When we think of research writing, we often think of the laborious, quarter-long essay projects that often scare our students. And while there is value in teaching our students to use research that culminates in an academic essay, the truth is that not all research writing looks that way.
My students have been doing infographics for years because they are such a great way to have students gather a set of credible information and make a product that is visually stunning. Because this project has been so successful with my students, I have continued trying to learn about new, sneaky ways to infuse research into smaller, more engaging projects. And this semester, I tried a brand new project that fits the bill!
I’m teaching a new “Young Adult Literature” course at my high school, and one of the unit themes of the class is advocacy. I could think of no better book for the class to read that centers around this theme than Jennifer Mathieu’s Moxie. If you’re unfamiliar with the plot, the main character (Vivian) becomes fed up with sexist comments and policies at her school, so she decides to create and distribute zines as a way to build community amongst girls who feel the same.
As a culminating project for the unit, I had my students create their own zines. As I stated above, the theme of the unit was advocacy, so students got to choose any issue that was near and dear to them and create a zine that informed readers about the issue and/or persuaded the reader to do something about it. For most of them, this involved research; students had to use their iPads to look up statistics and stories that would help them persuade the reader to care about the issue.
I love that Moxie shows how Vivian’s zines actually look because these served as great mentor texts. Like any other writing unit, we began by discussing the characteristics of the genre by looking at some outstanding examples. We talked about how sometimes with writing, less is more. Zines are meant to make a big statement with few words and images. And while zines are traditionally meant to be physically distributed, I did give my students the option to create a digital zine as well.
As you can see, I got some awesome products about a variety of issues. Hope, my media center specialist/best friend, spread them out in the library, and my students and I took a gallery walk to check out everyone’s products. The students really enjoyed getting to see which issues mattered to their peers.
This project was a great reminder to me and my students that research is such an integral part of so many pieces of writing— not just an academic essay. We can still teach and practice using ethical research methods with project-based writing that, to the students, doesn’t feel so laborious. After this unit, I now have another sneaky research project, and it’s a goal of mine to implement even more!
What are some ways you infuse research into projects other than academic essays? Let me know on X @TimmermanPaige!
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Did you provide your students with a list of options for this or just allowed them to look into issues?