Creating a research elective is a great way to teach in-depth skills

Due to time constraints and much focus on No Child Left Behind, I've had a hard time teaching in-depth research skills to my middle school students. So last fall, I approached my principal with an unprecedented idea: to offer kids a semester-long elective on research. What better way to teach comprehensive, analytical skills to those who really wanted a challenge? My principal liked the idea, and I immediately began planning for my class.

As an elective, our class would meet every day of the week. I decided to keep the size small so other students could still use the library while the class was in session. I spread the word about it to other teachers and parents at various meetings and visited seventh- and eighth-grade classrooms to pitch my idea. With more than 80 percent of our students coming from low-income families and 50 percent having limited English proficiency, 17 kids from different ethnic and social backgrounds ended up enrolling. All they had in common was an avid curiosity about the world and a strong desire to learn.

During the first half of the semester, kids worked in pairs to research their chosen controversial topics, such as prison reform, gun control, cloning, and abortion. The students would then debate, give PowerPoint presentations, and hand in well-written and documented research papers based on guidelines in an eight-page research packet that I had developed for them. The packet was essentially a six-step guide to outlining the research process in detail—covering everything from locating and accessing resources to synthesizing and evaluating information. Each step was broken down and accompanied by a checklist, and students were also given a rubric for evaluating the accuracy and authority of Internet sources. We spent more than two weeks going over how to formulate hypotheses and opinions, how to support them with facts, how to understand basic copyright laws and avoid plagiarism, and how to write exciting, yet objective research papers.

During the second half of the semester, students worked independently and chose their own research topics and method of presentation, guided by my research packets. This time, students' projects varied in scope, size, and deadlines. Kids researched on their own, checking in with me twice a week to ensure that they were staying on task. Some chose to research their cultures or their countries of origin, such as Mexico and Laos, while others chose to explore election reform or contrast famous political figures from previous presidential administrations. One particular student became so well-versed in stem-cell research that she could probably teach a class on it. In fact, she skipped a grade and went on to ninth grade largely based on the work she did in my class.

Since kids are often fascinated by religion and other people's beliefs, we focused a lot of time and energy on these topics. We defined the difference between educating and proselytizing, and then kids developed intriguing questions that could be asked of all faiths, like "What are the basic tenets of the religion, is afterlife a belief, and what are the wedding customs and ceremonial items?" We narrowed their many questions down to nine, and each Monday, the kids had the rest of the week to find an answer to one of the questions and to present a bibliography of their research. On Fridays, we discussed and compared our findings.

By the end of the semester, all of my students were seasoned researchers. Could I have accomplished what I did with my class with all 1,000 students in my school? The answer is definitely no. The curricular demands are too overwhelming for classroom teachers to set aside significant time for research.

However, every student wants to eventually buy a car or choose a college, so they need to know the basics. While I'll continue to provide "research lite" collaborative efforts with teachers, those who want to dig a lot deeper will just have to sign up for my special research class.