For a long time, in people's usual concept, "thesis" seems to be the full-time job of master students and doctoral students. Can pupils write papers? Our primary school in Shangnan Second Village, Pudong New Area, after the practice of project-based activity classes, is delighted to find that primary school students can not only write papers, but also write well!
Guiding students to study and write papers from the primary school stage, cultivating students' scientific spirit and methods, laying a spiritual background for students to pursue truth, is of great benefit to children's life.
First of all, unveil the "mystery" of the paper.
The main content of the paper is to explain the rational understanding of a certain thing and problem, and to put forward a new viewpoint or a new theoretical system to explain the relationship between theories. Of course, it is impossible for primary school students to have such high requirements for papers. We believe that any student who finds problems in research activities can collect information and investigate in various ways, put forward his own views, even trivial ones, and then express them in his own language in writing, which can be called a thesis. Thesis is the result of research activities. The opinions or opinions put forward by students are probably said by others, published in books and well known, but we can't deny them, because they are the opinions put forward by students themselves after opening their eyes wide, looking for information, investigating and studying, and thinking repeatedly. This little opinion contains the children's arduous exploration process and a heart of pursuing true knowledge. The book "Quality Education in America" written by Dr. Huang Quanyu, who studied in the United States, has given us a lot of inspiration. The author has repeatedly described his son's experience in doing mine disaster research in American primary schools: in the second grade of primary school, the teacher assigned a "research project" to the students, stipulating that the "research paper" should have at least three questions and be written on two pages. The mine chose the "research" of blue whales. He found more than a dozen children's picture books introducing blue whales from the library, and after reading them, he wrote the first "research paper" in his life. This paper is bound by three loose-leaf pages. The first one is the cover, which shows a blue whale with teeth and tail. In front of the blue whale, a group of shrimps were carefully drawn with a pen. On the lower left of the cover, Gong Gong was written by Huang Kuangyuan. Chinese meaning, by Huang Kuangyan. The paper contains four small topics: (1) Introduction; (2) What do blue whales eat? (3) How do blue whales eat? (4) The uniqueness of the blue whale.
Students in the second grade of American primary schools can write papers carefully, so what reason do we have to doubt our fifth grade students? To guide students to write papers, we must first uncover the mystery of the papers, fully trust each student and give them a chance to display their talents!
Second, the difference between primary school students' "composition" and "thesis"
There are differences and connections between primary school students' compositions and papers. First of all, their contents are different. "Chinese Teaching Syllabus for Primary Schools" points out: "The composition of primary school students is to practice expressing what they have seen, heard, thought or experienced in appropriate language. "The paper is an article in which primary school students collect data, investigate and interview, observe and experiment, analyze and sort out the obtained materials, and put forward their own opinions or opinions on the basis of listing materials. Secondly, the goal of the composition is different from that of the paper. Composition is mainly to cultivate students' writing ability, while the paper focuses on cultivating students' ability to find problems, solve problems and summarize reports. Third, the composition has no fixed format, but the paper must have a certain format.
Both of them express their thoughts through language and writing, and the requirements in language and writing are the same, that is, vivid, accurate, concise and vivid. Within a certain range, the two can promote each other, and students with strong writing ability can express their views clearly and smoothly. Students who are good at thinking and can put forward their own opinions can broaden their horizons, trigger thinking from common things in daily life, capture composition materials, write distinctive views, and increase the depth and breadth of composition.
Third, carry out research activities to guide the writing of papers.
1. Establish research topics and collect relevant information.
Suhomlinski said: "There is a deep-rooted need in people's hearts to feel that they are a discoverer, researcher and explorer, and this need is particularly strong in children's spiritual world." Starting from students' psychology, carry out research activities, stimulate students' interest in inquiry with common things in daily life, and guide students to find problems in life.
In the activity class of "paper is a big family" in grade five, students put forward many questions about the paper they have to deal with every day, such as: What was the earliest paper like? What is the history of paper? What materials do you need to make paper? What is the purpose of paper? What pollution does papermaking have to the environment ... After the teacher summarizes the blackboard writing, the students choose the most interesting questions and establish them as their own topics.
The subject is determined. What method is used to study it? First, students discuss freely, and then teachers and students sum up the research methods together:
(1) Search information (library, family books, newspapers and magazines, TV news, Internet access)
(2) Visit (the museum)
(3) Visit (experts)
(4) Analyze and arrange the obtained materials.
After the topics and methods are established in the classroom, the work of collecting materials is completed by students in their spare time, which usually takes them about two weeks. Before the end of the research work, teachers do not express any opinions on the topic selection and research process, and fully trust each student to immerse them in an independent working state. Of course, teachers can provide reference for students to collect materials when they ask. When students encounter difficulties that they can't solve, we should help them find a way and find a way.
2. Analyze the known materials and draw up the outline of the paper.
After two weeks, students have collected a lot of information from books, internet, surveys and interviews. Teachers should guide students to analyze and sort out these materials, that is, properly classify them, and put accurate data, typical cases, distinctive views and articles with similar topics in a folder. After repeated reading, put forward your own views and opinions. According to the actual situation of primary school students, the point of view can be very simple, and three or five sentences will do. For example, a student, after collecting a lot of information about the history of paper, put forward his own opinion: the paper we usually contact every day was invented by Cai Lun, and the invention of papermaking made great contributions to the progress of China and the world civilization. At the same time, we know that paper is hard to come by, so we should save paper. Another example is a student who, after collecting the relevant information of recycled paper, learned that recycled paper is of great benefit to saving wood resources and protecting the environment, and put forward his own suggestions: I hope the school can add several recycling bins for waste paper and books, and give the recycled waste paper and books to the paper mill at the end of the term, and we will use recycled paper as exercise books next semester, which can save a lot of wood for the country!
Clear your point of view, extract the content that best illustrates your point from the classified materials, and guide students to draw up the outline of the paper. The outline generally consists of three aspects: (1) preface (explaining the reasons for the investigation); (2) List the main points of materials in the logical order of topics; (3) Summarize and put forward your own opinions. As the students are new to this paper, they knew nothing about it before. So in terms of sketching, the teacher demonstrated the history of paper and showed it to students in the form of physical projection:
The history of paper
1. Foreword: Papermaking is one of the four great inventions in ancient China. In order to understand the development history of paper more clearly, we launched an investigation.
Second, the content:
1. Various writing materials before paper appeared.
2. The inventor of paper
3. How was ancient paper made (with photos)
4. The great contribution of papermaking
Third, my opinion.
After the outline is drawn up, the paper is completed by the students themselves at home, which is not limited to one day. As long as it is completed, students can hand it in at any time. The paper requirements include three parts: (1) cover; (2) Catalogue; (3) the text. Write the title of the topic and the author's name on the cover. You can use your painting ability to beautify the cover, depending on the content of the paper and your own preferences. There should be a table of contents in front of the text, listing all the subtitles of the article, and the text can also be beautified. The format should be designed by the students themselves.
3. The relationship between imitation and innovation
A week later, the students handed in their papers one after another, and every teacher was excited to see the pages of articles condensed with students' sweat. These colorful children's files in different forms are really wonderful things: handwriting, printing, cutting and pasting ... most of them are hand-painted with illustrations related to the content of the article. A classmate drew a paper machine in the paper "How Paper is Made", and every step of paper making was illustrated with streamline icons, which was clear and intuitive.
While we were delighted with the students' papers, we also found some problems, because the teacher took the history of paper as an example in the course of "project design", and many individuals and research groups imitated this example and made research papers on the history of paper.
In view of this situation, the teacher did not criticize the students, but explained the relationship between imitation and innovation: "It is also good for students to design and carry out research according to the topic of" History of Paper "listed by the teacher in class, which shows that everyone has the desire to write a good paper, but imitation alone is not enough. All great scientific discoveries are the result of scientists' creativity. The research content of this paper has its own characteristics, so it is best to put forward your own fresh ideas. I believe everyone has this ability. Do you want to try again? "
Then I introduced several research papers with distinct viewpoints to my classmates, such as the advantages and disadvantages of Heroes of the Water Margin written by a female classmate. After seeing many primary school students redeeming the "Water Margin Hero Card" in the "Little Raccoon Crispy Noodle" on campus, she conducted research, investigated the reasons why students like this kind of card, and analyzed the advantages and disadvantages of the card. Advantages: Boys have another kind of "toy", so they can get a preliminary understanding of General Shuihu 108. Disadvantages: Playing cards in class distracts the attention of learning. General Jiqi 108 bought at least 108 packets of crispy noodles, which was a waste of money. Many students throw away instant noodles in order to get cards, which not only wastes food but also destroys the environment ... Finally, she puts forward her own point of view: If you want to know the heroes of the Water Margin, you can spend more than ten yuan to buy a copy of Water Margin, and The Heroes of the Water Margin is very important to you.
After hearing the introduction of this paper, many students were enlightened. The teacher took the opportunity to tell the students that there was nothing new to study about the paper, but we didn't open our eyes to find it and think with our brains. As long as we carefully observe and think, we can put forward new and valuable opinions from the smallest aspects of things! After listening to the teacher's summary, some students who studied the history of paper immediately decided to choose a new topic about paper for research.
4. Infiltrate scientific spirit and implement scientific methods.
The best way to learn science is to engage in science. Science is not only facts and theories, but also a process of thinking and exploring. In this process, students' creative ability, scientific attitude and scientific method have been exercised.
In research activities, especially in thesis writing, teachers attach great importance to infiltrating scientific spirit and implementing scientific methods. For example, after learning that most students in the class like to use imported brand pens, a student put forward his own opinion: "China brand pens have lost their position in children's minds, so we should learn from foreign brands and catch up." Wrote the paper "China brand fountain pen should wake up". After reading his article, I pointed out to him in front of the whole class: the article has novel views, but it still lacks factual basis. What can best explain that China brand fountain pens are inferior to foreign brands? After the students discussed in groups, we came to the conclusion that the sales volume is the most telling. So he told him that he could investigate the sales of fountain pens in several stationery stores and supermarkets nearby, tabulate the data and speak with facts, so as to be convincing. After investigating the sales of fountain pens, we can also randomly select several student numbers from each class in grade five of the school, and then use these student numbers to interview students to find out what brand of fountain pens they like to use and why they want to use them, and then analyze and sort them out, so that the opinions put forward are reliable and true.
This male student later spent two days in the weekend investigating several stationery stores near the school, and spent another week visiting 30 students in the school, drawing these data into a table and rewriting the paper "It's time for China brand fountain pens to wake up". The teacher also commented on the paper to the whole class. Through the two comments on this paper, the spirit of science speaking with facts is deeply rooted in students' hearts, and at the same time, students have initially learned the methods of sampling investigation and comparative analysis.
After the initial completion of students' thesis, we ask students to add an appendix to the thesis, indicating the sources of materials, data and reference books cited in the article one by one. This seemingly boring practice virtually cultivates students' meticulous, rigorous and realistic scientific spirit.
5. The goal of primary school students' thesis.
(1) makes sense.
Compared with the current primary school students' compositions, which are all fake, big, empty, or hard-copy compositions made by themselves, the primary school students' papers are easy to make sense. Because students have collected some materials and observed the exploration process of the experiment before writing their papers, they must have materials, things to write and their own opinions to play.
(2) Speak in an orderly way
Papers can be written point by point in the order of investigation, or classified and described one by one according to the characteristics of material content. In the processing of ideas and materials, we can list the materials first, and then analyze and infer them to lead to ideas. You can also clarify your own point of view first, and then prove it by analyzing the factual materials collected by the investigation.
(3) Well-founded
This is the special requirement of different compositions in the paper: the data and examples listed in the paper should be reasonable and well-founded, and they should not be imagined or fabricated out of thin air, especially the materials that illustrate their own views, and they should have clear sources, and if necessary, they can indicate the sources at the end of the paper.