Web+Evaluations+BN

**Comments **:

 * This website is a great starting point for students to learn about how to research a topic and create a great research paper. It includes a step-by-step guide to writing a research paper, tips for searching for information both in a library and online, and links to websites that students can use for more help (like OWL handouts). This IPL site is a great resource for teachers to help their students understand how to write a research paper. It is very easy to use, especially at an upper grade level such as high school or even middle school. The table of contents creates a simplified "map" of everything the website has to offer, so a student can either learn step-by-step or jump to a certain area they may need more help in. I would use this website in my classroom by allowing every student to access it individually (maybe in a computer lab) and ask questions if they get confused. Another good way to help students would be to have them summarize the 6 steps explained on the website, so they actually retain the information and have a good starting point for their paper.

one thing i really liked about this site is that it said it was for both college students and high school students. i have written a few research papers in college and i would have liked to have known about this site sooner. i also like that it has the table of contents to help guide the user through the writing process. it's also good that the site has a bibliography section. i totally agree with all of the things that you said about usage, that the students can do it one step at a time or jump to whatever section they need. the only flaw i could find was at the page directly off the link, i had trouble figuring out which images were links and which ones were simply pictures. other than that it seems like a good site. RP

I'm fairly familiar with this website, though I have yet to have the privilege of needing its assistance. I feel that something that my high school experience lacked was research papers. Coming into college I was thrown into research and design of the papers. So I appreciate this connection you have made. I see nothing but positive things for students in high school to be exposed to something like this. Because, more than likely, they will know very little to no knowledge with research design. Something that could be helpful is to have the class brain storm how they think things should be conducted and break off into groups to find out how correct they were or not. ~AL

**Comments: **

 * Poets.org is a great website to help students and teachers find all kinds of poetry to use for projects, analysis, poetry readings, or a multitude of other uses. It also includes links for helping students to write their own poetry, and how exactly to read a poem. Students can search for a poem by author or title, and even by subject. One of the limitations of this website is that the layout can seem a bit distracting; there are some advertisements on the sides of the pages and occasionally it is hard to distinguish between the pictures used by the website and those used in the advertisements, although all the advertisements are endorsed by or have to do with poets.org. As a future English teacher, I could use poets.org to help my students learn how to analyze a poem for more meaning and how to write their own poems. It's a great way to show students examples of many different poets' works in one place.


 * Brittany, I thoroughly agree with you that this website would be a great tool to use in the classroom. I especially like the search for a poem by subject matter option as it could provide a great introductory activity to a poetry unit in a high school english class, by having a student pick any topic as long as they are interested and bring a poem back to the next class relating to their subject. From that point the student could use their poem to pick out certain poetic elements found in most poetry. I also like that the site can be used to teach students how to read poems because that seemed to be one of the more difficult aspects for students to grasp in the high school I went to. The only true limitations of the site, just like you said seem to be the advertisements, however looking past that this is a great classroom tool. -JD