Year 9 HistoryLibrary Research

The next two lessons…

• The role of the library

• Year Library website and Year 9 History Libguide

• Inquiry• Developing focus questions to answer an inquiry question.

• Information seeking process• Locating print and digital sources

• Creating, selecting and using search terms

• Information literacy• Exploring a text – reading overviews/abstracts, skim and

scan, identifying main points

• Close reading/identifying relevance of information related to focus questions

The library

The library website

Go to

http://libguides.terrace.qld.edu.au/home

Inquiry

Developing focus questions to answer an inquiry question.

Focus Questions

• We use focus questions to make sure that we pay attention to the inquiry question that forms the basis of the task.

• Develop more focus questions as we delve deeper into the task

• Class work and background reading will determine your initial focus questions

Background Reading

• Encyclopedias

• Databases

• General Websites

• Video

• Use the libguide!

Locating print and digital sources

Locating Information - Library Website

• Print Books – Frozen collection

• Suggested databases

• Keywords searching

• Helpful weblinks

• Ebooks – Terrace and State Library

• Video – Library catalogue and Clickview

Creating, selecting and using search terms

Oliver catalogue at Terrace

See keyword search and examples of keyword search on Libguide

The Library Catalogue

Using the catalogue

• Type a simple search term into the catalogue now

• ‘American Revolution’

• Note the results

• Try another search term from the Year 9 History Libguide and see how you go

Use a range of databasesLet’s go to the Library website to explore

databases at Terrace

Why Not Google?

Library Webs

• Follow the breadcrumb trail on the Year 9 History page

OR

• Enter a search term from the list ‘Example of Key word search’

• E.g ‘American War of Independence’

Britannica School

• Search for ‘American Revolution’

• Search for Benjamin Franklin

Exploring a text – reading overviews/abstracts, skim and scan, identifying main points

Abstract: An abstract is a self-contained, short, summarising statement that describes a larger work. It may also contain the scope and content of the work.Example: http://digitalcommons.brockport.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1022&context=spectrum&sei-redir=1&referer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com.au%2Furl%3Fsa%3Dt%26rct%3Dj%26q%3Dtho

Skimming: Looking at the overall format of the text (heading, sub-heading, maps, tables, pictures, links) and reading the key parts of the written text (3 parts: intro, body, conclusion + opening and closing sentences in each paragraph)

Example: http://www.nps.gov/revwar/about_the_revolution/thomas_paine.html

Scanning: Scanning helps you establish where in a book or article specific information is located through the use of key words

Scanning a book:1) Open at the contents page and note chapter headings, list of diagrams/illustrations, bibliography and index2) Read chapter headings to see if they contain the information you require3) Search the index for key words. (NB: If you draw a blank, move on to another book)4) When you find relevant information apply the skimming strategy.

Example:

Scanning an article on a website: Searching for key words within the text and reading the sentence the key word is contained in and at least one sentence before and after that sentence to allow for contextualisation.

Identifying main point/idea: In a well structured paragraph the main idea should be the first sentence and should clearly state what the reader can expect to find in the paragraph.

Task• According to Robert J. Allison in his book The American Revolution:

a Concise History, Thomas Paine helped the rebels to see the end game, complete independence not reconciliation and compromise with Britain.1) List 1 reason that Allison points to that the pamphlet “Common Sense” , made ‘Independence not only possible but necessary’2) List 1 indicator that “Common Sense” was well received by the American population at the time. 3) What does Allison mean by “ Common Sense changed the political dynamic in America”?

Close reading/identifying relevance of information

related to focus questions

Close readingClose reading involves the careful and deliberate

reading of a difficult text.

Don’t panic if it seems difficult.

Be prepared to read the text more than once, because…

Home Alone [Image] Retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos/21345996@N04/2072143462/

Close Reading

We use close reading strategies to:

• Fully understand information

• Find layers of meaning in a text

• Find evidence in a text Smart kid [Image] Retrieved from http://studysmartsystem.com/

Close reading

• Use the scanning skills from the previous activity for your first read through.

• Then read it again, this time thinking about how this piece of text connects to the question you are trying to answer:

How did political thinkers contribute to changes in how Americans were governed?

How to raise smart kids [Image] Retrieved from http://www.ehow.com/how_2258526_raise-smart-kids.html

Close Reading – Website Activity

Go to Thomas Paine and read the first two paragraphs of 2.1 Society & Government

Use the following close reading questions to delve deeper into the information on this webpage about Thomas Paine.

1. What is one example of primary evidence? What is the purpose and effect of providing this primary source?

2. Describe what you think Thomas Paine means by the term ‘republican government’, (third last line of paragraph 1).

3. Identify two of Thomas Paine’s ideas about the relationship between the English monarchy and the American colonies.

Close reading

4. This text contains one of Thomas Paine’s most famous quotes:

‘Society is produced by our wants and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness positively by uniting our affections, the latter negatively by restraining our vices’

Rewrite this in your own words.Thomas Paine, copy by Auguste Millière, after an engraving by William Sharp, after George Romney, circa 1876 (1792)[Image] Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Paine

Close Reading

5. Overall, what evidence is there within this text that Thomas Paine contributed to the change in how Americans were governed?

Close reading

So…

1. Read the text

2. Read the text again

3. Look for key words from your focus questions

4. Remember why you’re reading it in the first place! That is, look for evidence that the ideas of the person you are researching made a difference to the way Americans were governed