Teaching the Research Paper for Local Action

W ith the sun shining in their eyes and a slight spring breeze hitting their faces, the students form a semicircle-some sitting, others standing--on a small patch of grass between their tenth-grade English classroom and the student parking lot. They each have their black-and-white marble research notebooks in their hands; some are writing notes as the rest scan the parking lot, athletic fields, and the exterior of their high school. It is the first day of the research paper unit, and the students have been prompted to make meaningful observations of their school. After a few moments