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Inquiry Process

Social Justice Research Papers

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Today’s objective and directions

  • Today you will select a general social justice topic that you are interested in.
  • You will do some preliminary reading on that topic to determine the current status of this issue.
  • You will use the knowledge you gain to create a research question.
  • Feel free to explore a few topics. You may find you are interested in more than one topic. That’s ok! Check out a few and see which one grabs your interest.
  • Each topic has a selection of readings linked to it. Click on the links to learn more about the topic and determine your area of focus.
  • You do not have to read/explore all topics. Start with one that seems interesting to you.

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Topics to explore

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Child Labor

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Access to Clean Water

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Equal Participation in Voting (Voting Rights)

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Access to Education

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Poverty

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Today’s objectives and directions

  • Today you will begin to formulate your research question.
  • Using the inquiry process we have become familiar with, you will brainstorm a list of questions about your selected topic.
  • You will narrow down your questions and identify the one you want to pursue.
  • You will meet with your research team and further prioritize questions, determine the research question your team will pursue.
  • Your team will submit your question via Google classroom to Mrs. Shelow for review.

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Step 1: Topic Focus

  • Take a second to review some of the sources you looked at yesterday about your topic.
  • Pay special attention to what sticks out to you.
  • Copy and paste any important information from the source onto your Google doc.

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Step 2: Brainstorming questions

Rules of writing questions:

  • Ask as many questions as you can.
  • Do not stop to discuss, judge, or answer any of them.
  • Write down every question exactly as it was stated.
  • Change any statements into questions.

Now, take the time to write down every question that you can come up with regarding your topic.

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Step 3: Improve your questions

  • Take a look through your list of questions. Put a star next to every closed-ended question.
  • DO NOT erase your closed-ended questions. These may be questions you need to answer later in your project.
  • Go back and rewrite the questions that you starred. Try to make them open-ended so that they may include many different answers instead of just one.�

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Step 4: Prioritize and categorize your questions

  • Look back through your list of questions. Are there any questions that seem related? If so, mark them.
    • Consider rewriting related questions so that they are one question.
  • Choose the three most important questions on your list and circle them.
  • Order them from most important, #1, to least important, #3. (You may treat related questions as one question).
    • Consider what you are most interested in here. What do YOU want to know more about?
  • Pick your question!

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Step 5: Reflect on your question

Spend a few minutes reflecting on your question. Make sure you know:

  • What you are asking.
  • What information you hope to find.
  • Is there a better way to word this question?

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Step 6: Meet with your research team

  • Get together with your research team (they will be studying the same topic as you).
  • Take turns sharing your compelling question.
  • As a team, prioritize your questions from most important to least important.
  • Decide on your team’s compelling question.

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Step 7: Submit your question

Submit your questions via Google Classroom. Your teacher will review your and comment via the classroom portal.