Reading for a Wide View of a Topic

Units of Study Information Writing Session 2

Connection

• There are a few questions that are important to ask when researching about a topic/subject:
• What is especially significant or compelling about this topic?
• What is surprising about this topic?
• What story or anecdote captures the topic that helps the audience understand it better?

Learning Target

• I can 1. take a broad cross-section of information about my research topic by examining different kinds of resources and 2. ask focusing questions: “What patterns do I notice? What are the important things to say about this overall topic?”

Teaching

• Getting oriented to a topic does not mean reading something and then quickly jumping to conclusions. If you want to get a solid foundation for writing/talking/teaching about a topic, you need to:
• be familiar with the basic ideas of that topic
• develop a sense for some different points of view
• have a sense for what is generally agreed upon and for what people argue about in relationship to the topic

Teaching

• parable about the blind men and the elephant

Teaching

• All the blind men were carefully studying what was in front of them, but because they only focused on one small aspect of the elephant — because they did not try to get a sense of the whole — each of their ideas was flawed.
• As you get set to write about a topic, always try to make sure you get lots of different points of view, lots of different sources and kinds of reports so that you can see the whole “elephant” — the big picture.
• Then, using a pen to think, you can write about the patterns you see about the whole topic.

Active Engagement

• Share with your neighbor what you will do to make sure you aren’t just studying the trunk of the elephant. How do you get a “big picture” of your topic?

Chart — Power-Learning and Note-Taking

• Write fast!
• Record important facts (exact names, places, numbers).
• Capture quotes and, if possible, the context in which they were said.
• Note what is said and what you see.
• Record your ideas as well as information.
• Use thought prompts:
• “The important thing about this is…”
• This makes me think…”

Chart — Power-Learning and Note-Taking

• “The extraordinary thing about this is...”
• “The message I learn from this (story/topic/person) is…”
• Pause early to organize information (use boxes-and-bullets, charts).
• Ask yourself questions: What ideas are shared by many? What are the debates?

Link

• As you continue your research, continue to underline, highlights, take notes, and jot patterns you see.

Conferring and Small-Group Work

REMINDERS:

• Pause and think: “What are two or three big ideas I can take away from each piece of source?”
• Say in your own words, “What are the significant ideas that I’m learning from my research?”
• Ask, “What does the information from the various resources have in common? What can I say about this topic in general? What stories do I have to support those points?”

Conferring and Small-Group Work

• In the middle of research, it helps to pause, look over your notes and to think, “What do I need to do next?”
• Do you need to categorize your list?
• Are you just recording facts and not really growing ideas/synthesizing the information?
• REMEMBER: This is a unit on information writing. And information writers become teachers of a topic. Jot your notes in a way that you can teach your partner at the end of the class.

Mid-Workshop Teaching

• Researching a topic means more than just reading. It means doing some writing, too.
• Writing helps you make sense of the information you are gathering.

Share

• In addition to learning about your topic today, you have also been learning about note-taking. Compare your system for taking notes with the system that others near you have used.
• Study each others’ notes. What have others done that you could try?

Chart — Power-Learning and Note-Taking

• Write fast!
• Record important facts (exact names, places, numbers).
• Capture quotes and, if possible, the context in which they were said.
• Note what is said and what you see.
• Record your ideas as well as information.
• Use thought prompts:
• “The important thing about this is…”
• This makes me think…”

Chart — Power-Learning and Note-Taking

• “The extraordinary thing about this is...”
• “The message I learn from this (story/topic/person) is…”
• Pause early to organize information (use boxes-and-bullets, charts).
• Ask yourself questions: What ideas are shared by many? What are the debates?
• Think, “What big things might I teach others about this topic?”

Chart — Power-Learning and Note-Taking

• Get specific examples or other evidence to support the big ideas.
• Connect new ideas and insights to the overall topic or other big ideas.

Session 2 Homework

• Continue to read and take notes — the goal is to take at least two more pages of notes tonight. It is important to get a sense of as many parts of this topic (this elephant) as possible.
• In addition to recording important information, stop and jot your thinking — your analysis — about what you are learning. Be thinking especially about what you might teach others about this topic.