The 4th Grade Research Paper Adventure (or Your Grade)

I've had the pleasure of seeing quite a few classes attempt research and reporting recently.  We attempt research quite often in EAST, but we complete tasks in very small steps, over quite a few class periods, and in small rotating groups.  The steps include: 

(1) selecting and recording a website/page on your topic (hopefully with some recommendations/suggestions from me).

(2) reading at least one paragraph, selecting and recording one important or attention getting fact (I ask them should they quote or paraphrase the fact; at this point, they get to choose, and we use notecards with name on one line, topic on one line, the fact follows, and the website is listed on the back of the notecard).

(3) typing this fact into a report template.  They also select a photograph previously saved to include in the report template (later students may be asked again about quoting or paraphrasing their fact on their final draft).

A few years ago, during a Summer Institute with the Little Rock Writing Project, I remember wanting to search for a way to help students with research.  Well, I am still searching, but I did modify the KWL Strategy to KWPSL with P for telling the purpose/why for the research and S for listing the Source.  This has helped some in directing students, but we still have a long way to go. Another point that was made during the institute is that teachers don't have to always grade for everything on each writing assignment.  Of course, students write the full assignment but you can tell them that you will be grade for ____ this time and ___ the next time (examples: main idea, format, etc.)  With this in mind, I thought I would see what resources I could find that may help in research/writing efforts (student and teacher effort) and here is what I found:

Informative Edutopia Article
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/elementary-research-mary-beth-hertz

Ten Ideas to Get Kids Writing
http://www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/resource/nwp/ten-ideas.html

Lessons/Activities
Report Writing Made Easy Grades 2 - 5

Unit of Study Informational Writing


Other
2nd Grade http://www.mybookezz.com/lookup.php?q=2nd+grade+research+paper+format
3rd Grade http://www.mybookezz.com/lookup.php?q=3rd+grade+research+paper+format
4th Grade http://www.mybookezz.com/4th-grade-research-paper-format/
5th Grade http://www.mybookezz.com/lookup.php?q=5th+grade+research+paper+format