Lesson Background
Lesson designers: Calla Jordan, Haley Sonenthal, Julia Friedberg
Instructor: ?
Date: ?
School / Grade: 18-22 year old Roosevelt Campus Network
1. Title of Lesson: Research
2.
Goal(s) of the lessons
The goal of this lesson is to teach Roosevelt students how to efficiently
conduct the research process and provide them with the resources they
need to develop their researching skills.
How might we streamline the research process while making it interactive
and social?
3. Lesson Rationale: Why we chose to focus on this topic and goals. (For example,
what is difficult about learning/teaching this topic? What do we notice about
students currently as mathematical learners?) Why we designed the lesson as
shown below.
This lesson will focus on the process for how to go about researching for a
policy brief. Roosevelt currently has many resources for the research
portion, but they are not centralized. Students generally are able to find a
lot of information, but they do not always have a clear format to follow or
a specific direction. Therefore, they end up with an abundance of
unfocused information that they do not know how to consolidate.
(a) <what the students need to learn, according to standards or curriculum >
Students need to gather resources and read materials to help inform them
on the issue. They need to learn which sources to include (Most policy briefs
have around six of peer reviewed sources in their citations) and also the
breadth and depth of information to find.
(b) <what the students have learned, and have difficulty with based on your
observations>
Students have difficulty with knowing how much information to gather and
how long to be in the research mode for the process. Sometimes they are
unsure about where to find information or which sources are best. For
bigger and broader issues, the have difficulty sifting through the plethora of
information and research available.
(c) <the major focus (theme) of the lesson which should be a clearly stated objective
based on a comparison of (a) and (b)>
The focus of this lesson will be on gathering a solid amount of information
to make the policy analysis focused, clear, concise, and comprehensive.
(d) <They way to help students accomplish the objective in (c), i.e., the lesson
hypothesis>
By placing this lesson on the Loft, the research process will be a social
process so that groups can spit it up and ensure that they are gathering all
the necessary material.
4. How does students’ understanding of this topic develop? How does this lesson fit
within a unit, or within students’ experiences in prior and subsequent grades?
Students will use the background they have, both from Roosevelt meetings
and Lesson 1, to move forward with this process and being to explore the
types of research they need.
UNIT NAME
Session #2
Lesson Title: Research
INTRODUCTION
In this lesson, students will develop an understanding of the research
process and will learn best practices for how to identify proper sources,
extract information, and consolidate it to incorporate into their policy briefs
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
By the end of the session participants will be able to:
• identify high caliber sources, extract important information, consolidate
their findings, cite sources, and begin the research process for their current
policy brief
KEY MESSAGES
 identify high caliber sources
 extract relevant information
 consolidate information
 properly cite sources
KEY TERMS
 definitions
TIME NEEDED
TBD → depends on project and sources that are available (will need to set
a more strict timeline once we have completed the other lessons)
MATERIALS
• computer
• access to scholarly articles, newspapers, books, databases, etc…
PREPARATION
• Students should have completed Lesson 1 (Familiarizing Yourself with a
Policy Brief) prior to beginning this lesson. They should also be familiar with
Roosevelt’s introduction to Policy Analysis.
SOURCES
 Energy and Environment Research Sources:
o http://www.rooseveltcampusnetwork.org/policycenter/energy-and-environment/research
RESOURCE #
< Resource type >
Resource title
7. Data collection points during the lesson observation.
Our team will collect data on how effectively students are able to go about
the research process after having completed this lesson.
Outside observers are asked to collect data on difficulties students
encounter as well as strengths they exhibit (e.g. choosing and citing
sources, pulling out relevant information, etc)
ROOSEVELT THINKS | POLICY RESEARCH
Literature Review Template
Citation Quality Control
A Campus Network Founder once said, “Colleges are already effectively think tanks; they
just aren’t effective think tanks.” All the resources that you could ever need to write a great
policy memo are on your campus. Before you begin your research, speak with a librarian to
ensure you are best utilizing all of the resources at your disposal.
Diversify Your Sources
Good research cites a variety of sources. Make sure you have a plethora of sources that you
are getting your information from and that said sources are reliable (see below). You are
basing your entire policy solution on this research; it had better be rock solid.
Evaluate Your Sources
Below is a list of questions to keep in mind as you evaluate your sources:
Who is funding the piece?
What are the author’s motivations behind writing the piece?
How old is it?
What kind of source is it?
What are you not being told?
Is there a political leaning or affiliation attached to the piece?
Who is the target audience?
Review of Sources
Academic Journal 1:
Bibliographic Information (Chicago format):
Purpose of source:
Brief summary of article:
Academic Journal 2:
Bibliographic Information (Chicago format):
Purpose of source:
Brief summary of article:
Think Tank Publication:
Bibliographic Information (Chicago format):
Purpose of source:
Brief summary of article:
Popular Press Article 1:
Bibliographic Information (Chicago format):
Purpose of source:
Popular Press Article 2:
Bibliographic Information (Chicago format):
Purpose of source:
Brief summary of article:
Government Source:
Bibliographic Information (Chicago format):
Purpose of source:
Brief summary of article:
Problem Statement Revision
Answer the following five questions to refine your initial draft of the problem statement. Be
sure to include citations.
1. In 2-3 sentences, describe the current problem and its effects. Be precise and concise.
2. Identify at least three distinct negative consequences of the status quo policy failure.
Quantify these failures and their impact.
3. What legislation and non-governmental policies are currently in place to address the
problem that you have identified? What are the strengths of these policies? What are
the weaknesses of these policies? Why are they ineffective?
4. Have other states or geographic regions outside the scope of your research
implemented policies to solve a similar problem? What were the effects of these
policies?
5. Identify at least three stakeholders. Explain why each is a stakeholder and what
change (if any) they want to see from the status quo.
Research Checklist
Before you move on to writing, go through the checklist below to ensure you have answered
all of the key questions necessary for good policy research.
History
Has this already been identified as a problem or are you the first person to see it as such?
How did the problem develop?
Have you found primary sources?
Is there a legislative history around solving this problem?
This entails all relevant policy proposals, not just the history of your policy idea.
Why hasn't this problem been solved already?
Does this problem exist in other communities?
Has this problem been adequately addressed in other communities? If so, how?
What types of previous efforts failed to address this problem and why?
Stakeholders
Who does this problem affect?
Keep in mind how people are affected both directly and indirectly.
Who will be positively impacted by your proposal?
Who will be negatively impacted by your proposal?
Why would someone be interested in maintaining the status quo?
Who needs to support your policy proposal to make it politically viable?
Who has tried to address this problem in the past?
Who is currently working to address this problem?
Quality of Proposal
Will the net outcome of your proposal be positive?
What are the trade-offs to your proposal?
How does your proposal contribute to the public good?
Once your proposal is adopted, are there means for effective evaluation?
Is your proposal cost effective?
How does your proposal address the root problem?
Why is your proposal the best option for addressing the problem?