This activity is designed to get young readers thinking about what they read and why they read it.

The objective is to understand that reading is a way of acquiring information through the written or printed word. Learners are introduced to different types of information texts and their purpose: signs, instructions, messages, non-fiction books and websites. It underpins all subsequent units on finding information, and is relevant to all curriculum subjects where learners have to read for information.

This unit should help learners to recognise the variety of ways in which reading is an essential and useful activity.

The unit can be used by teachers in the classroom, either by using an interactive whiteboard to promote whole-class discussion, or by making the materials available on individual computers for pupils to work through in small groups or on their own.

Throughout this unit, more confident learners will be able to read the text, while others can follow the information through the audio. This means that all learners have access to the information, irrespective of their reading level.

Extension

Use this unit to encourage pupils to recognise that reading has a variety of purposes. It can also be used to begin the process of recognising style and genre.

• Draw attention to the variety of signs and symbols in the immediate vicinity. Building on what pupils already know will contextualise and consolidate learning. Ask pupils to design their own signs.
• Present a selection of different types of text on the board and discuss where they might be found.
• Write out information for simple tasks on the board and ask pupils to put them in the right order. What happens when things are in the wrong order?  Move the discussion on to more sophisticated recognition of where you might find different styles of text, for example, in fairytales, in a football fan magazine, or in a science experiment.