9 Synthesis

Assessment objectives IGCSE examination

AO1 Reading • Paper 1 (in particular Question 3)
R1 Demonstrate understanding of explicit meanings • Paper 2 (in particular Question 3)
R3 Analyse, evaluate and develop facts, ideas and opinions • Paper 3 Section 1 (Directed writing)
R5 Select for specific purposes • Component 4 Coursework portfolio
(Assignment 3)

Differentiated learning outcomes Resources

• All students must be able to pick out relevant information and • Student Book: pp. 34–6
make some links between ideas (Grade E/D). • Worksheet: 1.9 Synthesis
• Most students should select a range of information and group it • PPT: 1.9a–d
successfully (Grade D/C).
• Some students could select, sort and order a full range of
information from more than one text (Grade B/A).

Exploring skills
As a class, read through this section on Student Book p. 34, checking that students
understand the term ‘synthesis’ and asking them to come up with other examples
from everyday life. Read the Top tip and get pairs to complete the sorting task in Q1,
checking their understanding via class feedback.

Building skills
Read through this section of the Student Book then hand out Worksheet 1.9 for Q2.
As a class, read through the extract and ask students to underline and number all the
different statements about the problems caused by extreme weather conditions. Tell
them to be as thorough as possible, highlighting each idea when they come to it and
not worrying about any repetition of information. Tell students that they should be
able to underline and number about 20 phrases from the main extract.
Conduct feedback and, as you go through the answers, ask students to underline and
number any that they missed. (It doesn’t matter if their numbers are in a different
order to the ones here.) Students should have found:
• 1) can overturn caravans • 12) flooding and storm surges can
• 2) tear off roofs destroy buildings
• 3) topple trees • 13) and [destroy] roads
• 4) causing extreme distress to many • 14) contaminate water supplies
people • 15) halt other essential services
• 5) and financial hardship to whole • 16) and drown people
communities • 17) large hail stones can damage cars
• 6) some of the strongest tornadoes can and roofs
•
Key reading skills
Chapter 1

demolish houses completely 18) and destroy crops

• 7) leaving people homeless
• 8) and vulnerable to disease
• 9) and criminal harm
• 10) people may be knocked down or
struck by debris
• 11) and many places may lose electricity
• 19) but rarely kill people
• 20) heat waves can lead to drought
• 21) which causes crop loss
• 22) as well as health issues
• 23) and death from dehydration.

22 • Lesson 9 © HarperCollins Publishers 2013

 Developing skills
Explain that by grouping ideas together when making notes from a text, students can
save valuable time. Discuss how this can be done after all the ideas have been
selected, but that it is much more efficient to do it while they are selecting their ideas.
For Q3, ask the students to reread the text from Worksheet 1.9 in pairs. As they read,
they should put the phrases that they have numbered under different headings in the
boxes supplied. These headings should be written in the boxes provided. They need to
decide whether each of their numbered phrases needs a new heading or goes under a
heading that they have already created. Come up with between five to nine headings.
Feed back and discuss the different headings that the students have come up with.
Some groupings might include:
• destruction of property (1, 2, 6, 12)
• damage to nature (3, 18)
• other dangers to people (10, 16, 17, 19)
• problems with health and hygiene (8, 14, 22)
• short-term effects on communities (4, 7, 11, 13, 15)
• social problems (9)
• wider effects on communities (5, 20, 21, 23).
These can be shown to students, to compare with their own ideas, using PPT 1.9a.

Give extra challenge by asking students to order their points within their headings
and consider whether any points overlap (for example, dehydration could be a health
problem as well as a wider effect after possible heat waves).

Applying skills
As a class, read through the sample directed writing task in Q4 and ask students to
complete the note-making task. Students’ notes might include:
Problems arising:
• injury or loss of life • loss of infrastructure
• damage to, or destruction of, homes • spread of disease
• financial hardship • crop damage
• flooding, but also drought • crime.
What can be done in advance:
• have stockpiles of supplies, fresh water, medicines, tents, pipes
• individuals to take out private insurance
• have trained and equipped rapid response teams.
What needs to be done after the disaster:
• rapid response teams search for survivors, treat injured and remove debris
• set up temporary homes
• distribute emergency supplies
• fix broken water pipes and ensure clean water
• deploy extra police to deal with looting
Key reading skills
Chapter 1

• warn locals of how to deal with heat waves, including support for the vulnerable.
Feed back as a class; the points above can be shown using PPT 1.9b–d. Ask students
to share their work and use the Sound progress and Excellent progress criteria on
Student Book p. 36 to assess how well they have done.

Towards To achieve the highest marks for reading and directed writing questions, students
A/A* need to select and sort a full range of information from multiple sources. They need
to be able to arrange their information in a cohesive and highly convincing manner.

© HarperCollins Publishers 2013 Lesson 9 • 23