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5th grade · English Language Arts · Unit 10 of 11

Research Ready

Questions, sources, notes and credit

What your child practices

Children practice narrowing a research question, searching with keywords, judging sources, telling sponsored content from information, taking notes, paraphrasing and citing sources instead of copying.

Alabama Course of Study content standard: 5.25; 5.38; 5.R3 · research questions, judging sources, taking notes and listing sources

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Narrow your question and search with keywords.
  2. Judge a source: who wrote it, what do they know, is it an ad?
  3. Take notes in your own words. Use quotation marks for exact words, and cite your sources. Copying is plagiarism.

Example: When should you use quotation marks in a report? Your own words don’t need them. Someone else’s exact words do. Answer: when you use a source’s exact words

Research Ready in Alabama

In the Alabama Course of Study, this is unit 10 of 11 in 5th grade English Language Arts, after Create With Words, Pictures and Sound and before Spelling Smarts.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Alabama State Department of Education (ALSDE)

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    Which question helps you judge a source?

    • Is the font pretty?
    • Is it long?
    • Who wrote this, and what do they know about it?
    • Does it have a cartoon?

  2. Question 2

    When should you use quotation marks in a report?

    • when you use a source's exact words
    • for every sentence
    • around your own ideas
    • only in titles

  3. Question 3

    Which source is most reliable for facts about earthquakes?

    • a movie about a disaster
    • an ad for an earthquake kit
    • a comment on a video
    • a geological survey website run by scientists

  4. Question 4

    Why is the author's background important?

    • it tells you the price
    • it is not important
    • it helps you judge if they know the topic
    • it shows the font

  5. Question 5

    Which research question is focused enough for a short report?

    • Animals
    • How do sea otters use tools to eat?
    • Why is the world interesting?
    • Everything about the ocean

  6. Question 6

    An article says “Studies show kids love our shoes!” but names no study. What is the problem?

    • the claim has no evidence you can check
    • it is too short
    • it uses the word shoes
    • it is a fact

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