Literature Review Tutorial
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Literature reviews are important assignments for high school students to learn. They involve answering key questions about what a literature review is, why it is important, the typical parts of one, and how to get started on the assignment. The document provides guidance for students on how to approach and complete their first literature review.
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Literature Review Tutorial
- 1. Assigning Literature Reviews to High School Students Four Important Questions to Answer Maggie Ansell
- 2. WHAT is a Literature Review? Joe says… Mary says… Wikipedia says… Teacher says…
- 3. WHY is it so Important?
- 4. What are the PARTS of a Literature Review?
- 5. Where do I START?
- 6. CAN I do this?
- 7. Yes I CAN!
- 8. Let’s Begin!
Editor's Notes
- When given an assignment like a literature review, students probably have a lot of questions. If you don’t address these questions, it is unlikely that the students will have interest in, see the relevance of, or have confidence about literature reviews, which is just not satisfying to them – so why bother writing a rough draft? Your lesson plan for this class should focus on answering typical student questions, such as:
- This might seem obvious to you, but for many students, this will be the first time they’ve been introduced to this term which is pretty unique to academia. Grab the students’ attention by asking for their thoughts on what a literature review is, and then write them on the board. Have one of the students look up the term in the dictionary. Finally, give your own definition, but also make comparisons that are more familiar to students (for example, a literature review is like an academic Wikipedia article). The goal is to make the students comfortable and confident with the vocabulary of academic research. (Mike E.’s research)
- The whole reason you’re having the students do this literature review is to help them with a larger research paper, so explain why most research papers start out by talking about the research that has already been done. Emphasize how the literature review is the backbone of the research paper to make it relevant to the interests of your students.
- Part of increasing the confidence of your students is breaking down a daunting task into manageable parts. Literature reviews follow a particular pattern with discernable parts, so break that down with your students – have an example literature review on the screen and go through it paragraph by paragraph.
- The most likely reason the majority of your students haven’t written their rough draft is that they are unsure where to begin. Where is the literature that they’re supposed to be reviewing? What databases should they be looking through? Which search terms should they use? This is a great opportunity to bring in a librarian to give a quick talk and demonstration of how to look for academic research in the library databases. The change of pace will keep the students interested, and meeting the librarian as part of a group will make library resources more approachable.
- Hand out examples of previous literature reviews done by students – both good and bad examples. Give your students time to look over them, and discuss with the whole class about what makes them good or bad.
- By clearly demonstrating what you expect of a literature review, you are giving your students a guide to success. By using the work of previous students, it makes the task much more approachable “if they can do it, why can’t I” should be the thought running through your head. This activity also cultivates your students analytical skills.
- Once you’ve inspired your students by making them confident in their ability to write a literature review – have them start, in class! You can switch up the format again by creating small groups of students who will begin by making quick outlines or sketches of their literature reviews. They can then review each other’s outlines and discuss their merits and drawbacks. By working independently of the teacher, they are gaining even more confidence in their ability to complete this assignment. They even have the satisfaction of a good beginning to their paper. This is also where the students who did complete a rough draft can go over them with each other, editing based on what they’ve learned in class.