Beginner Research Strategies: Roads to Refuge

"Research is creating new knowledge." - Neil Armstrong 

The learning intentions for this beginning research lesson could be to research a site to help them: 

- understand the difference between an asylum seeker, a refugee and a migrant 

- know the different stages of the refugee journey, and the potential impact of these on refugee families

- understand what life is like in refugee camps 

Where would they start? How would they be able to get the answers to these questions? Oftentimes, things often don’t turn out as expected when you tell your students to just “google” the topic. This session could be used as a highly scaffolded and beginner lesson in teaching students research strategies such as tips on how to get online and filter information. Below is an Australian website that has lots of good information about refugees. 

 Website: Roads to Refuge

The Roads to Refuge website is designed to give students, teachers and the community access to relevant, factual and current information about refugees. Because the website has such vast information, it is important that students learn how to filter wanted and unwanted information in meeting the learning intentions and success criteria for this session. G&T students can log on to the website and start searching while weaker students will be led to a class-blog which I will create that acts as a sort of scaffold in guiding them to their answers.

Below is an example of how I would lay out the scaffolded webpage for students needing help with navigating the Roads to Refuge website. I have extracted the links to information pertinent to the questions that they have to answer. "Narrowing down"the website for them, especially EAL/D students will also help them achieve this session's goals.  



Who is a refugee

Refugee Journeys





Refugees in Australia

Refugee Settlement



Differentiation: For students needing language help, provide a list of essential vocabulary related to the topic of Refugees. For more capable students, they can look at the differences between ‘refugees’ ‘asylum seekers ‘and ‘migrants’. Also, provide a step-by-step handout with questions to support and guide  students who need the extra support. 

Extension Student Activity:- Having understood the basics to the topic of refugees, students must find at least five facts about the laws governing refugees by exploring the website.

 NSW English Syllabus: 

EN4-2A effectively uses a widening range of processes, skills, strategies and knowledge for responding to and composing texts in different media and technologies