Lesson+4+of+10

Lesson 4 A lesson which will provide the scaffolding for creating the written aspect of the multimodal text.
 * **Unit Topic:** Australia: There’s Nothing Like It! |||| **CurriculumLink:** English || **Stage/Year Level:** Stage 2/ Year 3 ||
 * **Lesson Number:** 4/10 |||| **Lesson Topic:** The Structure of an Information Report || **Learning Area(s):** HSIE ||
 * **Unit Aim:** The aim of the unit is to develop student’s understanding of the natural, heritage and built features in Australia. The unit will provide opportunities for student’s to investigate and evaluate the significance of particular sites and places and what people value about them. ||
 * **Lesson Outcome**

//Human Society and it’s Environment// **ENS2.5** Describes places in the local area and other parts of Australia and explains their significance.
 * gives reasons why particular activities may be associated with particular natural, built and heritage features and places
 * describes how people can construct and modify environments in a manner that reflects ideas, cultures, needs and wants
 * locates and maps cities, rivers, towns and mountains and uses locational terminology such as north, south, east and west

//English// **TS2.2** Interacts effectively in groups and pairs, adopting a range of roles, uses a variety of media and uses various listening strategies for different situations. * responds to different viewpoints in discussion **WS2.10** Produces texts clearly, effectively and accurately, using the sentence structure, grammatical features and punctuation conventions of the text types > **WS2.13** Discusses how own texts are adjusted to relate to different readers, how they develop the subject matter and how they serve a wide variety of purposes. * understands purpose and stages of the organisation of texts || This lesson will focus on developing students understanding of the purpose and structure of an information report. Students will be given the opportunity to look at a range of texts and choose which ones fit into the genre of an information report. They will build on their knowledge of the elements in an information report by reading through a range of examples and identifying the schematic structure. Students will jointly construct an information report on a significant location in Australia, to further assist them in developing the necessary skills to write their final task. The lesson will also further develop students skills in identifying the grammatical features of an information report and their purpose. || To introduce the lesson in a motivating and engaging way, a model of an information report will be up on the board Appendix 9. As a class students will read through this information report about The Bilby. Students are then asked questions to prompt them into discovering what text type is being presented and what the purpose of this text type is. Questions include: 1. What type of text is this? 2. How do you know it is this text type? 3. What is this text type presenting about the Bilby? 4. So what is the purpose of this text type? Highlight to students that **visual elements** are an important part of an information report because they help the reader to understand the topic better. Visual elements can include drawings, photographs, graphs, maps or diagrams. Then ask the students what kind of visual elements can be incorporated into this information report to make it more interesting and provide more information about the topic. ||
 * Uses other texts as models for aspects of writing such as text organisation, grouping of organisation under headings
 * Identifies key words and phrases
 * **Resources:**
 * IWB
 * Example of an Information Report about the Bilby Appendix 6
 * Titles of different text types Appendix 7
 * Series of Information Report examples Appendix 8
 * Information Report Template Appendix 9 ||
 * **Lesson Outline**
 * __Introduction (10 mins):__
 * __Teaching strategy/Learning Activity (40 mins):__ ||
 * **Teacher will ……** |||| **Students will…** ||
 * __Activity 1__

Divide students into similar ability groups of four. Give each group an envelope that contains different titles of possible writing tasks Appendix 7. Ask students to discuss which titles they believe are subjects for information reports and which titles are subjects that could be used in other text types. Reinforce that the purpose of an information report is to give general information about a topic.

Once students have come to a conclusion, they will present their results to the class and the teacher will ask students to justify some of the title placements.

Here, it is important to encourage a discussion of possible discrepancies of titles, i.e. the title Dogs could either be an Information Report, where the report will be giving information about the animal, or an Exposition, where the text is presenting an opinion about why the writer likes dogs. are asked to present their opinions about the two animals. Either way, students should justify their personal selection for choosing the headings to put the title under.

__Activity 2__

Give students information about the structure of an information report. Discuss what the general statement must include, i.e identifies the subject of the report and may define or classify it (Droga and Humphrey, 2003, p. 135) and what the description includes, i.e. an expanded description about the topic.

Ask students to work in the same groups as the prior activity and give each group an example of an information report (Appendix 6). Ask students to read the information report and discuss it’s structure. Ask students to identify the general statement and the description by labeling these features on the report and writing what each paragraph in the description is about. Ask students to report their findings to the rest of the class.

__Activity 3__

Tell students we will now be jointly writing an information report on significant place in Australia. Inform students that this will be a class practice report, and that in the next few lessons, each student will be individually writing a report on a given place in Australia.

Draw a mind map on the IWB and ask students questions about the chosen topic, i.e. The Sydney Harbour Bridge. Write the responses up on the board. Ask students to think back to lesson 2 (on grammatical features) and come up with nouns, verbs and adjectives to describe the attraction. Discuss whether the site may be natural, built or heritage, what the site reflects and its location.

Display the Information Report template Appendix 9 on the board and ask students what they think the general statement should include and what the description should be about. As a class, decide on the structure and fill in the template. |||| __Activity 1__

Students will work cooperatively in deciding which titles are classified as Information report topics and which titles would be used in other writing tasks. Students will divide the words up into two columns when they have reached a conclusion.

Students will present their thoughts and conclusions to the class and answer the teacher’s questions about how they justified their responses.

__Activity 2__

Students will listen to information about the structure of an information report. They will answer questions about what they think the general statement may include and what the description should be about.

Students will work cooperatively in their groups and discuss the structure of the information report example. They will identify the general statement and the description by labeling these features and writing what each paragraph in the description is about. Groups will then report their findings to the rest of the class and answer any questions.

__Activity 3__

Students will present ideas about the chosen significant place in Australia and whether the site may be natural, built or heritage, what the site reflects and its location. They will think back to lesson 2 (on grammatical features) and come up with different nouns, verbs and adjectives to describe the attraction.

Students will respond to the teachers questions about what the general statement of the topic should be and the description about the topic. They will work together as a class to compose the information report on the chosen topic. || To capture the main learning points of the lesson, ask someone in the class to read the Information Report on the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the report. Ask students to work with the person sitting beside them and make a list of the features, i.e grammatical features such as nouns, adjectives, present tense etc. To conclude the lesson, students are seated on the floor where the teacher re-emphasises the structure of an information report by using the modeled information report found on this website [] in the information report link. || To assess student’s understanding of the outcomes, a range of assessing strategies should be considered, including: To address the individual learning needs of the students: In order to make judgements about the effectiveness and appropriateness of the lesson and the overall unit of work, the following questions will be asked:
 * __Concluding strategy (10 mins):__
 * **Assessment:**
 * //Formative Assessment:// during the class discussions about the features of information reports, the teacher will listen carefully to students suggestions and comments to determine their previous knowledge on this text type (this will contribute to further planning in the unit). To assess student’s understanding on this lesson outcome, the teacher will also listen to the student’s comments and suggestionsduring group discussions. When students are discussing ideas in their groups, the teacher should interact informally with individual students, asking questions about their responses.
 * //Summative Assessment:// at the end of the unit, students will create an poster including an individual information report on a significant tourist attraction in Australia accompanied by a collaborative visual representation. This task will be an indicator as whether the unit was successful in students ability to meet the outcomes.
 * Diagnostic assessment: the information that is gained from the assessment, will allow the teacher to determine whether the students were able to effectively combine their knowledge of a significance place in Australia and literacy components to create a multimodal text. This diagnosis will determine future planning and programming (BOS, 2007, p. 88) and whether students were effectively able to achieve the outcomes of the unit. ||
 * **Any special considerations or contingency plans**
 * When grouping students in activity one, students will be grouped according to similar ability. As the examples differ in the difficulty, giving the higher ability groups the examples that are more difficult and the lower ability groups the simpler information reports; will allow for effective participation of all students in the classroom. ||
 * **Self-reflection**
 * Were students able to achieve the intended outcomes of the lesson?
 * Were all the student’s needs catered for?
 * How effective was the unit of work in providing students with the necessary knowledge to successfully create a multimodal text?
 * Did students enjoy the unit of work? If not, how could it be made more interesting and motivating? ||