I keep six honest serving-men
(They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and When
And How and Where and Who.
Introduction
Close your eyes and imagine this picture: It is 9:00 am the morning of July 7, 2009. There is a group of about 100 teachers sitting in a conference room at the Yale National Initiative, a two week intense professional development with outstanding professors from Yale. Our task is to develop a curriculum unit, designed to benefit students in urban schools. Looking at the faces of the new fellows I could see the fear in their eyes. At this session the topic of discussion was focused on the creation of our units, mine being the one you are currently reading. The main point was how to get started and overcoming the fear of the blank page. Throughout the lecture I kept hearing familiar words: "What do you want to share with other teachers?" "How are you going to get your point across?" Why do you think your topic is of interest for teachers and students?" etc.
I was so proud of myself. I realized in the middle of this wonderful discussion that I had found the best topic to develop. If, as educators, we are still struggling with the process of research and writing, what is going through the heads of our students when they are given an assignment as momentous as a research project? If the accepted practice at a university is to use who, what, when, where, how and why; then we as teachers need to have our students do the same. It is my objective in this lesson to give the basic understanding of the 5W's and an H to my second graders so that they can take that tool and use it in every facet of their lives until it becomes the norm in their research practice.
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