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Students will develop or sharpen investigative skills, which will have application across disciplines. Since many answers to their questions will lead to other questions about their topics, each student will refine their individual systems of inquiry. Those students who can transfer the knowledge they gain from the I-Search process to their other courses will benefit most, but all students will benefit from the I-Search experience if only in the confidence of knowing they can successfully shape and complete a research project.
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Finally, students will learn the important events of westward expansion, e.g., "U.S. Policies Toward Native Americans,"(Dorf, p.300) Texas winning its independence from Mexico, the war with Mexico and California becoming a state. Were the presentation of America's westward expansion to end at this point, students would be left without an understanding of the impact of the same on Mexico's northernmost provinces, the lives and lands of America's tribes nor would students gain an appreciation for the tenuous position of former slaves and where they might fit in to the grand scheme of America's future. As you have seen above great emphasis has been placed on manifest destiny as the ideal with regard to westward expansion and the annexation of lands between Canada's southern and Mexico's northern borders and of course the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
Native American culture was decimated and their territories annexed as a result of the application of the tenets of manifest destiny. While the practice of the Atlantic slave trade wreaked havoc on the children and descendants of Africa. Neither the Native Americans, nor the slaves seemed to hold any entitlement in the pursuit of that manifest destiny. U.S. seizure of Mexican territory can be attributed to both manifest destiny and the Monroe Doctrine enunciated by President James Monroe in his Seventh Annual Message to Congress on December 2, 1823. Figuratively speaking the new nation on the Western Hemisphere's block essentially killed two geopolitical birds with one stone doctrine. Monroe declared the United States' unequivocal intent for the future of any relationship between Europe and the Western Hemisphere. The threat was implied, but left no room for interpretation on the part of European powers. European interference in the west would not be tolerated. The second bird killed by Monroe's doctrine was the open challenge to the established military/naval powers of the world. This challenge laid claim to the United States' position as a global power demanding their respect and deference.