On Friday I did some work with my pupils on skimming and scanning. They were better at this than I thought they would be as it was similar to some of the work they did at the beginning of the session with SRA. The rate builders in SRA were really useful for practicing skimming techniques and the power builders for scanning.
I then went over with them the 3 stages I would use for non-fiction researching and writing of:
Deciding topic and setting questions,
Finding resources and information,
Doing research and taking notes, and
presenting your information.
With a little help to start them thinking the groups made up relevant and interesting questions related to their chosen topics that they wanted to find out more about. I think it helped that we had brainstormed at the start of the rich task the things they wanted to know. I then gave them a little time to start researching on the internet, after giving them a few pointers on this. I think we and the children too often think that they are all really good at using computers and know what to do to find out information on the internet but too often they are not looking at sites relevant to them or are not able to be specific enough about what they want to find out. I think they often do not understand what they are researching but are just copying out information. Of course, this can happen with books too!
I have asked the headteacher, who has helped to develop this with the cluster, to come in and see what we are doing tomorrow so hopefully it will go as well as this week has done. The children seem to be really engaged with the subject and keen to work just now – I am not sure it will stay like this when it comes to the story writing!
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