CoBaLTT Unit Plan

Talking Walls
Lesson 03: How to prepare research questions - Part A

Submitted by Lisa Marie

Objectives:

Content:
Students will...

Learn how to formulate questions for information needs

-help identify and organize the information you need to find for your project

Cultural:
Students will...

Language: Content Obligatory
Students will...

Language: Content Compatible
Students will...

Learning Strategies / Social and Skills Development:
Students will...

Time Frame:

50 minutes

Materials Needed:

journals

Bubble map

Description of Assessment (Performance Project):

Purpose:

            Easier to know what information to look for

            Questions

                        What you want to know about the theme

                        Interesting things to know

                        Important for other people to know

Pre-activity

Journal : Write about your cultural heritage. This may include things like the language spoken in your home, what country are your parents from, foods that are associated with your heritage, holiday celebrations and traditions, religious beliefs/practices,

T: In today's lesson you are going to learn how to prepare questions before you begin researching your topic. This strategy is called formulating (or developing/coming up with) questions for information needs. When you formulate questions, you decide which questions you want to ask and prepare the question about a topic you are going to study. This will help you identify and organize the information you need to find for your project.

WHY do I need to learn this strategy?

T: Purpose:

            Easier to know what information to look for

            Questions

                        What you want to know about the theme

                        Interesting things to know

                        Important for other people to know

Example: If you were doing a project about the school, would you be interested in finding out what color the walls are in the cafeteria? Is this question interesting? What information would you like to know?

Students respond with suggested questions and the group comments on whether these questions would provide interesting and important information.

Activities

Teacher will explain WHAT students will study in the lesson and WHY they need to learn/use the strategy. Since students were asked to write about their cultural heritage in their journals for homework, the teacher asks a student to say which country he/she wrote about. Student replies, for example, Mexico.

Activity 1: Say, “When we want to plan what information we want to find out about a particular subject, we can use a graphic organizer to organize our ideas.” Teacher places a bubble map transparency on the overhead. “Today we are going to use a bubble map. The bubble map has a place for us to write the name of the theme we are going to study. Since our example theme is Mexico, we write the word ‘Mexico’ in the center bubble.” Teacher completes the center bubble.

Say, “Imagine you are going to study Mexico for a class project. What information would you like to know about Mexico?” For example, students say they want to know what food people eat in Mexico. Say, “Because you want to know about food, I'm going to write the word ‘food’ in one of the adjacent bubbles.” ‘Food’ is written in an adjacent bubble on the teacher's transparency.

Say, “What questions do you have about food? Remember, we need to think carefully about whether the questions we ask are interesting and important to understanding life in Mexico.” Students are given examples of focused and less focused questions they may be interested in asking. Focused example questions: What is the typical dish in Mexico? How many meals do Mexico eat a day? Less focused example questions: What food do pets eat? How long does it take to cook the typical dish?

Students share ideas with the class and common questions are noted on the teacher's transparency, around the bubble containing ‘food’.

Say, “Can you see how I have organized the information I want to know about Mexico?” Teacher reviews the words completed on the bubble map and how they relate to what they want to know about the country.

Activity 2:
Say, “What else would you like to know about Mexico?” Students discuss in pairs other interest areas and complete the bubble map as demonstrated previously. Say, “Now, what questions do you have about that subject? Discuss your ideas with your partner and complete the map with questions as we did before.” Students add suggested questions to the map and read out their ideas for peers to decide if the questions are important and interesting enough to be included on the map. If there is disagreement about a question, students are asked to provide alternative questions. The teacher's transparency map is completed with example questions taken from student pairs.

Activity 3: In pairs, students are asked to complete the remaining bubbles with themes they would like to obtain information about for Mexico. They complete the bubble map as demonstrated previously unassisted. When finished, each pair shares his/her map with another pair for comments to be made concerning the appropriateness of questions. Students edit their maps if desired.

Differentiated Learning: Additional practice is provided for challenged students with an additional central theme and topic areas. Wh- question words will be provided as prompts.

Lower English proficiency students will be paired with more proficient students and/or will complete the bubble map with one-word questions. For example: climate – rain? winter? temperature?

Assessment:

Describe how this lesson will be assessed. It can be very informal: a checklist, worksheet, self-assessment, homework, etc.

journal

bubble maps

References and Resources:

List only References and Resources specific to this Lesson.

website of formulating questions lesson plan

Attachments:

NOTE: some attachments are in PDF form (get Acrobat Reader)

List only Attachments specific to this Lesson.