Plan a Research Essay With an Outline and Sources

Help your child find one book and one website on the same topic. After filling in the notes, have them check that every fact traces back to a source, then draft on lined paper.

Read a model about the first bicycles, then plan a research essay on an invention with 3 sections of notes and sources. Research is finding answers in a source. An outline plans the parts. The directions on the page read: Read the model. Read the topic. Then, write your invention, question and main idea, a heading, 2 notes and a source in the 3 sections, and a conclusion. Then, use your plan to write your draft on lined paper.

Yes, both. We made it for 5th Grade informative writing, and the page works the same whether it lands on a kitchen table or a center rotation. At home, most families go through it together and talk the answers out loud, and that talking is where most of the learning happens with research essay writing. In class it runs well as independent work while you pull a small group. Print one copy or thirty, whichever the day needs.

Write each question once, then a short note from each source in its own column. The shark page asks 4 questions, and each answer comes from one of the two sources, which shows why research uses more than one (W.5.8).

An outline sorts notes under headings before writing, and each heading becomes a paragraph. The Statue of Liberty page sorts 9 notes under History, How it was built and Visiting today.

Have them write notes in a few words, not full sentences, and close the book before drafting. Turning each note back into a sentence then has to happen in their own words.

The short report plan, the shark notes page and the outline page have one. The other planners are open, so check that every note has a source.