Complete an I-Search research project of your choosing as explained within the topic choice section of the Joyce/Tallman I-Search text. You will use and reflect on the information literacy skills and strategies suggested by the I-Search text for your own search, keep a reflective journal of the research process, carry out an I-Search as described in the Joyce/Tallman text, choose a format for presentation, and submit the final I-Search product to your classmates and me as an attachment to a WebCT message. There are times when an I-Search is too personal for public consumption. If that is the case with you and your choice of topic, I will work with you to keep it comfortably private. Your topic choice has to be a burning question that you've been thinking about, preferably something outside of your academic life, for it to provide the motivation you need to experience. Very few questions are outside the scope of this assignment. You will have ownership of your research and your topic content. My role is to guide you in the I-Search research and writing process.

I-Search Project.  Complete the following tasks as you proceed through the I-Search. The purpose underlying these tasks is to experience what your students should be experiencing. Thus, under conferencing, please confer with me via email about your choice of topic and why your topic is choosing you (reference the text for an explanation of this statement).

Read Joyce/Tallman text and submit abstract and reflections on process by January 24th.  I think it is critically important that you fully understand the research process, in this case through the I-Search process.  Most of us have been taught outlining, note card use, creating bibliographies.  But we haven't learned how to ask questions and how to turn a general topic into a researchable question.  The researchable question allows us to identify appropriate information that we can evaluate, synthesize, and apply to our question.  With a general topic, we remain foggy about what we need to find out and too often become distracted with extraneous information, interesting but not relevant to our search.  It makes the final synthesis and presentation of the search much harder to complete successfully.  Through this exercise, I want you to start thinking about your usual research process and how it compares and contrasts with what you read in this text.  Write about these points in your reflection. Why do you think it would be important not to skip any of these steps even if you have done plenty of research projects before?

Choose topic. Describe how and why you chose your topic. Due January 24th. Use the webbing technique to identify possible topics and their subtopics.  Then transfer the most likely and interesting topic to the pre-notetaking sheet.  Write down in the first column what you know about the topic, in the second column what you think you don't know about the topic, and in the third column what you would like to know about the topic in the form of a "how" or "why" question.  Why is this topic important to you and how does it affect your life? Clearly, you will need to read the text to find out what these terms mean.

Submit weekly journal entries. Due each Monday during the I-Search project.The Joyce/Tallman text has content on journaling in your learning-log.  Reread this material to understand the types of entries you need to make.  Your final I-Search product will include a story of your search as well as what you find out about your topic.  If your I-Search results in an artifact (i.e., scrapbook, website), you will need to include a short essay with it addressing the following points (not an elaborate paper). This short essay needs also to include your reflections on the use of information literacy strategies and how you reacted to them.  Your weekly journal entry should include the following items: 1) your search story for that week, 2) your use of information literacy strategies like the pre-notetaking sheet and how they helped or didn't help you--if they didn't help, what other kinds of strategies did you use instead that accomplished the same task? and 3) your double-entry drafts (see text for explanation of what these are) from your information searching and interviews. Your first journal will be due on September 9 with topic choice.  Your last entry will be due at the time the I-Search is finished on March 7th in the form of the statements on pre-searching and searching strategies.

Use and reflect on the information literacy strategies included in the Joyce/Tallman text.  Keep the reflections in your weekly journal. Pay particular attention to journaling, webbing, using the pre-notetaking sheet to develop questions, reflective reading strategies, double-entry drafting, and peer editing. This task is to help you reflect on the usefulness of each of these strategies.

Address the following questions from the list on p. 71-72 of Joyce/Tallman text and turn in with your final I-Search product:

Has the student chosen a personally meaningful topic?
Does the topic involve decision making and problem solving?
Does the student display an ability to use a number of strategies to choose a topic--i.e., webbing, index searching, general reading, and interviewing parents and people who know her?
Does the student understand the topic's limitations and is the student willing to change topics if necessary?
Can the student create original search questions that move beyond facts and that facilitate solving the problem or making the decision?
Can the student demonstrate use of information tools, such as electronic indexes and tables of contents, to choose key words that lead to open-ended search questions?
Can the student focus her topic down to a reasonable number of related questions?
Does the student show organizational strengths through an ability to prioritize potential topics, search questions, resource choices, and alternative solutions?

Has the student looked at a sufficient variety of sources or interviewed appropriate contacts/experts in the content area?
Has the student used a combination of sources, e.g., books, journals, interviews?
Does the student demonstrate strong information literacy skills in locating, assessing, and using sources?
Does the student demonstrate an ability to discard irrelevant sources, as evidenced through learning log notes and bibliography?
Does the student demonstrate use of an organizing technique, such as highlighting and marginal notes, for notetaking?
Does the learning log show evidence of adequate reflection on gathered information?
Does the student show an organized approach to solving the problem or making the decision?
Does the student apply information from a variety of sources for solving the problem or making the decision?
Has the student actually followed through on what the student wanted to accomplish through the search questions?
Is the paper or presentation clear and well supported?
Does the presentation reveal clear evidence of effort by the student to carry through the strategies taught through the unit?
Are the conclusions in the paper or presentation based on information gathered through multiple sources?
Can the student articulate a personal search strategy to be used in a future assignment?

Reference

Joyce, M., & Tallman, J.  (1997). Making the writing and research connection with the I-search process. NY:  Neal-Schuman.  ISBN: 1-55570-252-x.