Big6 Skill 4-Use of Information
Mrs. L:
Today before we
turn you loose, I want to demonstrate some of the popular ways to extract
information from a source. However, I do want to stress that the first step to
using information is to engage the information source. Translation please?
Elana:
That means you
need to read it.
Mrs. L:
That is
right. Yesterday, I stressed skimming
information just to make sure it was helpful.
Today, I want you to really READ the information.
Ronald:
Ugh!
Mrs. L:
Once you have
read through a source, or watched the video, or listened to the tape, or
engaged the source in whatever way is appropriate, then you can start
extracting the helpful information.
Ronald:
I know how to
take notes already.
Mrs. L:
Great. Taking
notes is only one way to extract information.
What are some other possible methods of extracting information?
Elana:
Outlining and
summarizing.
Mrs. L:
Yes.
Paul:
Is highlighting
a way to extract information?
Mrs. L:
Well, yes. Highlighting is a very popular way to
extract information. If you choose to
highlight, you might want to jot short notes in the margin to help you later
sift through your highlighting.
Ronald:
Do we have to do
notecards?
Teacher:
I will be collecting
and looking ant your notes, but for this assignment you don’t have to take
notes on notecards.
Ronald.
Cool.
Teacher:
I’m glad you
approve. Mrs. Mrs. L will show you a
way to take notes online, which might save you from printing out pages and
pages of information. Have you heard of
“cutting and pasting?”
Ronald:
Yeah, we’re not
supposed to do that. That’s cheating.
Mrs. L:
At this point in
the research process it isn’t cheating.
It is extracting information.
Let me show you. (OPEN WORD PROCESSING
PROGRAM) We are going to use the same two-column note-taking process we have
discussed in the past. First step is to
READ the information. When you find
something good in a resource, you always first cut and paste the source
information. This becomes your
bibliography. Always, ALWAYS keep your
bibliographic information with your notes.
Then you highlight the section of the source that is helpful to you and
paste it into a two-column word processing document. This way you can cut and
paste your notes on one column and right next to it summarize or write your
thoughts about the information or perhaps new research questions that need to
be answered.
Elana:
Almost like
taking notes on notes.
Teacher:
Exactly. If there weren’t any questions, I’d like you
to get started. Mrs. Mrs. L and I will
be checking on your progress.
---
Elana:
Mrs. L.? Do you
have a VCR I can use?
Mrs. L:
Of course. What is your plan to extract information?
Elana:
Well, I’d like
to ultimately use the best parts of the video for my final project, so I
thought that I’d use the VCR counter to mark the good parts. I brought notecards, so I’ll write down the
counter numbers and a brief description of what is being said during those
parts.
Mrs. L:
An excellent
plan! Come with me and we’ll get you
set up with the video player. Some
don’t have counters, but you could use the timer in the same way.
---
Teacher:
Hi Ronald. How
is the highlighting going?
Ronald:
Fine.
Teacher:
I am noticing
that you are highlighting a lot of country names. Do you know where these places are?
Ronald:
Well, I know
they are in the Middle East.
Teacher:
Very impressive,
let’s look at an atlas.
(FADE)
Teacher:
All right,
you’ve located the places on the map of the Middle East. What next?
Ronald:
What do you
mean, what next?
Teacher:
How will the map
help you understand the information in the WebPages?
Ronald:
Well, I before I
looked on the map I didn’t understand that the people who lived in these two
countries were at odds. Now I do and
look, they share this border.
Teacher:
Very good,
Ronald. Sometimes a visual, like a map
or a graph, can really help you understand written material. It might help you even more to copy the map
and write notes on it or even color in sections.
Ronald:
Yeah, okay
---
Paul:
I’m really
frustrated
Mrs. L:
What’s the
problem?
Paul:
Well, I’ve found
a lot of information about the history of the conflict, but it is hard to take
notes and keep it all straight and remember where I got the information.
Mrs. L:
I can believe
that. Whenever, I’m researching and get
overwhelmed I go back to my list of research questions. Which exactly are you trying to answer? What
information are you trying to find?
Paul:
I’m still stuck
on the background. This conflict has
been going on FOREVER. They keep having
peace talks, then someone blows something up, and then they fight and then they
have peace talks and then…
Mrs. L:
Yeah, I get the
idea. Perhaps you could take notes in a
timeline form.
Paul:
Hey! Good idea.
Mrs. L:
Let me show you
how to do that using a spreadsheet.
That way it will be easy to add and move things around later. Bring your resources over to the computers.
Mrs. L:
(SHOW
SPREADSHEET SOFTWARE) All right, first we need to set the format. What information do you want to include?
Paul:
The date and
what happened.
Mrs. L:
Yes, what
else? How about why something happened
is important?
Paul:
Oh yeah.
Mrs. L:
Is all this
information coming from one source?
Paul:
No way, I’ve got
like five sources here!
Mrs. L:
Okay, you need
to keep your bibliographic information with your source. So let’s make 4 columns: date, event,
significance, and bibliographic information.
What is one of your events?
Paul:
(Reading) The
Land for Peace deal. That happened on Oct. 23 1998.
Mrs. L:
Okay so you
would enter that information. What
source are you getting that from?
Paul:
The World Book
Encyclopedia.
Mrs. L:
Good. Abbreviate
it to save space. How about WB? On what page is the information?
Paul:
459.
Mrs. L:
Add that into
the same column and save it. I want you
to type in the significance on your own later. But let’s do one more together
right now.
Paul:
Well, it says
here that problems really started on November 29, 1947, when the UN tried to
split up Palestine into Arab and Jewish states.
Mrs. L:
Good, that
happened before the Land for Peace Deal, but for now just keep listing the
events as you find them in your resources.
When you’re done with your list you can have the computer sort the dates
for you.
Paul:
Excellent!
Mrs. L:
Yeah. Remember to include the enough bibliographic
information to remind yourself of where you got your information. You should probably write bibliography cards
with all the needed bibliographic elements before you leave the library
today.
Paul:
Okay.
---
Teacher:
All right group
time is almost up for today. Let’s
regroup over here. Tomorrow we’ll be
continuing locating and access resources and using the information. After
you’ve extracted most of your information, you’ll be ready to synthesize all
your notes. Any questions? Okay.
See you soon.