The School-wide Enrichment Model (SEM) emphasizes Type II skills, which are instructional methods and materials designed to promote the following:
- general cognitive skills such as creative problem solving, critical thinking, decision making
- affective skills such as sensing, appreciating, valuing
- how-to skills such as note taking, interviewing, analyzing
- research skills such as researching directories, use of technology, writing bibliographies
- written, oral and visual communication skills
One way that OCS has chosen to meet the need for research skills in classrooms is through the implementation of the Independent Investigation Method (IIM). IIM is a step-by-step process that involves students conducting their own research. IIM can be differentiated according to grade level, skill level, and academic ability needs.
Using IIM, students are taught how to find reliable sources, document sources in MLA format, record point-form note facts in their own words, and then organize those notes to create written documents, posters, PowerPoint presentations, and other document styles. In the primary and junior grades, note facts are written on paper to be sorted manually and then written as organized paragraphs. In the intermediate grades, students learn to create note fact lists on the computer and use the “cut” and “paste” features to transfer their own notes into organized groupings that can then be made into paragraphs.
