Research Folders from Ruby Payne

Last year, I went to two days of professional development, entitled "A Framework for Understanding Poverty", based on the research and writings of Ruby Payne (I think all of us went). One of the most effective organizers I have used came from her book, Understanding Learning: the How, the Why, the What. It is a way to help students concretely organize the parts of a project, research, etc., which make up a whole. The folders provide a way of making the research process concrete, by taking a file folder (the whole) with 6 envelopes (the parts) taped inside. Each envelope represents one part of the paper, project, etc. Each envelope is labeled with the topic and questions that must be answered. Each envelope contains index cards for reporting the information for that envelope. Once the students have answered the question, they can check it off. To further scaffold this for my students, as a class, we determine what information is needed for the project and I create the labels for the envelopes. Ideally, each student would determine the information needed for each envelope.

I have used these folders several times with social studies projects and have had fabulous results.