K - 2 Information Wheel Lesson Plan

Gathering Information through Listening and Looking

Teacher: Renee Bacon

Grade Level: K-2

Time Allotment: 30 Minutes

Source:

Schomberg, Janie. (n.d.). Listen, Look, and Learn: An Information-Gathering Process. ReadWriteThink. July 19th, 2007. http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view_printer_friendly.asp?id=15

Wisconsin’s Model for Academic Standards in Information and Technology Literacy:

• B.4.1 Define the need for information.
• B.4.2 Develop information seeking strategies
• B.4.5 Record and organize information
• B.4.6 Interpret and use information to solve the problem or answer the question
• B.4.7 Communicate the results of research and inquiry in an appropriate format
• B.4.8 Evaluate the information product and process

Goals:

In this lesson, the students will be encouraged to answer questions about a subject in order to gather material so that the whole class can write a collaborative report on the subject. The ultimate goal of this exercise is to demonstrate the process of how relevant information can be collected from a common source (such as a story book) by just looking at the pages and listening to the words. Students will learn how to answer research questions by locating those answers in a source.

Student Objectives:

• comprehend the nature and the intent of the questions on the information wheel.
• listen to and look for information that helps to answer each of the questions.
• determine what fact fragments or notes will be recorded under each question on the information wheel.
• discuss how the information is similar and different in each of the resources.

Resources

Students begin to develop the inital skills of selecting and sorting information leading to increasingly independent application of information-gathering skills.

• Enchanted Learning Web Site

Instructional Plan

Resources

• Information Sources
• Lester, Helen. 2001. Score One For The Sloths. Houghton Mifflin.
• Aaseng, Nathan. 1987. Animal Specialists. Lerner Publications.
• "Sloth." World Book Student Discovery Encyclopedia. 2000. World Book, Inc. (Vol. 10, p. 121).
• Enchanted Learning Web Site
• Information Wheel Web Site

Preparation

1. Gather resources listed above.

2. Diagram of sloth on the Internet site can either be projected or printed out and made into a transparency for overhead projection.

3. Create information wheel by drawing a large circle on poster board, following the model at the Information Wheel Web Site.

Divide the circle into 3 large pie pieces. The three sections should be labeled, each with a different question:

• Where does it live?
  
• What does it look like?
• What does it do?

"Topic: Sloth" should be printed in large letters above the wheel.

Instruction and Activities

1. Read and discuss Score One for the Sloths.

2. Discuss how can we learn about the real sloth.

3. Introduce the Information Wheel concept if students are unfamiliar with it, encouraging the students to see themselves as information detectives at work.

4. Read or show each of the information sources listed in the Resources, asking students to raise their hands when they have seen or heard something that should be recorded on the Information Wheel. Each time a hand is raised, stop the reading or showing, and allow the student to share the information and to indicate what and where the note will be recorded on the Information Wheel.

5. When the first item is shared, model the way to turn the sentence (or paragraph) into a fact fragment or note—cutting the information into a fact phrase (See example below). Emphasize how taking notes in this way will help them to create reports in their own words later, thus reducing the chance of plagiarism.

Excerpt from Enchanted Learning Web Site:
"The sloth is a slow-moving mammal that lives in trees. Sloths spend most of their lives hanging upside-down from tree branches."

Related Fact Phrases:

• slow-moving
• mammal
• lives in trees
• hangs upside-down

6. Students continue to identify fact fragments to add to the Information Wheel, indicating the question which the information should be recorded under.

7. Complete the lesson by discussing how the process worked, noting that the next step would be to work together to write a class report on the sloth.

Variations

The topic could be varied using a bird, fish, reptile, insect, another mammal, amphibian, a plant, a natural event, an invention, or a machine. You'll need to modify the Information Wheel slightly for some of these options, as shown below.

Interest in the topic might evolve from a story, a curriculum unit of study, or a class or personal experience. Subsequent Listen, Look and Learn experiences might be in small groups facilitated by an adult, culminating in a group written mini-report.

Questions for Natural Event

• Where does it happen?
• What does it look like?
• How does it work?

Questions for Machine or Invention

• What does it look like?
• What does it do?
• How does it work?

Web Resources

Enchanted Learning
http://www.EnchantedLearning.com/subjects/mammals/sloth

Enchanted Learning is a site for preschool and primary learners that is searchable by topic, giving basic information as well as a graphics and pictures when applicable.

Information Wheel
http://www.readwritethink.org/lesson_images/lesson15/info-pie2.gif

This page shows an example Information Wheel for the Sloth.

Student Assessment/Reflections

• Observation of student interest during the lesson.
• Observation of contributions of students throughout the notetaking phase.
• Anecdotal notes about student participation and understanding shared with the classroom teacher if the lesson is taught outside of the classroom.