Outline

Collaborators: Cynthia Rieger and Sandra Romero

Audience: Elementary Teachers

Topic: Why Use IIM

Relevance: Teachers need to prepare students to be active thinkers and learners. IIM is a process to help them teach these skills.

Persuasion: IIM is the best research model to use.

A. Multiple learning styles - Students have the freedom to learn as they are most comfortable. Students have choices. They have a personal stake in research process. They gain valuable research and critical thinking skills. auditory - discussions with others, talking it out with the teacher, recording thoughts kinetic - actively searching for information, drawing, writing examples visual - looking at and downloading pictures, creating mind maps for information, graphic organizers

B. Seven steps - Guide the students through the process Putting the steps on a bulletin board gives students and teachers a visual for who is where within the research/presentation process. Students can see that they are not far enough along to meet deadlines or that they are working far too quickly and need to assess the quality of information. Students set a goal and can visually see where they are in attaining that goal. They begin by choosing a topic or the teacher can assign it. They set a goal and begin to do their research. Next, they learn how to organize their information and evaluate their goals. Then, comes is the product. This is where students can really get creative. Last, they make their presentation.

C. Ease of use The steps are easy to explain and follow. IIM requires a class research project to be completed to model thought processes, note taking skills, etc so they understand what to do when they are on their own. There are ready-made worksheets that teachers can utilize for each step. Teachers do not need to create anything new. They can incorporate IIM into their curriculum.