Research-Based Information Writing Becoming Engaged With a Topic: Session 1

What is Informational Writing? Informational writing means writing to teach. For this unit think of yourself as a journalist. Journalists are sent out on a beat to research something happening in the world, with the goal to grasp the essence of that topic quickly enough to teach others about it.

Your Job... Your job is going to be to research kids who are making a difference in the world...teen activists.

Today’s Lesson Today I want to teach you that when you study a topic as a writer, you learn with pen in hand, not only taking in information, but also putting out responses to the information. The rhythm becomes like breathing: breathe in and breathe out; study and write, study and write.

What do you already know? When you learn about a topic, it can help to start with what you already know. Who is this guy and what does he have to do with activism?

Be an Archeologist In the real world when you go to learn about a topic, you can’t always find a published summary of the whole topic. You need to be like an archeologist, piecing together shards to reconstruct an ancient civilization.

Keep Researching Journalists have very little time to learn, scoop up as much information, facts, and ideas as possible. So look it up, look alert, get your pen in hand, and be ready to learn like crazy while we watch a video. Write down as many notes as you can….

Video: Malala Yousafzai

Malala Notes Pakistani 16 year-old targeted by the Taliban Shot - but still alive Became a symbol 2 gunman shot her when she was on way home from school (in an open-air bus that looks like a truck with benches) Bullet into her head, missed her brain Father is a teacher She has started a movement- people chanting, writing, marching From hospital in England “I want to serve the people. I want every girl, every child to be educated.” Setting up Malala Fund to help educate girls 32 million girls not in school Did you catch all of this information from the video. Journalists need to write very fast and pay close attention.

Malala Thought Prompt The important thing about this is that even after Malala was targeted and shot for speaking out about girls’ education, she kept right on doing that. She has even set up a fund to help girls. Also, she is only 16, but people throughout the world are listening to her. Write a thought prompt after you have taken notes. This will help you organize your thoughts about what you have learned.

Note-Taking Tips We could think about Malala and teen activism, but you will instead think about note-taking. What tips can you come up with for note-taking? Malala is a pretty cool person. We could spend all day or all week talking about her. But what we are focusing on today is learning how to take notes.

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

Power Learning and Note-Taking If your note-taking list gets really long...chunk your information into categories or subsections. What Happened to Malala Pakistani 16 year old targeted by the Taliban Shot-but still alive 2 gunmen shot her when she was on way home from school Bullet in head, missed her brain Refused to die What Malala is Fighting For “I want every girl, every child to be educated.” Setting up Malala fund to help educated girls Fighting for the rights of others all over the world What Makes Malala Special “Became Symbol” She has started a movement- people chanting, writing, marching Even after she was targeted for advocating for girls’ education, she continues to do it When you have all of your notes down you may want to go and chunk them together. Or you could start by organizing them using the 4W and How.

Thought Prompts This makes me think… The extraordinary thing about this is… The message I learn from this (story/topic/person) is... Thought prompts that you can use to help you summarize what you have learned.

Second Try @ Note-Taking Let’s try again. See if you can record more important information than you did the first time.

Share Share what you wrote with a partner. Did you miss something that your partner wrote down?

Your Task For the next couple of days, you’ll continue soaking up as much as you can about teen activists and teen activism. There is more to read than you can possibly tackle. Your challenge will be to learn about teen activism quickly, in a day- or two.

Your Task Cont. You won't have much time at all to study this topic. I wish we could cancel all your classes and just study this topic all day, all week even...but that’s not going to happen.

Your Task Cont. Read 3 or more sources from the handout. Take notes Use thought prompts after each source Chunk your information if needed You may need to look at sources more than once to gather all of the important information

Note-Taking Examples- Bullet list

Note-Taking Examples- T Chart

Note-Taking Examples- Web

Note-Taking Examples- Web

Note-Taking Examples- KWL

Note-Taking Examples-

Note-Taking Examples - 3 columns

Note-Taking Examples- Visual

Note-Taking Examples