English Language Arts Research Project
Due Date ___________________________________________
Assignment: As a cross-curricular unit with 7th grade science, Students will
research either and infectious or non infectious disease. Students will create a
brochure to demonstrate knowledge of research skills.
Materials Needed
 Glue stick, scissors (safety-type), colored pencils, or markers (to be
provided by the student)
 (optional) printed color copies of photos for brochure (pictures should not
be larger than a wallet sized photo)
 Paper (both white and construction paper) will be provided to the student.
 NO GLITTER OR GLITTER GLUE!
Diseases (Check the topic you are given.)
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HIV/AIDS
Diabetes
Chicken Pox
Measles
Asthma
Leukemia
Mononucleosis
Arthritis
Lyme Disease
Parkingston Disease
Influenza
Huntington’s Disease
What should I include in my brochure?
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Title
How do you get the disease?
What are the symptoms of the disease?
What does the disease do the body?
What can you do to prevent the disease?
How is the disease treated? Is the disease curable?
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Meningitis
Pneumonia
Hypertension
Tuberculosis
Hepatitis B
Sickle Cell Disease
Skin Cancer
Athlete’s Foot
The Common Cold
 How many people die each year of the disease?
 2 pictures (related to the disease-part of body affected, what a symptom may look like, etc)
 1 graph (pie or bar graph) – the graph can show many different things. You could choose ONE of the following
things.
 Demographics (race)
 Age
 Males and females affected by the disease
 Comparison of percentage of people in different countries or Continents with the disease
(example: comparing the # of people who have AIDS in US, Canada, and Nigeria or North America,
South America, and Africa.)
 Children vs. adults who have the disease
 Comparison of the number of deaths of people with the disease ( age, race, sex, countries, or
continents)
Research Timeline (schedule is subject to change)
Thursday, March 18, 2010- Introduce Research topic-selecting appropriate sources and creating research
questions.
Friday, March 19, 2010- Documentation of sources- Homework- documenting sources.
Monday, March 22, 2010- ELA Benchmark Test
Tuesday, March 23, 2010- Research in Computer Lab (only 1 day for electronic resources)
Wednesday, March 24, 2010- Research-In class (only 1 day for print resources)
Thursday, March 25, 2010-Summarizing, paraphrasing, and direct quotes
Friday, March 26, 2010-Quiz-(on research) Complete a rough draft of brochure-graph included (to make sure
you have all required elements)
Monday, March 29, 2010- Create Brochures in class- students should have ALL required materials to complete
brochures (due at end of class)
Tuesday, March 30, 2010-Research Test – Finish brochures after test- All brochures should be completed on
this day by the end of the class period.
*Students are encouraged to complete research outside of class-either at home or at the public library.
How will I be graded?
The research project will be counted as TWO TEST GRADES (due to the amount of time spent working on the project in
class.
Additionally, students will receive class work grades for
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Research questions
Two research grids (one for print resources, one for electronic resources)
Citing sources
Rough Draft of brochure
Summarizing, paraphrasing, and direct quotes
Students will be graded with the following rubric for the brochure.
4
3
Attractiveness &
Organization
The brochure has
exceptionally attractive
formatting and wellorganized information.
The brochure has
The brochure has wellattractive formatting and organized information.
well-organized
information.
The brochure's
formatting and
organization of material
are confusing to the
reader.
Graphics/Pictures
Graphics go well with
the text and there is a
good mix of text and
graphics.
Graphics go well with
the text, but there are so
many that they distract
from the text.
Graphics go well with
the text, but there are
too few and the
brochure seems "textheavy".
Graphics do not go with
the accompanying text or
appear to be randomly
chosen.
Sources
Careful and accurate
records are kept to
document the source of
95-100% of the facts
and graphics in the
brochure.
Careful and accurate
records are kept to
document the source of
94-85% of the facts and
graphics in the brochure.
Careful and accurate
records are kept to
document the source of
84-75% of the facts and
graphics in the
brochure.
Sources are not
documented accurately
or are not kept on many
facts and graphics.
Content - Accuracy
All facts in the brochure
are accurate.
99-90% of the facts in
the brochure are
accurate.
89-80% of the facts in
the brochure are
accurate.
Fewer than 80% of the
facts in the brochure are
accurate.
Writing - Mechanics
Capitalization and
Capitalization and
punctuation are correct punctuation are correct
throughout the brochure. throughout the brochure
after feedback from an
adult.
There are 1-2
capitalization and/or
punctuation errors in the
brochure even after
feedback from an adult.
There are several
capitalization or
punctuation errors in the
brochure even after
feedback from an adult.
Writing - Grammar
There are no
There are no
grammatical mistakes in grammatical mistakes in
the brochure.
the brochure after
feedback from an adult.
There are 1-2
grammatical mistakes in
the brochure even after
feedback from an adult.
There are several
grammatical mistakes in
the brochure even after
feedback from an adult.
Spelling &
Proofreading
No spelling errors.
No more than 3 spelling Several spelling errors in
errors.
the brochure.
CATEGORY
Required Elements
4 points (for all
elements)
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No more than 1 spelling
error remains.
2
Title
How do you get the disease?
What are the symptoms of the disease?
What does the disease do the body?
What can you do to prevent the disease?
How is the disease treated? Is the disease curable?
How many people die each year of the disease?
2 pictures
1 graph (pie or bar graph)
1