Selecting relevant information

The purpose of the activity

To make decisions about the relevance of information depending on the question and the purpose for reading.

Learners often need to select relevant information and set aside that which is irrelevant for a particular purpose or task. In this activity, the learners work with short statements relating to the text.

The teaching points

• Critically analysing information and reflecting on the purpose of a task.
• Understanding that the purpose of reading dictates the relevance of the information.

Resources

• Twelve to fifteen short statements relating to relevant subject content.

The guided teaching and learning sequence

1. Divide the learners into groups and give each group a set of the statements.

2. Ask a question that gives the learners a purpose for sorting the statements.

3. Tell the learners to sort the statements into two piles according to whether they are relevant to the question (R) or not (N).

4. Ask a different question and let the learners reconsider their selections. This will remind them that the relevance of information depends on the question and their purpose for reading.