How to assist your students become independent network readers and researchers

At a workshop on Inquiry I gave a few years back, a teacher was surprised when he learnt that students need to have independent ways of accessing research material. He thought he attended to the gathering of information, directing his students to sites they should read.

Consequently, I could not keep this article from that teacher or from you, the readers of my BLOG. The authors, Rindi Baildon and Mark Baildon, 2008, are the creators of the 3-point Research Resource guide Readability, Trustworthiness, Usefulness (RTU) which assists students to become independent readers and researchers.

They begin their article by stating the difficulties associated with networked information:

·         The proliferation of information

·         The varied structures and formats

·         Teachers sit with students 1-1 to interpret information, using vocabulary the students    understand

In addition students:

·         Copy notes, notes they do not fully understand

·         Copy and paste information

·         Feel Google reigns supreme

·         Do not work systemically when examining information

·         Make immediate decisions relating to information rather than taking time to read and evaluate

·         Attend too much to graphical elements, font styles and images

·         Equate quantity of information with quality

·         Assume most information correct

·         Have comprehension problems, vocabulary too difficult, sentences too long and difficult to read, degree of text difficulty

·         Put a lot of effort into their use of font and text colour in order to make their presentations attractive.

 The authors suggest students need to learn systematic and strategic ways to make decisions about information they encounter in their investigations. Explicit instruction about whether to read a particular text or move to another text, how to discover suitability themselves by being able to evaluate information sources.

The Baildons’ 3-point Research Resource guide Readability, Trustworthiness, Usefulness includes criteria (questions) they developed for students to ask themselves.

 Criteria for developing Readability:

• Can I read and understand this on my own?
• Is it a ‘just right’ read for me?
• Is it kid friendly?
• Can I understand most of the words and not lose meaning if I have to skip words?
• Is the layout easy enough to follow?
• Can I stop and retell what I have just read in my own words?
• Are there pictures or charts that help me understand the text better?

Criteria for Trustworthiness:

• Can I find an  author or a publisher’s name?
• Do I recognize the resource (URL, publisher, author, title)?
• Can I find at least one other source with the same information?
• Is the information current? What is the copyright date?
• Do I recognize the author or creator?
• Have I found this same information in other books or websites?
• Does my gut feeling tell me that what I am reading and seeing is trustworthy?
• Does this information fit with what I might already know about this subject?

Criteria for Usefulness

1. Does this resource have what I am looking for?
2. Does it follow my research plan, the questions I have asked which relate to the Big Question?
3. Do I need it?
4. Is this worthwhile, or am I wasting my time on this resource?
5. Do I need to move to another resource?

Note: bold print criteria could be put in a guide sheet for students independent use

These authors also suggest that if students begin with a less complex piece it then gives a background to being able to independently read and understand more complex pieces.

 Baildon’s findings about their student’s use of the guide:

• Initially the guide was something teachers reminded students to use, but gradually it became an integral part of their research process; effectively helping students focus, make good information choices, make sense of informational texts, assist conversation about their research
• Use of the guide diminished the number of requests for individual assistance in interpreting material during research sessions.

Baildon, Rindi and Baildon, Mark. 2008. Guiding Independence: Developing a Research Tool to Support Student Decision Making in Selecting Online Information Sources. The Reading Teacher, 61(18), pp.636-647 DOI:10.1598/RT.61.8.5  International Reading Association ISSN: 0034-0561 print / 1936-2714 online. 

One of the sections in Liz Simon’s book, Thinkers and Performers Bringing Critical Thinking Alive  has chapters on Inquiry Chapter 4 Critical thinking and the information process, Chapter 5 Critical Thinking about non-fiction, Chapter 6 Making sense of a more complex inquiry, Chapter 7 Plans for the Inquiry. This book is published by Hawker Browlow Victoria ISBN: 978 1 74239 274 5.
The information about Baildon’s work would align well with Thinkers and Performers. Both would greatly enhance student’s Inquiries/independent research.