Conduct short research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question), drawing on several sources and generating additional related, focused questions that allow for multiple avenues of exploration.
Common Core State Standards, Grades 6-8, Writing: History, Science & Technical Subjects · Read it at the source · Checked October 14, 2026
What WHST.6-8.7 Means in Plain English
In science and history classes, students research a question, often their own, like why the ginkgo outside the school drops every leaf in a single day. They answer it from several sources and write down the focused new questions those sources raise, each one a different path to follow.
Fifth graders (W.5.7) use several sources to investigate different aspects of a topic. Here the project starts from a question, and the sources should generate new ones. Grades 9 to 10 (WHST.9-10.7) add more sustained projects, solving problems, narrowing or broadening the inquiry and synthesizing several sources.
WHST.6-8.7 I Can Statements
I can write a research question about my science or history topic.
I can answer my question using several different sources.
I can raise focused follow-up questions that open new paths.
WHST.6-8.7 Worked Example
Both students wrote their own question about the same tree; only one chose a question that could grow.
Prompt
Science class research plan: write a question about something you have noticed in the natural world, list the sources you started with, and explain the new questions your first sources raised.
Not YetMy question is: What is a ginkgo tree? I will look it up in an online encyclopedia and write down the facts. Then I will write my report.One encyclopedia entry answers the question, so there is nothing to investigate and no reason to use several sources. The plan generates no follow-up questions, which is the part of WHST.6-8.7 that turns a short project into research.
Meets the StandardThe ginkgo outside our science room dropped nearly all its leaves on one November morning, while the maples beside it lost theirs over weeks, so my question is why a ginkgo sheds its leaves all at once. I started with a university botanic garden’s page on ginkgos, a field guide to trees from the school library and an interview with our district groundskeeper. The garden’s page said a ginkgo seals off the stems of all its leaves at about the same time, which raised my first follow-up question: does a hard frost trigger the drop? The field guide noted that female ginkgos drop seeds that smell like rancid butter, which opened a second path: why do cities plant mostly male ginkgos, and how can anyone tell a young tree’s sex? The groundskeeper said our tree is over sixty years old, so my third question is whether older ginkgos drop their leaves faster than young ones.The question grows out of an observation and is narrow enough for a short project. Three different kinds of sources feed it, a web page, a print field guide and an interview, and each one generates a focused follow-up that opens its own path: the trigger, male and female trees, and the tree’s age.
Moves to Use
Start from something you observed and ask why or how it happens.Check that no single source can answer the whole question.Mix kinds of sources: a website, a print book and a person.Write each new question beside the source that raised it.Keep every follow-up question tied to the original one.
Common Mistakes with WHST.6-8.7
A question one source can answer
“What is a ginkgo tree?”
Try this: Have students search their question once, and if the first result answers it fully, rewrite it as a why or how question.
One source counted several times
Three pages from the same website listed as three sources
Try this: Require sources of at least two different kinds, such as a print book and an interview, before research notes are accepted.
Follow-up questions that wander off
From why ginkgo leaves fall at once to “What is the tallest tree in the world?”
Try this: Ask students to label each follow-up question with the source that raised it and the part of the main question it explores.
What makes the strong response’s question a good fit for a short research project?
It comes from something the writer observed, and no single source answers it, yet it is narrow enough, one tree and one behavior, to research in a few days.
Name the three follow-up questions and the source that raised each one.
Whether frost triggers the drop (the garden’s page), why cities plant male ginkgos and how to tell a tree’s sex (the field guide), and whether older trees drop leaves faster (the groundskeeper).
Why is “What is a ginkgo tree?” a weak research question?
One encyclopedia entry answers it, so it needs no investigation across several sources and raises no further questions.