Especially for Teachers - Teaching English

Elements of an English Program

Research

Why research?

When we talk about "research" in the context of English, we are also referring to "information skills" and "resource-based learning".

Research is central to English programs at all levels of schooling. When students do research, they use all the language modes - speaking and listening, reading and viewing and writing. They also engage in the key learning processes of reflection, negotiation and collaboration. English programs based on the English statement and profile, TASSAB syllabuses and TLOs provide many opportunities for students to undertake research.

With the explosion in information available to students through digital technologies, it is more important than ever for students to become skilled as researchers. Research requires students to be proficient in the four roles of the literacy learner outlined by Freebody and Luke (1990) and described in the Literacy Policy. The arrival of the internet has led many teachers to incorporate a strong critical literacy approach when teaching their students to research so that students ask fundamental questions about any text:

• Who created the text?
• Who enabled the text to be published and distributed?
• What view of the world does the text present?
• For what purpose? In whose interest is it? Who benefits?

Getting started

There is a large body of material to help teachers teach research skills in the classroom. Teachers becoming involved in research with their students for the first time will find a recent edition of PEN (#105 published by PETA) really useful. This brief publication provides a range of ideas, strategies and proformas for teachers to use in the classroom and provides advice on developing a whole school approach to research.

Gwen Gawith (1991) has organised research into six stages and identified essential skills within each stage that students need to master in order to become effective researchers. When they worked at Deloraine High, Judy Chevalier and Kim Bale developed a Guide to Research, based on the approach outlined by Gawith. Extracts from this material are presented below and provide a synthesis of current approaches to research.

Preparing for research

It is important for teachers to be well organised before engaging their students in a research program. There are a number of steps teachers should take at the beginning:

1. Involve the librarian or library aide in your planning.
2. Organise an attractive learning environment with displays, examples of previous years’ work, key vocabulary connected with the topic.
3. Be clear about the purposes and outcomes of your students research and ensure that your students share this understanding.
4. Ensure that the task is achievable and that there is enough time for students to undertake it successfully.
5. Ensure there is a variety of resources to cater for different abilities and interests.

Teaching strategies

You will find that students have varying understandings of what it means to do research. Many students equate research with "projects". If you want to develop your students’ understandings about research, it is important for you to employ a range of teaching strategies:

1. Immerse the students in the language and concepts of research
2. Model the research process; demonstrate how you deal with difficulties.
3. Model an aspect of the research process each lesson.
4. Have examples of strategies such as brainstorming, note-making, graphic outlines, etc. on the walls.
5. Have models of different written genres (eg descriptions, reports, essays, arguments, explanations, etc.) students can use when presenting their work.
6. Scaffold students learning as they go - proformas and checklists are useful aids at all stages of research.
7. Teach research skills such as brainstorming, mind mapping, asking questions, locating and accessing appropriate information, skimming, scanning, summarising, note-taking, presentation skills, the characteristics of genres, etc.

The stages of research

The stages of research (Gawith, 1991) are interconnected. Students will move back and forth between the different stages as they find new information and modify their research questions.

Stage 1: Deciding
Stage 2: Finding
Stage 3: Using
Stage 4: Recording
Stage 5: Presenting
Stage 6: Evaluating

Stage 1: Deciding

There are a number of steps that students should take in deciding what to research:

1. Determine what they need to know to do the research. Is the research task achievable? Do they understand they topic? How long have they got to complete it? How will they present their information?
2. Determine what they already know. Brainstorm what they already know, then sort what they know into categories and map it using a concept map.
3. Note down key words from their map that will help them in their search for information.
4. Decide what they need to find out. List key questions they need to ask.
5. Plan their approach.

Teachers should provide support through:

• modelling and discussion,
• negotiating manageable research tasks
• providing explicit guidelines about process, product and assessment criteria
• providing lots of examples of finished products
• deconstructing a range of texts with students

Stage 2: Finding

At this stage, students need to determine where to find the information they need. They are many sources of information:

• people in the school and community
• organisations
• school and public libraries
• print resources, including books, encyclopedias, pamphlets, magazines and newspapers
• electronic resources, including the internet, tv, radio and video
• maps, posters and charts

Students should refer to their key words to determine if the information they find is relevant. For example, when using print texts, they should find the table of contents, scan chapter headings and subheadings, refer to the index for key words, turn to the relevant chapter, read opening paragraphs, scan headings and illustrations. When using the internet, they should use key words to search for information and explore relevant hyperlinks.

Teachers should provide support through:

• working with the librarian or library aide to identify and collect resources
• help students see that the library is but one source of information available to them
• demonstrate how to use resources
• provide time for students to become familiar with resources
• where possible, enable students to have their own copy of a resource
• give students the opportunity to review their research questions

Stage 3: Using

At this stage, students should focus on who? what? when? where? and how? questions as they read, view, listen, interview, think and write. Students should have their list of key words and target questions at hand. They should scan to get a feel of the whole text and skim by zooming through the text quickly to spot key words. They should concentrate hard at the beginning and end of a text, section or paragraph and try to read critically and analytically, identifying bias, propaganda, opinion, argument.

Teachers should provide support through

• using overheads to demonstrate how to read a non-fiction text
• sharing their feelings and problems with research reading
• demonstrating the skills of scanning and skimming
• demonstrating how to take notes
• providing questions to support critical reading as well as jointly deconstructing texts with students

Stage 4: Recording

At this stage, students should focus on what is most important and organise their information with presentation in mind. They should read through all the information before making notes in point form. They should use their target questions and key words to help focus their notes and record only what they need to know and remember. The use of proformas is useful in helping students make notes.

Teachers should provide support through

• using collaborative talk to help students clarify points and meaning
• helping students select and synthesise information from their notes
• providing proformas for recording and ordering information
• teaching the skills of categorising, sequencing and drafting

Stage 5: Presenting

When presenting information, students should remember three important things:

1. What do I want to say?
2. Who is the audience?
3. How am I going to say it?

Students need to think about how to present their information in ways suitable to context, purpose, topic and audience. They should attempt to exploit the possibilities of the medium through which the information is to be presented. They will need to go through a systematic process of drafting and re-drafting their work, seeking the advice of the teacher and their peers as they do so. Digital technologies offer wonderful opportunities for students to present their knowledge in new and creative ways to a wide audience. Instead of just working with print, many students can now choose to present their work in non linear ways using sound, images and hypertext.

Teachers should provide support through

• modelling different forms of presentation
• modelling the drafting and re-drafting of information for presentation
• using previous students’ work and real life examples
• discussing the advantages and disadvantages of written, oral and visual and multi-media texts
• discussing a range of presentation possibilities: powerpoint presentations, booklets, posters, diaries, pamphlets, instructions, essays, newspaper reports, charts, diagrams, debates, hypotheticals, advertisements, dramas,etc.
• inviting a range of people to act as an audience

Stage 6: Evaluating

Students should reflect on their learning and performance as a researcher throughout the research process. At the end, they should evaluate what they did well and what not so well and establish skills they need to work on for next time.

The teacher should provide support through

• providing guidelines for peer, self and teacher assessment
• helping students use learning logs as a means of reflection and evaluation
• helping students using the learning log to formulate new hypotheses and questions
• providing proformas for students to use

Where can I find out more?

Beazley, M (1997) Using the Internet in the English Classroom St Clair Press

Burbules, N (1997) Rhetorics of the Web: Hyperreading and critical literacy. In Snyder, I (ed) Page to Screen: taking literacy into the electronic era Allen and Unwin

Downes, T and Fatouros, c (1995) Learning in an Electronic World, PETA

Fatouros, C and Walters-Moore, C (1997) Using Software in English, PETA

Gawith, G (1991) Ripping into Research Longman Paul

Gawith, G (1991) Information Alive Longman Paul

Gawith, G (1991) Action Learning Longman Paul

Jennings, C and Shepherd, J (1998) Literacy and the Key Learning Areas: successful classroom strategies Eleanor Curtain

Lankshear, C Bigum C Durrant D, Green B Honan E Morgan W Murray J Snyder I and Wild M (1997) Digital rhetorics: Literacies and technologies in education - current practices and future directions DEETYA

Information Skills in the School NSW Dept of Education

Inspiration: visual thinking and learning software -

http://www.inspiration.com

McGregor, R (1997) www.english: Student Projects for the Internet, English Club

Literacy and Learning Program (1994) Training and development activities for junior secondary teachers, DECS

Osmotherly, J and Bennetto E (1992) Gimme Everything You’ve Got on transport State Library of Victoria

Making the Net Returns Worthwhile: Information skills and the internet (1997) NSW Dept of Education

PEN 105 (1996) Realising Literacy through Projects PETA

Practically Primary Volume 3 number 3 (1998) Information Technology ALEA

Snyder, I (1998) New Literacies for the Twenty-first Century (paper delivered at the Learning Technologies in Schools Conference - available in discussion papers on this site)

Strategies for Reading Factual Texts (1997) NSW Department of Education