Sloganize Your Research!

Today while virtually chatting with a colleague, she shared that she was still looking for a great graphic to represent our "Research Ambassador"  program.   We are turning out capable research change-agents and are proud of the role our Cybrarians are playing in transforming low-level-lame research units into deep learning endeavors that are aligned with the goals of the Common Core.    

We can view the Common Core as instruction that librarians have been advocating for over that last ten years.  Whether you are in a CCSS state, or not, the anchor standard, research to build and  "present knowledge," is a great goal.  Why else do research?  To sit on the findings?  To merely write a paper?    Research without presentation, is like a jeweler buying a gem and not putting it in a ring. 

When kids used to complete their research early in my library, I would differentiate the assignment and ask them to "sloganize" their findings.  If it were a biography, I'd ask them to get to the heart-and-soul of that person and create a slogan they might use in advocacy.    If it were an explorer, I'd ask them to choose three words that would best describe that person.  Or, to sum up the findings of their [issue] such as homelessness, I may have asked them to find a saying for their thesis. 

Having just finished reading  Sheinkin's book, The Bomb, I was wondering what Sloganizer would come up with if I tried to summarize Oppenheimer's mission.  I brainstormed three words that Oppenheimer might have chosen:  fusion finish first.   Here's what Sloganizer came up with for Robert Oppenheimer: 

This simple fun task can wrap up a "project" that may be less-than-stellar.  If a teacher hasn't collaborated and the kids are merely completing a deadly "packet,"  It instantly gives them a crumb at the top of Bloom's taxonomy. To summarize and create an enduring understanding is a tough task.    If you type that into the sloganize box, you can continue to hit the button until you get one of 500 them and variations you may like.  Here's what Patrick Henry might have chosen: 

While I chatted with a colleague via email,  I thought of using the old tool that I would send kids to for this purpose.  I wanted to come up with some short slogan to add to our Research Ambassador's bootcamp.  Here's a sampling of what sloganizer created. 

 

or 

So while I may not have found a graphic, I am close to a slogan!  

 From these I may choose a hybrid...  Research  Builds Brains and Empowers People! 

Have some fun today, and ask your students where else they could use this?  What would your inventor have sloganized for his invention?  What would the main character of the book have advocated for?  

www.sloganizer.net  - Choose the English Tab