synthesizing information - the toynbee school · pdf filei live in new york and i was thinking...

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Synthesizing Information

For more detailed instructions, see

the Getting Started presentation.

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Synthesizing information

Where can information on a specific topic be obtained?

Fiction and Non-Fiction Books

Internet

Newspapers

Television

Radio

Magazines

Journals.


When you are reading (or listening) to information it is

important to bear in where the information comes from.

Even if the writing is informative, writers may vary in what

their interpretation of the ‘facts’ are. As a reader it is your

job to read, evaluate and synthesize information in

order to formulate a coherent and accurate account as

you see it. This account may be written or spoken.

READ EVALUATE SYNTHESIZE



Read and understand


Have you ever made anything from different

materials Blue Peter style?

If you have, then you may not find synthesizing

information into a coherent piece of writing too difficult.

It’s all about mixing up your information to create

something new, personal but understandable for readers.

Creating something new


Look at the map below – could you find your way from

the school to the shop? Write down the directions for

someone who hasn’t access to a map.

School

Shop

_________________

_________________

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_________________

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_________________

_________________

_________________

Post Office

Cinema

Written instructions


Synthesizing information – activity


What do you already know about New York City?

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Sharing information


Photos


History

Giovanni de Verrazano may have been the first European

to explore the region, and Henry Hudson visited it, but

Dutch settlements truly began the city. In 1624 the town of

New Amsterdam was established on lower Manhattan;

Peter Minuit supposedly bought the island from its Native

American inhabitants for about $24 worth of trinkets. In

1664 the English seized the colony and renamed it; during

the American Revolution they held it from 1776 to 1781.

New York was briefly (1789-90) the U.S. capital and was

state capital until 1797.

Encyclopaedia


Orientation

New York City consists of five ‘boroughs’ entities that came

together in 1898 to form ‘Greater New York City.’ A series

of island make up the city’s 309-sq-mile land mass.

Manhattan and Staten Island stand alone; Queens and

Brooklyn comprise the western end of Long Island. Only

the Bronx is connected to US mainland.

Served by three major airports, two train terminals and a

massive bus depot, New York City is the most important

transportation hub in the northeast.

Travel guide


Spend

In New York, as in London, keeping up with the style

dictators is a much more ambiguous gig than it is

elsewhere. Must-visit shops spring up on a weekly basis,

generating instantaneous buzz. Whatever you’re looking for

– a perfect corduroy mini, a hand-cast ceramic sake set, or

bootleg DJ session compilations – you’ll find, provided you

know where to look.

Magazine article


I live in New York and I was thinking about the lagoon in

Central Park, down near Central Park South. I was

wondering if it would be frozen over when I got home, and

if it was, where did the ducks go.

Fiction writing offers more quirky and often abstract

information about people and places.

Novel


Alfieri:

I only cam here when I was twenty-five. In those days, Al

Capone… was learning his trade on these pavements, and

Frankie Yale himself was cut precisely in half by a machine

gun on the corner of union street, two blocks away. Oh

there were many man here who were justly shot by unjust

men. Justice is important here. This is the slum that faces

the bay on the seaward side of Brooklyn Bridge. This is the

gullet of New York swallowing the tonnage of the world. And

now we are quite civilized, quite American. Now we settle

for half and I like it better. I no longer keep a pistol in my

filing cabinet.

Play


www.timeoutny.com/cityguide/

Different websites offer different information. The

Time Out site is useful because it provides

regularly updated news on the city.

Under normal circumstances, New York City is easy to

navigate. However, in light of the terrorist attacks on

the World Trade Centre and long-term bridge and

tunnel reconstruction, subway services in lower

Manhattan changes frequently and with short notice,

which, in turn effects the entire system…

Internet

http://www.timeoutny.com/cityguide/


Try these websites to find out more about the city.

www.nytimes.com

www.nyctourist.com

Have you ever seen a film or television programme

set in New York?

Watch a few to find out even more about NYC!

Manhattan by Woody Allen is particularly famous.

More sources of information

http://www.nytimes.com/

http://www.nyctourist.com/


Quiz


Now that you have read a little about NYC and

completed some of your own research, it is time to

collate this information you have gathered and transfer

it into a Guide to New York.

The Guide must give a fair amount of information but try to

be entertaining too and add pictures if you can.

Don’t forget to:

use your own words

write in standard English

try to group specific types of information together e.g.

‘Shopping’ could be one section, ‘Getting Around’ another

be concise and selective – only select and use information

which is useful to the reader – not everything you’ve

discovered!


synthesizing information - the toynbee school · pdf filei live in new york and i was thinking...

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