Communicating Effectively: a skill companion

A small set of reusable sheets that grow one inquiry skill at Year 10 depth: shaping the same finding for different audiences and purposes, editing a draft for precision, units and honest claims, and choosing the text features that carry an argument, with digital tools where they help. Print the scaffolds once and slot them into the science lessons you already teach.

What a skill companion is

Inquiry skills are not a topic of their own. They grow inside the units a class teaches all year. So this pack is not a full term of lessons. It is three reusable scaffolds, a map of where they fit, and a short stand-alone lesson for teaching the skill on its own first.

Start here: five minutes

1. Read the pairing map on the next page: it gives a finding, an audience and a text type for each Year 10 topic.
2. Print the audience grid before students write for anyone but you, and the editing sheet before a report is handed in.
3. Cut out the cards once. They are reused all year.
4. Open the free interactive unit on your board when you want a worked example of the skill.
5. Run the one-page mini-lesson first if you want to teach the skill before folding it into a topic.

The step up from Year 9

The descriptor is the same in Years 9 and 10; the depth is not. In Year 9 students wrote one finding for two readers. In Year 10 they plan content, language, features and length for three audiences, edit their own drafts against a checklist of common faults (vague variables, missing units, over-claims, captionless figures), and write an abstract that stands on its own.

Slot the skill into your science lessons

Every finding can be told several ways; the audience and the purpose decide which. This map gives a finding for each Year 10 topic, an audience for it, and the text type and feature that suit them.

The three moves, and the picture that backs each one

When you want a worked example on the board, open the interactive unit and use the picture that matches the move.

• Choose the feature that carries the argument: “Build the text feature that carries the argument” as a line graph.
• Choose the text type for the audience: “Choose the text type for an identified audience”.
• Keep only the choices that serve the purpose: “Which choices fit the report’s purpose?”.

Who is it for, and what is it for?

The finding: as the acid temperature rose from 10 to 50 °C, the gas collected in the first 30 s rose from 9 to 56 mL, faster at each step. Plan a text for each audience. The first column is done for you.

Six faults in one paragraph

Each numbered stretch of this draft conclusion has one fault. Name it, then rewrite the paragraph so a scientist would accept it.

Teacher note: students can use this list of six faults to check any draft before handing it in.

Which purpose does each text feature serve?

Cut out the twelve cards. Six name a text feature; six give a purpose. Pair each feature with its purpose. Then choose the three features a newsletter item about the finding would need, and the three it could leave out.

Teacher note: the answer sheet lists the pairs. A feature can serve more than one purpose; accept a well-argued pairing.

One hundred words that stand alone

An abstract tells a busy reader the question, the method, the result and the conclusion, in about a hundred words, without the rest of the report. Pairs write one for the acid-temperature investigation (gas in 30 s rose from 9 to 56 mL as the acid went from 10 to 50 °C), check it against the six faults, and then rewrite it as a 60-word item for parents.

We are learning to

• select the content a purpose needs and leave out the rest,
• write precisely: variables named, units given, claims no bigger than the data,
• change language and features for a different audience.

Success criteria

• My abstract gives the question, the method, the result with numbers and units, and the conclusion, in 100 words or fewer.
• My newsletter item keeps the finding true in everyday words.

You need

• the results table on the board, a word count (by hand or on a device), and a sample abstract from a science journal for students to look at,
• the audience grid and editing sheet (scaffolds 1 and 2), and the cards from scaffold 3, one set per table.

Lesson flow (about 30 minutes)

Running it shorter? Stop after the abstract, and write the newsletter item in your next science lesson.

Watch for these ideas

• An abstract that only says what was done, not what was found.
• Simpler words that change the science (“the particles get excited”).
• Numbers without units, or a figure mentioned that the reader cannot see.

Make it easier, make it bigger

• Easier: give pairs four sentence starters, one for each part of the abstract.
• Bigger: make a 30-second narrated slide for a general audience with one graph, and keep it accurate.

Answers and look-fors

The next sheet has the audience grid, the six faults with model rewrites, a model abstract, the card pairs, and a quick three-level guide.

Answers and look-fors

One finding, three audiences (columns 2 and 3)

Six faults, and a fix for each

A model abstract (about 90 words)

We investigated how the temperature of dilute hydrochloric acid affects the rate at which it reacts with magnesium ribbon. Equal lengths of ribbon were added to the same volume and concentration of acid at 5 temperatures from 10 to 50 °C, and the hydrogen collected in the first 30 s was measured with a gas syringe. The volume rose from 9 to 56 mL, about 6.2 times as much, rising more steeply at each step. The results support collision theory: at a higher temperature more collisions have enough energy to react. The finding holds for this reaction over this range.

Feature and purpose cards (pairs)

A newsletter item needs a graph or photo with a caption and one clear number; it can leave out the abstract, the raw table and the reference list.

A quick three-level guide