When I ask students to write about a topic, most try to submit a collection of copy-and-paste paragraphs. I’m looking for strategies to help students create original writing.  —H., Georgia

Before the Internet, when students were assigned to write on a topic, they went to the library, found the topic in an encyclopedia, and copied enough words to meet the length criteria. Fast-forward to today’s world of online searching, Wikipedia, and electronic copy/paste and you have updated the situation.

In the old days, as students copied by hand, they at least had to look at the words. I recently watched a biology student completing a vocabulary activity on cells. With his laptop he copied and pasted a definition of nucleus—as the center of an atom composed of protons and neutrons!

Synthesizing information from several sources is a useful process. But it might not be an intuitive one for students. When I was teaching middle school, each student created a report on an endangered animal. Even though I told the students I wanted to see their own writing, I still had many copy-and-paste versions. It was clear that students needed some guidance and examples of how to gather and use information from several sources.

Although my colleagues at the high school level swore by index cards and outlines for preparing reports, I knew these would be hard for many seventh graders. My classes included special education students, so I asked the special education teacher if she had any suggestions for helping students organize information and use what they find.

My colleague introduced me to the idea of using a “matrix” to help break down the task and provide a graphic organizer for the information. We worked together to design a template, realizing that what was helpful for special needs students would be helpful for all.

It was a one-page document, with a table. The column headers were blank for students to identify the sources they used (the librarian helped explain how to document the sources). The row labels were for characteristics of the animal. We brainstormed these labels in class. Most classes came up with the same ones, but it gave students some input into the document. If they didn’t think of it, I suggested a row for “interesting facts.” (Here is an example of a Matrix–feel free to download and adapt!)

As students found information, they filled in a column for each source. They had questions: What if a source doesn’t have information for a box? (Put “N/A”—it shows the value of multiple sources.) I can’t fit everything into the box. (The size of the square means just a summary the facts–not a lot of writing.) It was another teachable moment when students realized that some sources had different information.

The effectiveness of this strategy became apparent when they started to write. This time, they looked at each row to summarize and elaborate on the topic. For students who weren’t sure how to start, I suggested opening with an interesting fact, writing one or two paragraphs for each row, and concluding with another interesting fact. It was an “aha” moment for students as they saw their original writing emerge. We did the writing in class, which took a few class periods. My colleague and I decided it was worth it when we saw the results.

One year, two students showed me how they took the matrix idea and used it to organize their own notes on arthropods. The column headings were classes of arthropods and the row labels were characteristics such as number of legs. I asked them to explain why this was more helpful than an outline or text paragraphs. They said that it was really easy to see how the classes of arthropods were similar and how they were different—quite an observation! I also used this strategy with high school students, and the use of matrix organizers morphed into my dissertation topic.

Both parts of the process—notetaking and writing—can be done electronically. The final document could be a written report, presentation slides, a foldable, or infographic.

I ran into a former student at a social event in our community. We reminisced about school, and he said that he still had his endangered animal report and read it to his kids!