Lesson+3+of+10+Information+Report

Writing an information report- modeled and joint construction of an information report. || ** Learning Area(s): ** HSIE- Cultures English- Information Report || This lesson aims to re-introduce students to the information report text type. Students would have previously had exposure to writing an information report so the purpose of this lesson is to simply re-familiarise students with information reports so that in lesson 4 they can successfully write their own information report which will be included in their multimodal text. The emphasis of the lesson will be for students to gain a thorough understanding of how to write a successful information report by looking at its structure, purpose, language and grammatical features. This lesson will serve as a means of scaffolding how to write an information report as the students’ own information reports will form an aspect of the multimodal text to be created. During this lesson the teacher will briefly discuss aspects of an information report, model to students how to construct an information report and finally will work with the class to jointly construct an information report. Once the class has jointly constructed their information report, each student will take it in turns to read a section of the information report (as given to them by the teacher) and the teacher will record their voices. This recording will form part of the multimodal text. CUS2.4- Describes different viewpoints, ways of living, languages and belief systems in a variety of communities. Indicators: - recalls information about and describes various celebrations such as birthdays and Australia Day - explores the aspects and significance of various celebrations RS2.8- Discusses the structure of a range of text types and the grammatical features that are characteristic of those text types. - recognises the structure of an information report - identifies word families in an information report and discusses how they build up topic information WS2.10- Produces texts clearly, effectively and accurately, using the sentence structure, grammatical features and punctuation conventions of the text type. - builds word families in preparation for writing - uses present tense in information report TS2.1- Communicates in informal and formal classroom activities in school and social situations for an increasing range of purposes on a variety of topics across the curriculum. -listens to an information report on a familiar topics -participates in class discussion about information reports || - IWB - Butchers Paper - Highlighters - ‘Birthdays’ information report cut up into sections - Annotated ‘Shark’s information report - A4 paper (one sheet per pair) - Glue - Computer with free ‘Audacity’ program downloaded |||| **__ Set-up: __** Annotated ‘celebrations’ information report loaded onto IWB. Butchers paper on A3 display stand. ‘Birthdays’ information report cut up and on students desks. Audacity program downloaded and ready to start recording. || Tell students that in todays lesson they will again be looking at celebrations. Ask students to tell the class about some of the celebrations they researched in yesterdays lesson (lesson 2). Ask students to explain what they learnt about this celebration and why it is celebrated? Get students to explain what celebrations are and why we celebrate. Explain to students that as part of the Wiki (multimodal text) they are creating at the end of this unit on celebrations they are going to be writing an information report about the celebration they researched yesterday. Ask students if they remember what an information report is? Briefly brainstorm the purpose of an information report, audience and ask students why we would use an information report to write about a celebration as opposed to a procedural recount or an exposition? Have students recall the typical structure of an information report and record this on the board. Remind students that an information report contains a general statement which identifies the subject of the report and may define or classify it, and a series of paragraphs that describe various aspects and features of the topic. Ask students to cast their minds back to some of the common grammatical patterns of an information report such as; use of technical terms, use of paragraphs with topic sentences to organise bundles of information etc. Record these on the board and add anything else that the students may have missed. Explain to students that in today’s lesson we will be looking in more depth at an example of an information report and its specific features and then as a class we will construct our own information report about the Australia Day celebration. Remind students that at the end of this unit of work on ‘celebrations’ they will be creating a Wiki page and that each student is going to upload their individual information report about their chosen celebration. Explain to students that in the next lesson they will be writing an information report on their own and that it is very important that they do this perfectly because it is going to be up on the Wiki for everyone to read, so this is why in today’s lesson we are doing some revision on how to write an information report. || Display on IWB an annotated example of an information report on Celebrations. Read the information report together once. Discuss with students the annotations of the example and using the IWB go through and find, highlight and label some additional key features of this text type using the ‘think aloud’ strategy. (see appendix 1 for information report example). Discuss and identify with students specific features of the information report such as the general statement and description paragraph. Discuss and identify with students aspects of grammar identifiable in the information report such as use of word families and noun groups. Teacher explains to students he/she is now going to write a short information report about Birthdays (as a celebration) and that students need to listen and watch closely as the teacher explains the process of writing. On a piece of butchers paper (displayed so that each child in the class can see) teacher begins to write information report detailing his/her thought process/what they are doing every step of the way using the ‘think aloud’ process. For example the teacher would say “the first thing I am going to do is write a heading for my information report, and my heading will be Birthdays.” “The next I am going to do is write a general statement that identifies the subject of the information report. I am also going to use the word ‘birthday’ as a beginning focus (theme) of my general statement so that the information in my clause is nice and organized.” The teacher could then go on to say “I am going to start of my general statement by describing what a birthday” and then write on the butchers paper ‘A birthday is a day when a person celebrates his or her day of birth.’ (This explicitly demonstrates/models for students the choices and decisions writers make as they plan/analyse and edit their own writing). Teacher continues to do this until they have written a very short information report. (Appropriate tool for teaching ESL students). As a class re-read through the information report written by the teacher and highlight grammatical features such as word families, punctuation, technical language etc. Gets students to return to their desks and give each pair 9 cut up bits of paper that contains random information about birthdays (see appendix 2). Explain to students that, working with their partner, they are to read through each bit of paper first and then group the information to form 4 separate paragraphs (with each paragraph having 3 cut up bits of information). Remind students that they will need to have a general statement and that the information needs to be put together so that it creates a cohesive information report that makes sense to the reader. Explain to the students that the paragraphs can go in any order but the information within each paragraph can not, otherwise it wont make sense. Once students have agreed upon the order of their information report have them stick the cut up bits of paper onto an A4 sheet of paper (in their correct order). Explain to students that they will need to be able to justify to the rest of the class why they have structured the information the way they did. |||| ** Students will… **
 * ** Unit Topic: ** Celebrations |||| ** Curriculum Link: ** HSIE, English || ** Yr Level: ** 4 ||
 * ** Lesson Number: ** 3/10 |||| ** Lesson Topic: **
 * ** Lesson Overview: **
 * Lesson Outcomes and Indicators: **
 * HSIE ** :
 * English ** :
 * **__ Resources: __**
 * ** Lesson Outline ** ||
 * __ Introduction: __
 * **__ Body: __**
 * Teacher will… **

Sit on floor facing IWB.

Contribute to discussion about the ‘celebrations’ information report.

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Sit on floor facing butchers paper listening and watching closely.

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Students at desk, working with their partner, read through each cut up bit of paper and discuss which order to put them into in order to make logically flowing information report.

Stick cut up bits of paper in correct order on A4 piece of paper. || Teacher explains to students that as a class we are now going to jointly construct an information report about Australia Day (as a celebration) but this time the students will come up with what to write and the teacher will be the scribe (teacher will help the students to organise their ideas and give them pointers along the way). Remind students of the unit they did on Australia Day last term. Have students recall some facts about Australia day and write these up on the board. Work with class to build a word family about Australia Day and celebrations (including technical terms) and explain that these words will help us to put together our information report. Record these on IWB. Get a fresh piece of butchers paper (displayed so that every student can see it) and ask students what is the first thing they want the teacher to write on the butchers paper (prompt students to write a heading first). Ask students what they want to write next (students should say general statement), have students put up their hands and pick one student and ask them what they want the teacher to write for the first sentence. Continue this joint construction until information report is complete. Make sure to continuously highlight and remind students to use appropriate language features such as present tense, technical language etc. Use this activity as a tool for teaching specialised grammar associated with information reports. Explain to students that next we are going to make a voice recording of students reading out individual sections of the information report. Go through sentence by sentence and write next to it a students name (this will be the sentence that the student will read). Have students return to their desks and write their allocated sentence in their book and give them 5 minutes to practice reading it aloud. Explain to students that because their voices are being recorded they need to make sure they speak nice and loudly, they are clear in what they are saying, they don’t speak to fast, they pronounce all the words properly and pause at each full stop. After students have had time to practice have each student come into the computer room and shut the door (so as to not pick up any background noise) and using the ‘ Audacity’ computer program record each student saying their sentence. Using the ‘Audacity’ computer program teacher combines each sentence until there is one free flowing information report about Australia Day. (This will later be uploaded onto the Wiki). Bring students back to the floor and display on IWB the ‘celebrations’ information report. Take away the annotations and point out specific parts of the information report and have students say what this part is. For example point to first paragraph and ask what this is called and the purpose of it. Point to the words celebration at the start of paragraph 4 and ask what is the function of this. last lesson. |||| Students participate in class discussion
 * Once completed have students return to floor and have a few pairs share their information report with the class. Discuss with class if any groups structured their information reports differently? Ask students if they found this task hard/easy? What helped them to put the information together in a logical way? How did they no what cut up bit of paper would make the first sentence in each paragraph?
 * __ Conclusion: __**

Students recall facts about Australia Day celebration and tell these to teacher.

Students put their hands up and tell teacher what to write on the butchers paper.

Students discuss various grammatical features of their jointly constructed information report.

Students write their sentence in their book and practice reading it aloud making sure to focus on speaking loudly and clearly, not to fast and pronounce all the words properly.

Students enter computer room and read their sentence out as practiced earlier.

Students participate in class discussion and ask any questions if they have any. || Have students return to desks and get out their ‘reflection’ journal and write about today’s lesson. This journal serves as a means of communication between student and teacher in which students can freely and openly write about what they learnt during the lesson, their feelings about the lesson, what they want to know more about, if they are still confused etc. |||| Students write in reflection journal || Assessment during this lesson will be formative and will consist of teacher observation during the lesson. As students will not be handing in any written work during this lesson it is important that the teacher make mental and written notes of each students contribution during class discussions as well as during the task in which students will be working in pairs. The teacher should listen for student responses, what questions they ask, what ideas/suggestions they put forward when jointly constructing the information report, and also observe students during their pair work task. At the end of the lesson the teacher will collect students ‘reflection’ journal and will read through this as another form of formative assessment. Students will not receive a grade for their journal entry as it is not an assessment task, but rather a way of students openly and honestly recording their thoughts and feelings about the lesson. Instead the teacher will use this journal entry, along with student contributions during the lesson, to form a more accurate picture of students understanding and grasp of the concepts taught in this lesson. As this lesson is more about scaffolding learning rather than assessing student learning, formative assessment observed and recorded during the lesson will give a more accurate picture of student achievement than a summative assessment task. ||
 * Ask students if they feel confident enough now to go and write their own information report on the celebration they researched last lesson. Ask students if they have any further questions/need anything clarified?
 * **__ Assessment: __**