identifying appropriate sources of information
 : Water
Approach: One to one
1.4Mb
Resources: covers, tables of contents and indexes for three books; card listing questions.

Questions / instructions:
Here are the covers of three books about water. One is called Getting the Water We Need (Book 1), the second is Getting Rid of Waste Water (Book 2), and the third is How Taps Work (Book 3).
Put the three book covers in front of the student.
Look at these covers. Which book (1, 2, or 3) would probably have the following information? I'll write down the answer you tell me. Hand student the questions card.

  % responses
y4
y8
1. Which book would most likely have information to answer the question, "what is a lever tap?"
book 3
93
100
2. Which book would most likely answer the question "How can we get water from an underground supply?"
book 1
79
94
3. Which book would most likely tell you how we get hot water to kitchens?
book 3
book 1
44
37
48
50

4. Which book would explain why we shouldn't pour chemicals down drains that catch rainwater?
book 2
79
92

Open each book to show the 3 tables of contents to the student.
Now look at the tables of contents for these books. I'll ask you the same questions and as you tell me the answers I'll write them down.

5. What chapter would you look in to find out what a lever tap is?
    What book is that in?

book 3, chapter 3
23
60
6. What chapter would you look in to find out how we can get water from an underground supply? What book is that in?
book 1, chapter 2
35
58
7. What chapter would you look in to find out how we get hot water to our kitchens? What book is that in?
book 3 chapter 5
book 1, chapter 4
26
53
33
55

8. What chapter would you look in to find out why we shouldn't pour chemicals down drains that catch rainwater? What book is that in?
book 2, chapter 2
12
30

Now let's look at the index in each book. Again, I'll write down the answers you tell me.
Open each book to its index and show the student.

9. On what page would you look to find information about lever taps? Which book is that in?
book 3, page 17
71
95
10. On what page or pages would you look to find out how we can get water from an underground supply? Which book is that in?
book1, pages 8,10
49
83
11. On what page would you look to find out how we get hot water to kitchens? Which book is that in?
book 3, page 21
47
53
12. On what page would you look to find out why we shouldn't pour chemicals down drains that catch rainwater? Which book is that in?
book 2, pages 5,14
28
51

Commentary:
Students were very successful at using the covers to identify an appropriate book. They were less successful at finding appropriate page numbers using the indexes, and least successful at using the tables of content to identify which chapters to look in. On average, about 20 percent more year 8 students than year 4 students were successful at these tasks.


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