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Research is hard for everyone. Throughout class, add some challenges that you have faced while researching to the Jamboard.
A. You will work in groups to turn your interviews into search terms to find resources in scholarly sources. Form groups of two people and complete the following using the Topics & Strategies Jamboard.
Assign a speaker and a note taker. The presenter will have three minutes to tell the note taker about their oral history interview. While the presenter is speaking, the note taker will write down key terms, themes, and ideas that they hear on the Jamboard.
Switch roles until each student has had the opportunity to share their interview summary.
Take one minute after everyone has shared to brainstorm some of your own as well as synonyms, historical terms, etc.
B. As a class, we will discuss some strategies for generating relevant search results in scholarly databases. Is your topic too specific to find sources? We will gradually use the inverted pyramid from the Jamboard for gradually broaden a search until we find a happy medium.
On your own or in pairs, try searching a database from this research guide using the search terms and ideas you brainstormed with your partner. Is your topic too broad? Use the pyramid on the below Jamboards to add search terms and find the sweet spot in a database. The search terms and sweet spot will differ for each database you use, so try some creative combinations!
Return to the Topics & Strategies Jamboard that we started with. In pairs, brainstorm some strategies to these challenges and post them on the Jamboard. Use this as a tipsheet the next time you get stuck doing research!
