Teaching Materials

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Overview

At this age, students are likely encountering research and note-taking for the first time. Giving them confidence and the skills they need to locate and extract factual information is essential. This lesson addresses this need through the introduction of basic skills in finding "fact fragments" and citing sources.

This short series of lessons will be taught by the media specialist, with the assistance of the classroom teacher. Time necessary for the lessons is estimated at two hour-long class periods. The students will continue to practice the skills learned with the support of the classroom teacher and media specialist throughout the larger inquiry research project.

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Student Objectives

Students will:

• Identify important facts within a passage
• Recognize some benefits of taking brief notes
• Construct their own basic notes
• Develop an understanding of the need to cite sources
• Find and record basic source information

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Standards

Indiana's Academic Standards

Second Grade Language Arts

2.2.4     Ask and respond to questions to aid comprehension about important elements of informational texts.
Example: After reading a short account about the first man on the moon, ask and answer why, what if, and how questions to understand the lunar landing.

2.2.5     Restate facts and details in the text to clarify and organize ideas.
Example: Summarize information learned from a text, such as detail about ant colonies stated in Ant Cities by Arthur Dorros or reported about spider webs in Spider Magic by Dorothy Hinshaw Patent.

Information Literacy Standards (AASL/AECT)

Standard 2: The student who is information literate evaluates information critically and competently.

Standard 3: The student who is information literate uses information accurately and creatively.

Standard 6: The student who is an independent learner is information literate and strives for excellence in information seeking and knowledge generation.

Standard 8: The student who contributes positively to the learning community and to society is information literate and practices ethical behavior in regard to information and information technology.

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Materials Needed

• Overhead projector, markers
• Transparencies for grizzly bear [1](text passage only)
• Transparencies for chimps [2](text passage and title pages)
• Copies of whales [3](text passage and title pages)
• Transparency of whales title pages
• Transparency of note card example
• Copies of quiz

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Roles and Responsibilities

The media specialist will lead these lessons, with the classroom teacher observing and assisting students during practice exercises. It would be helpful for the classroom teacher to take observation notes for assessment purposes.

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Lesson Outline

• Session 1
  1. Introduce the lesson by saying, "This is probably one of the first times you've been asked to search for information and write a report, right? Has anyone done a report like this before? Are you a little worried that you won't know what to do? Well, that's why we are here today. I'm going to help you figure out how to find what you need when you read. Today, we'll practice finding the important facts and tomorrow we'll work on writing them down on notecards. This will help you keep your important ideas straight and make writing the report much easier."
  2. Display grizzly bear transparency. Ask students to read the passage, then turn off the overhead.
  3. Say, "Can anyone tell me what that paragraph said exactly, word for word?" Students should have trouble with this.
  4. Say, "Can anyone remember one fact from the paragraph?" Encourage participation by accepting "close enough" answers and helping to correct them.
  5. Have students brainstorm some ways to identify facts in the text, such as asking Who, What, Where, When, Why, How questions.
  6. Say, "When we do research, we cannot use someone else's exact words, unless we give them credit. Authors work hard to put their ideas into words, so we can't steal them. We have to remember the facts we learn and write about them in our own words."
  7. Say, "When we take notes for the animal adaptation report, we won't write down whole sentences from the book. Can you think of a reason why? (take too long, hands would get tired, etc.) Instead we will only write the most important words, like the ones we remembered just now. I like to call those "fact fragments" because they are just the pieces with the facts we need, nothing else. Let's try an example."
  8. Display chimp text passage transparency
  9. With help from the students, circle the fact fragments in the passage, explaining as necessary why other words aren't as important. Remind students to look for Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How.
  10. Distribute the whales printout. Have students work in pairs to assist each other. Classroom teaacher and media specialist walk around the room providing feedback and helping as necessary.
  11. Go over the worksheet as a class, identifying difficulties and clarifying as needed.
  12. Collect practice exercise and keep it for tomorrow's lesson.
  13. Say, "Let's think about what we've learned today. We learned a new term, does anyone remember it? (fact fragment) Do you think finding fact fragments will help you as work on your report? Why? We also learned that we are not allowed to use someone else's words or ideas without giving them credit. We will be talking about that again tomorrow."

• Session 2
  1. Briefly review information presented in Session 1 (fact fragments, WWWWWH questions)
  2. Say, "Today we are going to learn how to use fact fragments to take notes while we read. This will help as you work on your animal adaptation project, and it is something you can use whenever you read to find information. In fact, we take notes all the time without realizing it. Last week, when you made wish lists at the book fair, you were taking notes. Does that surprise you? What kinds of things did you write down on your wish lists?"
  3. Have students name kinds of information used and make a list.
  4. "You needed to know the title of the book, so you could find it again. You needed to know the price, so you could tell your parents how much it cost. Some of you wrote down the author's name, or which number it was in a series. Some of you wrote down what you liked about the book, so you could convince your parents to let you get it. Those are all fact fragments. You were taking notes!"
  5. Distribute blank 3x5 notecards.
  6. Display notecard transparency.
  7. Have students write the caption "fact fragment" on one side of their cards.
  8. Say, "Let's practice taking notes from the whale paragraphs we used yesterday. This should be easy because we've already found the fact fragments in these paragraphs."
  9. Have students write one fact fragment on the note card.
  10. Say, "Yesterday, we talked a little bit about giving credit to authors when we use their information in a report. Why do you think this might be important?" Encourage discussion.
  11. Say, "Imagine that you worked really hard on something, like a new machine or a beautiful poem. Then, someone else came along and said they made it. Would that make you mad? Why? It's like stealing, isn't it? Well, when you use someone else's words or ideas as your own, it's like stealing ideas. But it's not stealing if you tell where you got the idea from or whose words you are using. That's why it is important to always give credit to the original author who worked hard to make that book or article."
  12. Have students write Author, Title, and Page Number on the back of their notecards. Explain that these are the fact fragments we need to give credit.
  13. Put the chimps title page transparency on the overhead. With student assistance, locate and circle the author and title information.
  14. Model filling in the information on the notecard transparency.
  15. Remind students where to find page numbers.
  16. Hand back whales exercise.
  17. Put the whale title page transparency on the overhead. Have students work independently to locate the author and title and write them on their note cards.
  18. Have students locate the page number on their copies of the whales text passage and record it on their note cards.
  19. Informally assess student understanding and close the lesson with the following activity:
  • Say, "Now you get to grade me. If you think what I say is right, give me a thumbs up. If you think I've made a mistake, give me a thumbs down. "
  • "I am going to write down every word so I'll have good notes." (thumbs down)
  • "I'll just copy what's in the encyclopedia. It doesn't matter who wrote it and no one will know." (thumbs down)
  • "These words and ideas belong to the author. Since I am borrowing them, I will give her credit." (thumbs up)
  • "When I take notes, I only write down the most important words. I don't need the rest." (thumbs up)
  20. Distribute a short quiz. Allow about 10 minutes.

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Extensions

1. Conduct remedial work with students who need more practice and examples. Use this online tutorial about fact fragments, especially for visual learners (requires MacroMedia ShockWave)

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Student Assessment/Reflections

1. Participation in discussions
2. Observation notes
3. Quiz grade
4. Conferencing as students work on practice exercises
5. Observation of understanding in closure activity