This is a crucial stage of the inquiry process - students have access to an abundance of information and that can be overwhelming, it is important for students to be able to engage with the information they are reading and be able to find information that is relevant to their inquiry project or essential question. I believe students need to be taught how to extract important information out of text. They need to learn what information is important and relevant. Two learning activities I would try:
I would use this in a primary class such as grade 2-4
Learning Activity #1:
I would begin by doing a mini lesson on the difference between important and interesting information. I would use a chart such as the one below to talk about the differences between the two terms.
I would create a power point or slides with various short paragraphs of information. I would present the slides to the whole class one at a time. I would read the paragraph to the students and have them share with me the important and interesting information.
I would use this in a primary class such as grade 2-4
Learning Activity #1:
I would begin by doing a mini lesson on the difference between important and interesting information. I would use a chart such as the one below to talk about the differences between the two terms.
I would create a power point or slides with various short paragraphs of information. I would present the slides to the whole class one at a time. I would read the paragraph to the students and have them share with me the important and interesting information.
Lesson Activity #2
I purchased a resource from Teachers Pay Teachers on Life Cycles of a Plant. I would use this reading passage in my lesson to have students practice highlighting important information. I would ask the students a series of inquiry questions as shown in the bottom left. I realize that this is used typically used as a reading comprehension lesson but I would use each question as a sample inquiry question and have the students go through and highlight information that would be relevant to that question. They could use a different highlighter for each question. I believe this would be a fun activity for students to complete as they have to explore the text to find the relevant information.
I purchased a resource from Teachers Pay Teachers on Life Cycles of a Plant. I would use this reading passage in my lesson to have students practice highlighting important information. I would ask the students a series of inquiry questions as shown in the bottom left. I realize that this is used typically used as a reading comprehension lesson but I would use each question as a sample inquiry question and have the students go through and highlight information that would be relevant to that question. They could use a different highlighter for each question. I believe this would be a fun activity for students to complete as they have to explore the text to find the relevant information.