What is a information report

Stage 2 Yr Term Week1234567891011TEXT TYPE:INFORMATION REPORTGrammar Focus:Using the noun group to build up a description; Using comparing adjectives; Understanding the difference between describing adjectives; Providing examples; Using various combinations of clauses.Grammar terminology: action verbs;describing words/adjectives; phrases telling ‘where’, ‘when’, ‘how’; prepositions; time connectives.Writing OutcomesReading OutcomesTalking & Listening OutcomesWS2.9: Drafts, revises, proofreads and publishes well-structured texts that are more demanding in terms of topic, audience and written language features.Focus (Refer to Syllabus p.37):RS2.5: Independently reads a wide range of texts on increasingly challenging topics and justifies own interpretation of ideas, information and events.Focus (Refer to Syllabus p.29):TS2.1: Communicates in informal & formal classroom activities in school a & social situations for an increasing range of purposes on a variety of topics across the curriculum.Focus (Refer to Syllabus p.21):RS2.6: Uses efficiently an integrated range of skills and strategies when reading and interpreting texts.Focus (Refer to Syllabus p.31):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.Focus (Refer to Syllabus p.23):RS2.7: Discusses how writers relate to their readers in different ways, how they create a variety of worlds through language and how they use language to achieve a wide range of purposes.Focus (Refer to Syllabus p.33):TS2.3: Identifies the effect of purpose and audience on spoken texts and distinguishes between different varieties of English.Focus (Refer to Syllabus p.25):WS2.8: Discusses the text structure of a range of text types and the grammatical features that are characteristic of those texts.Focus (Refer to Syllabus p.35):TS2.4: Identifies common organizational patterns & some characteristic language features of a few types of predictable spoken texts.Focus (Refer to Syllabus p.27):WS2.10: Produces text clearly, effectively and accurately using the sentence structure, grammatical features and punctuation conventions of the text type.Focus (Refer to Syllabus p.39):WS2.11:Uses knowledge of letter-sound correspondences, common letter patterns and a range of strategies to spell familiar and unfamiliar words.Focus (Refer to Syllabus p.41):WS2.12: Uses joined letters when writing in NSW Foundation Style and demonstrates basic desktop publishing skills on the computer.Focus(Refer to Syllabus p.43):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.Focus (Refer to Syllabus p.45):WS2.14: Discusses how own texts have been structured to achieve their purpose and the grammatical features characteristic of the various text types.Focus(Refer to Syllabus p.47):

Teaching and Learning ExperiencesWritingReadingTalking & ListeningFoundation Statements:Write well-structured literary and factual texts in terms of topic, purpose, audience and language by drafting, revising & proofreading. Use accurate sentence structure, grammatical features and punctuation conventions to produce various texts and spell familiar and unfamiliar words using knowledge of letter-sound correspondence, common letter patterns and a range of other strategies. Use joined letters when writing in NSW Foundation Style and develop basic desktop publishing skills. Explain how writing is structuredto achieve intended purposes.Refer to:English K –6 Modules p.230; Syllabus p.56-59• Annotate information reports to demonstrate structure and purpose of each section and use as models in joint andindependent construction of information reports.• Use an information report pro forma to assist students in preparing their information to write an information report. Include sections for different aspects of description and information within each section, eg Describe appearance –colour, shape, size.• Jointly construct topic sentences using information report pro forma questions as a guide, eg What do they eat? ‘Tigers eat avariety of smaller animals’.• Provide information strips for information reports on two topics. Students select information strips for one topic only. Discusscriteria for deciding if information is relevant/irrelevant to the topic.• Point out noun groups in an information report and discuss the function of each word, eg big, floppy ears –first two wordsare adjectives, which describe size, appearance, last word is a noun that names the part. Focus on purpose of words bysorting other noun groups into adjectives and nouns.• Model how to make notes from a written text.• Have students reconstruct notes to write sentences, using the topic word to begin each sentence.• Have students select a visual text to enhance information presented in an independently written information report. Consider whetherthe visual text directly supports or extends the information report. Ask students to edit the information report so that the written text refers to the visual text.• Rewrite a class, jointly constructed information report for a younger audience. Discussmodifications required, eg lesstechnical language.Foundation Statements:Independently read & view familiar & challenging texts & justify interpretations of ideas, information &events, using a range of skills and strategies. Integrate a range of skills and strategies efficiently when reading and interpreting texts & visual images. Recognise & explore the relationship between writers & readers & how writers use language to create different worlds & achieve a range of purposes. Explore the structure and grammatical features for a range of written and visual texts.Refer to: English K –6 Modules p.229; Syllabus p.56-59• Compare different information books on the same topic to identify the relationship between writer and reader, eg expert tonovice, expert guiding another into knowledge, expert to expert.• Point out the way information is grouped in information reports, such as habitat, appearance, behaviour, reproduction.• Read and view a variety of information reports on the same topic.• Have students play a question and answer game in small groups. Students match questions and answers about a current topicas cards are turned over, to develop knowledge about the topic.• Have students match beginnings and endings of sentence strips to build their understanding of a current area of study. The‘new’ information is usually in the second half of the sentence.• Have students sort two information reports that have been cut into sentence strips and reorganise into coherent texts.Identify clues that assist in sorting, eg all the sentences with bears were for the bears information report.• Have students compare the type of information included in information reports on different topics. Note that someinformation isthe same, eg appearance, and other information is different, eg food is not relevant for computers.• Point out features that assist readers in information texts, and discuss their purpose, eg glossary, headings and subheadings, index, table of contents.• Provide a pro forma as a guide for students to use for research. Include specific questions to focus research and a column torecord references used for each answer.Foundation Statements:Communicate proficiently ideas & information in classroom, school & social situations for a range of purposes. Explore a range of roles when interacting in pairs & groups, using various listening strategies to gather general ideas from conversations, reports or spoken presentations. Identify the effect of purpose & audience on spoken texts & shape & present ideas accordingly. Identify common organizational patterns & language features of predictablespoken texts.Refer to:English K –6 Modules p.228; Syllabus p.56-59• Compile lists under What we know, What we want to find out, to focus investigation for a new topic.• Develop technical vocabulary by playing a definition game, matching words to definitions, eg what the weather is like in aplace —climate.• Have students play the twenty questions game to determine the function, habits or actions of a mystery object or animal inorder to guess what it is.• Divide students into small groups. Have students prepare for a Dictagloss activity. Ask them to record key points whilelistening to an information report. Have students rewrite the information report using knowledge of language features tostructure sentences. Ask students to compare with original version and discuss similarities and differences.• Develop as a class a set of criteria related to the structure of an information report to assess students’ formal presentation,eg begin with a classification, information of the same type grouped together.• Identify appropriate/inappropriate language for spoken information reports. Note that spoken information reports are usually formal, do not include personal comment and speak about general topics, eg dogs, rather than a particular topic, eg my dog.• Have students use prior knowledge of a topic to assess information excluded from a spoken information report. Considerpossible reasons, eg concept too difficult for the audience, topic not researched widely.• Have students use sorting/grouping games to compare and contrast sets of objects. Develop a word bank of ‘comparing’words, eg alike, similar to, bigger than, and contrasting words, eg different from, not the same.