Continued from page 16
Free initial consultation Please call for appointment
Deborah G. Roher — Attorney at Law —
Helping working South Coast families for 20 years with:
Bad used car deals Bankruptcy Credit reporting problems Debt collection harassment Landlord/tenant problems
56 N. Main Street #413 Fall River, MA
508-672-1383
Dedicated to keeping the “heart” in home care
• Companionship
• Alzheimer’s Care
• Personal Care
• Hospice Support
• Homemaking
• 24-hour On-call
Compassionate and experienced home health care, providing personalized services that will enable you or your loved ones to live independently while maintaining a safe and healthy quality of life.
508-748-1331
www.tenderheartscare.com Serving Bristol and Plymouth County Member of the Senior Resource Alliance (SRA) www.srasouthcoast.com
18
Dr. Bonner’s science students wrote 10-page papers that included charts and proper American Psychological Association (APA) citation and often required basic interview skills in calls to organizations. “You will need these skills in college,” Dr. Bonner and her colleagues told students. Those students believed her. Many students do not take such teacher advice to heart and find ways to circumvent high school efforts to “go back to rigorous basics.” Perhaps hearing it from other sources—like the front page of a local newspaper— will change their minds. Brian Boyd’s April 21, 2009 piece, "On the Web, all that glitters is not gold,” warns students of the risks of accepting suspect online research. “[…] students need to learn how to pick reliable sites and avoid falling for inaccurate information,” he writes, citing the efforts of local high school teachers to improve their students’ research techniques by such things as including one non-electronic reference source; checking multiple sources to fully understand a subject—not relying on one person’s statement; validating a source’s credibility; and critically reading texts themselves—not relying on others’ analysis. Paul Marshall, principal of Fall River’s Durfee High School, is part of a team brought to the city three years ago to “move the agenda forward” and “create best practices” of research across the disciplines.
in class, Principal Marshall says that much common assessment among teachers and classes has been done in the past year to standardize the curriculum. Finding a common reference style to use will help standardize the program and lessen confusion among teachers who use Modern Language Association (MLA) format, APA, and even the footnote-heavy Chicago Manual of Style (CMS). Students must become comfortable with the research process. New Bedford students will be doing more research too. Assistant School Superintendent Dennis Winn wants to see students develop critical thinking skills through pursuing “thematic threads” in their courses. Learning how to write a bibliography is important, but teaching it “in context, not as an isolated lesson,” is even more important. He explained that English skills are taught through authentic writing—if a student writes “electric train,” for instance, he or she learns that they chose an adjective and must understand their own—not the teacher’s— word choice. Likewise, social studies students should be given a choice of research topics, such as wars, presidents, etc. They pick what interests them and learn to see the “bigger picture of what history is, to ask why wars take place, and what made presidents successful,” explained the 18-year veteran teacher.
Success as a student and a career professional hangs on the ability to think critically, evaluate evidence, analyze situations, and question facts.
Do research Research papers are currently assigned in English Language Arts (ELA). Changes are coming to social studies. A long term goal is to introduce research technique to math courses. Due to MCAS exam requirements, ancient history is now taught in middle school; high school will devote more time to U.S. history with a lot of research assignments given in U.S. II, which covers Reconstruction to present day. Though curriculum is not always followed
August 2009 / The South Coast Insider
Think critically Success as a student and a career professional hangs on the ability to think critically, evaluate evidence, analyze situations, and question facts. Again, it is one thing for teachers to say this until they are blue in the face, and for students to not take it seriously, but it is something else to see the advice pop up again and again. Another recent newspaper column bears this out: in "Answers can be found in questions," Los Angeles Times editorial columnist Gregory Rodriguez warns Americans not to confuse knowledge with action and