Communicating Findings and Arguments: a skill companion

A small set of reusable sheets that grow one inquiry skill: shaping the same finding or argument for different purposes and readers. Students choose the text type, the register (formal, plain or chatty) and the features each reader needs, rewrite sentences for a new audience, and fix a graph that misleads. 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 science units a class teaches all year, wherever results are shared: a cell poster, a talk to younger students, an earthquake report, a rock-cycle diagram, a short video or a newsletter letter. 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 shows which scaffold fits which science lesson.
2. Print the planner whenever students share results, and the register and graph sheet before any text is handed in.
3. Cut out the cards once. They are reused all year, and the blank cards fit any topic.
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 7

In Year 7 students wrote for a reader and fixed an unclear draft. In Year 8 the same finding goes to several readers at once, and each text has to carry an argument, not just a result: a lab report for a teacher, an infographic for the public, a talk for younger students. Students choose the register and features on purpose, keep the numbers honest in every version (a graph axis that skips zero can make a small difference look huge), and pick digital tools that suit the text.

Slot the skill into your science lessons

Every Year 8 topic produces a finding worth sharing. This map shows a finding in each topic, an audience and text type, the feature that matters most for that reader, and which scaffold to reach for.

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 form that carries the argument: “Show the trend that carries the argument”.
• Match the text type to its audience: “Choose the text type, and name its audience”.
• Check each feature against the purpose: “Which choices fit the report’s purpose?”.

How the scaffolds build the skill

The planner turns one finding into three texts, deciding the purpose, register, features, what to leave out and the digital tool for each. The register and graph sheet rewrites sentences for a new reader and fixes a bar chart whose cut axis exaggerates a small difference. The cards sort features into the lab report, the infographic and the talk.

One finding, three texts

The same finding becomes a different text for each reader. Decide who it is for and what they need to do with it, then choose the register, the features and what to leave out.

The finding

Earthquakes recorded in one year by stations at five distances from a plate boundary.

A. Plan the three texts

B. Write the key lines

The right words, and an honest graph

Register is the kind of language a text uses: formal for a report, plain for the public, chatty for a talk. Whatever the register, the numbers must stay honest, and so must the graph.

A. Rewrite for the reader

B. Fix the graph

A newsletter printed this graph of earthquakes in a year at two towns: Town P had 120 and Town Q had 110.

Report, infographic, or talk?

Cut out the cards. Lay down the three grey heading cards, then sort the features into the text that needs them most. Some could fit two texts: decide which reader needs it more, and say why.

Teacher note: the piles are not the same size. The answer sheet lists which card is which, and why.

One finding, two readers

Use this stand-alone lesson to teach the skill on its own, before you fold it into a science topic. Pairs fold a sheet of paper in half. One side becomes a results section for a teacher, the other an infographic for people walking past, both from the same earthquake data. Another pair then checks each side against its reader.

We are learning to

• choose the register and features a reader needs,
• keep the finding and the numbers honest in every version,
• check a text against its purpose and audience.

Success criteria

• A teacher could check my results side, and a passer-by could get my infographic in seconds.
• Both sides tell the same finding, with the same numbers.

You need

• a sheet of paper, a ruler and coloured pencils per pair (or a slide or poster tool on a device),
• the planner (scaffold 1), one per student, and the cards from scaffold 3, one set per table.

Lesson flow (about 30 minutes)

Running it shorter? Make only the infographic side, and write the results side in your next science lesson.

Watch for these ideas

• Shrinking the report into the infographic, with every number and no headline.
• Changing the finding to make the poster more exciting.
• A graph with no title, no units, or an axis that skips zero.

Make it easier, make it bigger

• Easier: give the headline frame “Closer to the ..., more ...” and a ready-drawn pair of axes for the results side.
• Bigger: add a third version, a 30-second talk for a Year 5 class, and say what changed and why.

Answers and look-fors

The next sheet has a model plan, the rewrites, the graph problems, the card key and a quick three-level guide.

Answers and look-fors

Planner: a model plan

B, for example: “Live near a plate edge? Expect more shaking.” Results: “The station at the boundary recorded 210 earthquakes in a year; the count fell at every distance, to 17 at 160 km, about 12 times fewer.” Talk: “Who has felt a truck rumble past the house? Today we find out where the ground shakes most.”

Register and graph

B. Problems: the axis starts at 105, not 0, so the 120 bar looks 3 times as tall as the 110 bar when it is only 1.09 times as big; there is no title; the axis says “number” but not of what, or in what time. A reader might think Town P has about three times the earthquakes. Fixed: start the axis at 0, so the bars look nearly equal. Title: “Earthquakes recorded in one year at two towns”.

Feature cards

A quick three-level guide

A student at standard shapes the same honest finding for different readers, with the register and features each needs. The skill grows all year, so keep the scaffolds coming back whenever results are shared.