8th Gr. Social Studies - Civil War Research

Mission:

The mission of the CBA Markert Library program is to teach information literacy in collaboration with classroom teachers within the context of the content curriculum, inspire and develop a love of reading, and provide diverse materials and services to enable students to become life-long learners and effective users of information.

**Big 6 Research Method**
	1.1. Define the problem 1.2 Identify the information requirements	Task: Find details about an aspect of the Civil War Battles: Where, date, weapons, leaders, who won, why was that place important, losses: wounded and dead, events within the battle Important people: Lives and occupations before the war, what made this person important, family, education Technology: Weapons (which side used what first), transportation, communication, inventions Medicine: hospitals, drugs, corpsmen Military life: What they did when not fighting (camp life), drilling/training, sanitary conditions, punishment, prisoners, spying Civilian life: Working in factories, supplying the army, entertainment during the war, clothes, food Format: text, pictures, maps, graphs
	2.1 Determine kinds of sources 2.2 Prioritize sources	Books, Internet, databases Databases and books are credentialed; if you use the Internet you will need to make sure your sites are academically credentialed.
	3.1 Locate actual resources 3.2 Locate information	Books: Events: 973.7, but songs, foods, etc., will be under different call numbers. Search the catalog, using "civil war" as a keyword search. Remember that the official subject heading for the American civil war is "United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865" Remember the war slang book, REF 427, will be useful if you are doing military life. Databases: Facts on File American History, World Book, Grolier *Note: only ONE encyclopedia entry will be acceptable* - you can't use both World Book and Grolier, or multiple articles from either source. Internet encyclopedias count as one encyclopedia entry. Internet: Google for general searching, but remember that you will need to make sure the site is academically acceptable - make sure you can find the proper credentials. Be careful - a lot of Civil War sites are from non-credentialed authors. Recommended sites: American Civil War Homepage Civil War (PBS) Library of Congress (Remember that Wikipedia is NEVER academically acceptable.) You must have no less than 4, but no more than 10, credentialed sources, including pictures.
	4.1 Engage (read, view, interview) 4.2 Extract (make notes)	Take notes electronically using Microsoft Word and save them to a flash drive or your network folder. Look for key concepts and good quotes. Citation generator The Internet can be used but be sure to use credentialed sources. MLA date format: day month year Heading example: 21 September 2010 Works Cited example: 21 Sep 2010
	5.1 Organize information 5.2 Present information	Make sure that your Works Cited page follows MLA formatting: 1" margins, 12 point Times New Roman font, with resources in alphabetical order in hanging format. See the video for 8th grade hanging format Example Works Cited MLA basics for 8th grade MLA citing for pictures from databases and websites Did you find all the information required? Are you being careful to be neat in your presentation?
	6.1 Judge the product 6.2 Judge the process	What did you learn about the Civil War? What did you learn about research?
The "Big6™" is copyright © (1987) Michael B. Eisenberg and Robert E. Berkowitz. For more information, visit: www.big6.com

Big 6 Research Method

1.1. Define the problem

1.2 Identify the information requirements

Task: Find details about an aspect of the Civil War

Battles: Where, date, weapons, leaders, who won, why was that place important, losses: wounded and dead, events within the battle
Important people: Lives and occupations before the war, what made this person important, family, education
Technology: Weapons (which side used what first), transportation, communication, inventions
Medicine: hospitals, drugs, corpsmen
Military life: What they did when not fighting (camp life), drilling/training, sanitary conditions, punishment, prisoners, spying
Civilian life: Working in factories, supplying the army, entertainment during the war, clothes, food

Format: text, pictures, maps, graphs

2.1 Determine kinds of sources

2.2 Prioritize sources

Books, Internet, databases

Databases and books are credentialed; if you use the Internet you will need to make sure your sites are academically credentialed.

3.1 Locate actual resources

3.2 Locate information

Books: Events: 973.7, but songs, foods, etc., will be under different call numbers.

Search the catalog, using "civil war" as a keyword search. Remember that the official subject heading for the American civil war is "United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865"
Remember the war slang book, REF 427, will be useful if you are doing military life.

Databases: Facts on File American History, World Book, Grolier

Note: only ONE encyclopedia entry will be acceptable - you can't use both World Book and Grolier, or multiple articles from either source. Internet encyclopedias count as one encyclopedia entry.

Internet: Google for general searching, but remember that you will need to make sure the site is academically acceptable - make sure you can find the proper credentials. Be careful - a lot of Civil War sites are from non-credentialed authors.

Recommended sites:

American Civil War Homepage

Civil War (PBS)

Library of Congress

(Remember that Wikipedia is NEVER academically acceptable.)

You must have no less than 4, but no more than 10, credentialed sources, including pictures.

4.1 Engage (read, view, interview)

4.2 Extract (make notes)

Take notes electronically using Microsoft Word and save them to a flash drive or your network folder.

Look for key concepts and good quotes.

Citation generator

The Internet can be used but be sure to use credentialed sources.

MLA date format: day month year

Heading example: 21 September 2010

Works Cited example: 21 Sep 2010

5.1 Organize information

5.2 Present information

Make sure that your Works Cited page follows MLA formatting: 1" margins, 12 point Times New Roman font, with resources in alphabetical order in hanging format.

See the video for 8th grade hanging format

Example Works Cited

MLA basics for 8th grade

MLA citing for pictures from databases and websites

Did you find all the information required?

Are you being careful to be neat in your presentation?

6.1 Judge the product

6.2 Judge the process

What did you learn about the Civil War?

What did you learn about research?