February Unit Plan: Language Deep-Dive Mini-Research Project
A quick, meaningful way for students to engage with research thinking.
Recently, I’ve been energized by coming up with new micro research projects — ways for students to engage with the thinking and work of research without diving into The Research Project and writing The Research Paper.
Creating language field notes is always a micro research project, but as an introduction to a mythology unit I’m teaching, I wanted to formalize the research process a little bit more and build in MLA format practice. Specifically, here were my goals:
Provide research practice (finding information around the Internet and in books)
Practice using multiple sources for each research point, even when students think they don’t need to!
Teach and practice putting sources into MLA format
Reinforce and practice putting research into students’ own words
Build connections between language and our contemporary context
Practice presenting to other students
How You Could Adapt This Project
I wanted students to build connections between the world of Greek mythology and the language we use today. You could do this (like I did) as a prelude to a unit focused on mythology.
Or you could do this as it’s own separate mini-unit, wholly unconnected to anything else. (This would be great for one of those little gaps between units! Or before or after a break!)
Or you could choose different words/ phrases from a whole-class text you’re reading, and research those. You will probably have to cut out the “interesting story involving these gods/goddesses”, but the rest will work well!
Go-To Resources
Whenever my students are researching language, I sent them to two places first: vocabulary.com and etymonline.com.
If we need more information, we use these:
For this particular project, I added two physical book resources that students could borrow in the classroom: Edith Hamilton’s Mythology and Stephen Fry’s Mythos.
Okay! Let me show you the unit plan and the student research doc!