Rosyth GE

When we think or talk about comprehension, we need to get away from the idea or notion that it only refers to books or stories.

The internet and its accompanying technologies have added new and more complex and demanding ways of reading and understanding text, graphics and the ideas they represent or communicate.

More and more, we depend on the internet to supply us with information and help us to conduct research .It is a veritable treasure trove; all just A CLICK away. Trouble is what comes so easily and so attractively packaged may be irrelevant, trite or worse, untrue!

All that glitters may not be gold!

I have assembled a number of links and sites that will hopefully challenge your thinking, understanding and even your skills in relation to working with information from the internet. All exercises have connections with comprehension and its related skills. All involve reading and thinking.

Exercise 1a)

If you feel you are a novice at searching for web sites/urls; go here or here.

If you feel you have some knowledge about effective searching on the web go here or here.

Exercise 1b)

Now for some archery practice! Do you know where to search for information and whether you are accurate? Test your knowledge in Archery Challenge 1 here.

Go here in Archery Challenge 2 to find out about the hidden web! Data for research need not just be googled!

COMPLETE both challenges!

How did you do?

Exercise 1c)

Power searching means you know where to look for the information.

Go here or here to find out what you can do.

Go to the links and let me know (through the comments) how much time you took and your learning points or reactions/feelings about the exercise.

What did it make you realise about research for example?

Exercise 2

Think about these questions and notes before you start Exercise 2

What information am I looking for? Active comprehension starts with knowing why an article is being read, this is the way expert searchers begin.

2. What do I expect to find in this text? Make predictions about the reading. Assume that EVERY page has an answer—or at least a valuable clue—that will move the search forward. Answers in web articles are found in unpredictable places. Unlike textbooks, answers are not clustered near the ends of chapters or highlighted. Look for answers in hyperlinks, captions, tables, graphics, snippets and in the body of web articles. The interactive games here reinforces this idea using snippets. Before you abandon a web page learn something to assist your search: find a better keyword, add some information about the topic or realize that different keywords are needed because you found nothing relevant to your search.

3. Where are my keywords located on this page? What sections are they in? What are the headings?

4. What, if any, scanned parts look the most promising? Start by reading selectively the sections where your keywords are found.

5. Do my keywords make sense in the context of this article? (Does this reading make sense to me?)

6. What if nothing I scanned looks promising? If nothing looks promising, return to your search results and a) view another web page or b) search using alternate keywords.Using strategies 1 – 6 above will improve comprehension and help searchers recognize important information. The remaining active comprehension strategies, 7 – 12, promote higher-order thinking, optimal search refinement and web page evaluation:

7. What ideas in the text are familiar? Are the facts believable?

8. What ideas and words are unfamiliar? Can I visualize the meaning? Does the context or hypertext provide clues to unfamiliar vocabulary?

9. Are any of the words here better keywords?

10. Were my predictions about what I would find correct?

11. Do new ideas conflict with what I know? Do I need to revise my prior thinking?

12. What insights and/or questions do I have after reading this text?

What information nuggets can you glean or ‘dig’ from the internet.

Go here for your first gold digging expedition.

Time for a second foray! Go here.

Now for bigger fish, or should I say, nuggets.

3rd time lucky! Or is it skill? Go here to find out.

All gold diggers ! One final and 4th attempt at the Motherlode!

Go here.

Let me know your scores for the Gold Rush sites. Try the timed exercises from Grades 5 to 8. What does it make you realise about the process of scanning? How will this improve your reading or research skills?

Please respond to these prompts after the exercise.

Write 3 things you learned

Write 2 things you want to find out more about

Write 1 question you still have

Exercise 3

AKAN DATANG!

COMING ATTRACTIONS!

Actually Exercise 3 depends very much on your responses and work for the previous 2 exercises!