The document outlines the upcoming history lessons which will cover researching the American Revolution in the library. Students will learn about developing focus questions, searching for sources, analyzing texts, and identifying how political thinkers like Thomas Paine contributed to changes in how Americans were governed through writings like "Common Sense" that argued for independence from Britain. The lessons provide guidance on skills like close reading to fully understand information and find evidence related to the focus questions.

1. Year 9 History
Library Research

2. The next two lessons…
• The role of the library
• Year Library website and Year 9 History Libguide
• Inquiry
• Developing focus questions to answer an inquiry question.
• Information seeking process
• Locating print and digital sources
• Creating, selecting and using search terms
• Information literacy
• Exploring a text – reading overviews/abstracts, skim and scan, identifying main
points
• Close reading/identifying relevance of information related to focus questions

3. The library

4. The library website
Go to
http://libguides.terrace.
qld.edu.au/home

5. Inquiry
Developing focus
questions to answer
an inquiry question.

6. Focus Questions
• We use focus questions to make sure that we pay attention to the inquiry
question that forms the basis of the task.
• Develop more focus questions as we delve deeper into the task
• Class work and background reading will determine your initial focus
questions

7. Background Reading
• Encyclopedias
• Databases
• General Websites
• Video
• Use the libguide!

8. Locating print and digital sources

9. Locating Information - Library Website
• Print Books – Frozen collection
• Suggested databases
• Keywords searching
• Helpful weblinks
• Ebooks – Terrace and State Library
• Video – Library catalogue and Clickview

10. Creating, selecting and using
search terms
Oliver catalogue at Terrace
See keyword search and examples of keyword search on Libguide

11. The Library Catalogue

12. Using the catalogue
• Type a simple search term into the catalogue now
• ‘American Revolution’
• Note the results
• Try another search term from the Year 9 History Libguide and see how you
go

13. Use a range of databases
Let’s go to the Library website to explore databases at Terrace

14. Why Not Google?

15. Library Webs
• Follow the breadcrumb trail on the
Year 9 History page
OR
• Enter a search term from the list
‘Example of Key word search’
• E.g ‘American War of
Independence’

16. Britannica School
• Search for ‘American Revolution’
• Search for Benjamin Franklin

17. Exploring a text – reading
overviews/abstracts, skim and scan,
identifying main points

18. Abstract: An abstract is a self-
contained, short, summarising statement
that describes a larger work. It may also
contain the scope and content of the
work.
Example:
http://digitalcommons.brockport.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1022&context=spectrum&sei-
redir=1&referer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com.au%2Furl%3Fsa%3Dt%26rct%3Dj%26q%3Dtho

19. Skimming: Looking at the overall format of the text
(heading, sub-heading, maps, tables, pictures, links) and
reading the key parts of the written text (3 parts: intro,
body, conclusion + opening and closing sentences in each
paragraph)
Example:
http://www.nps.gov/revwar/about_the_revolution/thomas_paine.html

20. Scanning: Scanning helps you establish where in a book
or article specific information is located through the use
of key words

21. Scanning a book:
1) Open at the contents page and note chapter headings, list of diagrams/illustrations,
bibliography and index
2) Read chapter headings to see if they contain the information you require
3) Search the index for key words. (NB: If you draw a blank, move on to another
book)
4) When you find relevant information apply the skimming strategy.
Example:

22. Scanning an article on a website: Searching for key
words within the text and reading the sentence the key
word is contained in and at least one sentence before and
after that sentence to allow for contextualisation.

23. Identifying main point/idea: In a well structured
paragraph the main idea should be the first sentence and
should clearly state what the reader can expect to find in
the paragraph.

24. Task
• According to Robert J. Allison in his book The American Revolution: a Concise
History, Thomas Paine helped the rebels to see the end game, complete
independence not reconciliation and compromise with Britain.
1) List 1 reason that Allison points to that the pamphlet “Common Sense” ,
made ‘Independence not only possible but necessary’
2) List 1 indicator that “Common Sense” was well received by the American
population at the time.
3) What does Allison mean by “ Common Sense changed the political
dynamic in America”?

25. Close reading/identifying relevance
of information related to focus
questions

26. Close reading
Close reading involves the careful and deliberate reading of a
difficult text.
Don’t panic if it seems difficult.
Be prepared to read the text more than once, because…
Home Alone [Image] Retrieved from
https://www.flickr.com/photos/21345996@
N04/2072143462/

27. Close Reading
We use close reading strategies to:
• Fully understand information
• Find layers of meaning in a text
• Find evidence in a text
Smart kid [Image] Retrieved from http://studysmartsystem.com/

28. Close reading
• Use the scanning skills from the
previous activity for your first read
through.
• Then read it again, this time thinking
about how this piece of text connects
to the question you are trying to
answer:
How did political thinkers contribute
to changes in how Americans were
governed?
How to raise smart kids [Image] Retrieved from
http://www.ehow.com/how_2258526_raise-smart-kids.html

29. Close Reading – Website Activity
Go to Thomas Paine and read the first two paragraphs of 2.1 Society & Government
Use the following close reading questions to delve deeper into the information on this webpage
about Thomas Paine.
1. What is one example of primary evidence? What is the purpose and effect of providing
this primary source?
2. Describe what you think Thomas Paine means by the term ‘republican government’, (third
last line of paragraph 1).
3. Identify two of Thomas Paine’s ideas about the relationship between the English
monarchy and the American colonies.

30. Close reading
4. This text contains one of Thomas Paine’s most
famous quotes:
‘Society is produced by our wants and government
by our wickedness; the former promotes our
happiness positively by uniting our affections, the
latter negatively by restraining our vices’
Rewrite this in your own words. Thomas Paine, copy by Auguste Millière, after an engraving by William
Sharp, after George Romney, circa 1876 (1792)[Image] Retrieved from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Paine

31. Close Reading
5. Overall, what evidence is there within this
text that Thomas Paine contributed to the
change in how Americans were governed?

32. Close reading
So…
1. Read the text
2. Read the text again
3. Look for key words from your focus questions
4. Remember why you’re reading it in the first place! That is, look for
evidence that the ideas of the person you are researching made a
difference to the way Americans were governed