Lesson: Identifying Key Words, Synonyms, and Key Phrases

Lesson: Identifying Key Words, Synonyms, and Key Phrases

Description

Students need tools with which to search resources. Having students determine key words in their research questions and synonyms for those key words provides some of those tools. Additionally, students need to think of some key phrases that will also help them locate information. This lesson is designed to help students develop this research tool.

Learning Outcomes I Suggested Procedure I Assessment for this Lesson

Materials for this Offline lesson:

Research questions on sentence strips
Colored marker
Thesaurus
Notebook
Dictionary
Key Word and Synonym Worksheet
Transparency of Key Word and Synonym Worksheet
Overhead projector

Time allotment: 30 minutes

Grade Level: Grades 2 to 5

Information Literacy Standards:
3. The student who is information literate uses information accurately and creatively.
1. The student who is information literate accesses information efficiently and effectively.

Learning Outcomes

Students will be able to identify key words in their questions.

Students will be able to generate synonyms for those key words which have synonyms.

Students will be able to identify key phrases.

Students will be able to complete the Key Word and Synonym Worksheet.

Preparation

Students have been placed in research groups and have chosen their research questions.

Students have copied their research questions onto paper from the sentence strips and placed them in the group research notebook under the section labeled "questions." (Link to lesson that described the Group Research notebook)

Suggested Procedure

Tell students that today they will begin identifying key words, synonyms, and key phrases in their research questions. They will use these key words, synonyms, and key phrases to begin searching resources for answers to their research questions.Tell students that a key word is the word or words that the question is about. They are the important words in the question.

Discussion

Hold up one research question on a sentence strip and ask students to identify the key words in the question. Have the class discuss and come to consensus on the key words in the question.

Repeat the above procedure 2 to 3 times until you are sure that students understand key words.

Ask students if they know what a synonym is? Elicit responses from students reinforcing correct answers.

Next, clearly define "synonym" for students as words that mean the same as another word but are spelled differently.

Have the class generate synonyms for simple words (i.e., big-large, hungry-famished, tiny-small, sleepy-tired, poisonous-venomous, pretty-beautiful).

Next take the key words identified in the research question above and have students think of synonyms for these key words. (Students can use a thesaurus or dictionary.com to help find synonyms for key words).

Tell students that some key words will not have synonyms (hurricanes, floods, tsunamis). Also tell students that some key words are really key phrases (i.e., sperm whale, national parks, California missions). It would not make sense to break up these phrases into individual words. These words are best left as key phrases.

Student Work

Introduce the Key Word and Synonym Worksheet. (Show transparency of Key Word and Synonym Worksheet on overhead projector). Explain that students are to fill out this worksheet for each of their research questions.

To begin, students need to write down their research question.

Next they are to circle the key words.

Now they are to write the key words on the key word side of the worksheet.

Finally they need to generate synonyms for each of the key words (if synonyms exist for those key words).

Now tell students that they are going to try and generate key phrases. These are phrases that use either the key words or synonyms, and usually resemble titles that capture the information they are looking for. For example, if you wanted to find information on whales, you might generate some common phrases such as: "Interesting facts about whales," "All about whales," "Everything you wanted to know about whales."

Another way to come up with key phrases is to rework the research question into a statement. Try altering the statement in different ways to see what good key phrases the students can come up with.

Write these phrases on the back on the worksheet under Key Phrases.

Have students turn in their worksheets so that you can correct spelling and check to see the appropriateness of their synonyms, and key phrases.

Assessment

Students need to be able to determine what questions to ask. Identifying key words helps students to acquire this skill. Asking, "What is the question about?" often helps students to determine what the key words are in a question. Sometimes the key words have synonyms and sometimes they do not. This is important for students to recognize.

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This page was last updated February 21, 2002
This lesson was created to support the AT&T/UCLA Initiatives for 21st Century Literacies.
Identifying Key Words, Synonyms, and Key Phrases was created by Sharon Sutton