John has been teaching for four years. He enrolled at the University of Washington in 1989 to receive a teaching degree after holding a number of other jobs, most recently being a library technician at the University of Washington. In this unit, students will develop both their social science research and writing skills. Students develop position papers on a variety of topics, conducting research to formulate and support their thesis statements. Students identify areas of interest and conduct preliminary research using on-line and library resources to develop their thesis statements.
Students gather data for one to three weeks both inside and outside of regular class time.
Students submit rough draft of position papers. Rough drafts are evaluated by instructor and students refine them. Messages announcing the project are placed on computer networks. The instructor e-mails copies of rough drafts for evaluation to those who respond. Reader-volunteers can also visit the school's website where the essays are posted to read and review.