Annotated+Information+Report+Resource

Written text example of an annotated information report on ‘celebrations’ This resource is an annotated example of an information report that can be displayed on the IWB as a way of introducing the lesson and getting students thinking about and ready to explore information reports in greater detail. As the topic of this unit of work is ‘celebrations’ this resource has a focus on celebrations as well. The HSIE outcome being focused on in this unit of work is CUS2.4 //Describes different viewpoints, ways of living, languages and belief systems in a variety of communities//, and the specific indicators for this lesson (adapted from the HSIE syllabus) are: recalls information about and describes various celebrations such as Birthdays and Australia Day, and explores the aspects and significance of various celebrations (Board of Studies, 2006, p.29). The resource clearly links with this particular HSIE outcome and indicators as it provides students with a general overview of what ‘celebrations’ are, their purpose and their significance, as well as some examples of different celebrations. As this lesson is near to the start of this unit of work on celebrations, this resource is a great way of further introducing student’s to celebrations in general and in getting them thinking about the concept of celebrations and the different aspects involved, ready to explore different kinds of celebrations in more details as the unit progresses. As the resource is an information report on celebrations it provides students with a brief definition, incorporates aspects of different cultures and religions and their different celebrations (which will form the basis of the remainder of the unit) as well as introducing to students the common feelings associated with celebrations.
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This resource serves two purposes. First, as stated above, it acts as a means of introducing to and having students think about celebrations, and secondly it acts as a way of re-familiarising students with information reports and their key features. The resource contains annotations which act as an additional teaching tool. This is because students can clearly see at a glance some of the key features of the information report that have been identified for them without having to wait for the teacher to point them out, or figure them out for themselves. The teacher of course would go through these annotations with the students, however they serve as a visual prompt to remind students of the key features of an information report. When displaying an example of an information report without annotations, there is a risk that students may not listen to the teacher identifying the key features, or on the other hand, students may simply forget what they have heard. Therefore by showing an example of an information report with annotations, students will have something to refer back to if they forget, if they don’t hear what the teacher says and if they simply want to revise the key features at a later point in the lesson.

The overarching goal of this resource and the main reasons to use it are: it gets students talking and thinking about celebrations and it guides students to progress onto the next lesson (in which they will write their own information report) by demonstrating to them how to write a successful information report. It also serves as a means of discussing the effectiveness of writers’ choices and helps to give feedback in the pre-writing stage (NSW DET, 2011, pp.25-28). By using this resource it creates a literate rich classroom environment in which students can clearly see a model of a good information report (NSW DET, 2011, p.27). The overt teaching associated with this annotated information report helps to model the process of writing an information report as well as developing in students positive attitudes towards writing (NSW DET, 2011, pp.25-28).

This resource allows the teacher to provide explicit instruction covering a broad range of skills, knowledge and strategies, including writing conventions, sentence- level skills, text structure, the functions of writing, and planning and revising (NSW DET, 2011, p.28). The purpose of using this resource is to model writing an information report so as to help students gain knowledge about language, vocabulary and text structure that is required in an information report. The annotations allow for explicit teaching about how writing works, what a good model looks like as well as the key features of an information report. The resource provides students with a real-world model of the text type they will be composing by themselves in the next lesson, allows the teacher to explain how this text type works, its purpose, audience and structure (NSW DET, 2011, p.28). The resource also allows for the class to read through it together (where each student can visually see the text and read along) and point out the typical features of the report using the ‘think aloud’ writing strategy (NSW DET, 2011, pp.31).

This resource is also great for teaching a variety of grammatical features that are common in information reports such as word families, relating verbs, present tense, technical language, Theme, structure etc. The teacher may choose to go into as much or as little detail about all of these grammar features as they like. However the main purpose of the resource is to show students what an information report looks like, its structure and some of its key grammar features. This resource hopefully will serve as a good example and starting point for exploring information reports and will help students get a clearer understanding of this text type before they go and explore it in even more detail and attempt to write their own.


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NSW Board of Studies. (2006). //HSIE syllabus.// NSW: Author.

New South Wales Department of Education and Training (NSW DET) (2011). //Writing and spelling strategies: assisting students who have additional learning// //Support needs.// Retrieved September 28, 2011 from http://www.schools.nsw.edu.au/media/downloads/schoolsweb/studentsupport/programs/lrngdificulties/writespellsec3.pdf