Research process

In Room 5, we are tight knit bunch and we pride ourselves on being a community of learners. We work collaboratively to undertake inquiry; posing valuable and relevant questions, planning effectively for our learning journeys and assessing and evaluating our steps along the way, to develop and share new knowledge and understandings.

As a class, we took the theme we had been given “The Roots of my Family Tree”, and discussed what this meant to us. We talked about who we were as a community, where we came from and the key features of our district we might describe if we were telling someone else about Matamata. From here it became very apparent to us that there was evidence of our past in almost every place we looked and we wanted to know more. We decided to base our inquiry around the history and heritage of Matamata to develop an understanding of how it has shaped who we are and to learn from it.

Students selected aspects of Matamata in which they wanted to learn more about and formed ‘teams’. They then set off down the inquiry process, interviewing, emailing, visiting, photographing, tracking down old records etc. Our class was a hive of activity. Throughout the inquiry process students would share their work, thoughts, findings etc with others using Google Docs and were able to get feedback and suggestions for their next steps.

They also learnt about note-taking and referencing of information sources using the research tool within Google Docs. Students were able to record information in their own words and cite the source in a ‘notes’ document. They then were able to take these notes and organise them, drafting and recrafting to create their final piece.
Our next step is to celebrate our learning and to share our work with family and friends. We can’t wait!