Papers...

• My eighth graders have to write a research paper.
• They have been working on it for around 3 weeks now.
• One of them has not done the steps. He is having trouble.
• I think part of it is they have never done research and their first time to do it is a long paper. 1800 words.
• The one that has written all of his paper.. well lets just say its not so great. He uses the words "This is just stupid."  more than once while talking about his topic.
• I remember writing research papers with a ton of had written notes from my research and all the books, magazines, and Internet printouts scattered everywhere for reference.
• The only thing close to that is the boys have note cards they wrote a few facts on.  But 20 note cards is not going to make an 1800 word paper.
• Their papers also don't flow and when I tell them that they just look at me like I am dumb.  One even told me he couldn't move the two paragraphs together because they say the same thing just different words....well duh that's what I am telling you. You jump around repeating yourself for six pages.
• I typed the papers for them. Yes the papers have to be typed but the actual typing is not part of their grade. And it was the only way I could get through the papers.
• I feel for the teachers having to read 120 papers.
• I dont think my kids learned how to do a research paper very well.
• I think easier topics, a smaller paper, and more direction would have been a beter way to start them off.