Research Building Blocks: Notes, Quotes, and Fact Fragments

Through a teacher-modeled activity, students learn the importance of finding the words in sentences and paragraphs that contain the facts they need. Students then practice finding these fact fragments in small groups using an online activity. Next, they turn fact fragments into complete sentences written in their own words, moving from teacher modeling, to small group work, to independent practice. Finally, they arrange the sentences they have created into complete paragraphs. This online activity offers an animated think-aloud demonstrating how to find important fact fragments in a nonfiction passage. Students then practice the skill by dragging fact fragments onto a notepad. Students use this resource to gather information from informational text and summarize or paraphrase information.

Standards & Objectives

Learning objectives: 

Students will:

  • use a variety of graphic organizers to connect important ideas in text to prior knowledge and other reading.
  • demonstrate an accurate understanding of information and differentiate between fact and opinion.
  • interpret concepts or make connections through analysis, evaluation, inference, and/or comparison.
  • collect and analyze information relevant to the topic.
  • discriminate between relevant and irrelevant information.
  • access and use information from a variety of sources.
  • organize, synthesize, and paraphrase/summarize information.

Lesson Variations

Blooms taxonomy level: 
Applying

Helpful Hints

Printouts:

  • Notes andd Quotes Activity #1 
  • Notes andd Quotes Activity #2
  • Notes andd Quotes Activity #3

Websites:

  • Plagerism: What it is and How to Recognize and Avoid it

References

Contributors: