Example Of Factfile

[Carolina Bornman]

Beforethey embark on writing their own fact file, show your students this fact file template. It will help pupils identify the key features of the text type. This will assist them in creating a set of criteria, or a toolkit, for when they eventually write their own.

A fact file is a short piece of writing designed to provide information on a particular topic. As a fact file is likely to be brief, as the writer you have to be careful to select the most salient points to include.

As a fact file writer you need to consider the structure in which you present your information. This is alongside summarising the main points of a subject and using the relevant technical vocabulary.

So, while sharing our fact file example, have a whole-class discussion about how content should be chosen in relation to the purpose of the text. Where appropriate, in Years 5 and 6, children can practise writing in bullet-point lists in some of these sections.

Children can often see images more as decoration rather than as distinctly informative, so your fact file should include relevant images. Discuss how they help the reader to understand more about the topic.

Many of these words will be tier 3 vocabulary, so can support literacy as well as subject knowledge. Succinct definitions are exceedingly difficult to write, so it may be the case that you provide pupils with ready-made definitions. I recommend Kids Wordsmyth as a source of child-friendly definitions.

This could be something that they have been studying at school (perhaps some geography, history or science content from the previous half term) which you are confident they have learnt enough about to be able to write about it.

However, for pupils to be able to write well in full sentences about this information, they will need to have understood it well first. A reading comprehension lesson based on the information may help with this.

If you have opted for children to write fact files about different things it may be more difficult to provide a set of questions which can direct their thinking. But if the whole class is writing on the same subject, you can formulate a pretty basic list to share.

Children need plenty of spoken and written opportunities to practise using these words correctly. One way to do this is to keep vocabulary journals in which you store words, definitions, example sentences and drawings.

When learning new words, their meanings and their usage, children should also learn to spell the words correctly. You can take this opportunity, where appropriate, to teach the morphology and etymology of the words.

You can deliver this word-level work at the beginning of the learning sequence, but you can also continue it throughout as well. This gives children the opportunity to encounter the words many times, thus increasing their exposure to them.

One potential feature of a fact file is a glossary of terms, as explained above. Where children use technical vocabulary, they may want to create a section of the fact file dedicated to providing definitions of key terms.

Once children have carried out such exercises, they should have a go at writing the sentences that they want to include in their own fact file. You can do the first drafts of these sentences verbally. Record them, if this is useful, on whiteboards and then in books.

Not only will posing a question give some direction to pupils as to which information to include (see the section on content selection above), it will also provide them with some simple headings. This can support them with organising their information on the page later.

When children write an explanation text, the text-level focus is on grouping information into paragraphs. For a fact file, children will need to think more about how the sentences they have written (see above) will be organised on the page so that the reader can very easily access the information and learn about the subject quickly.

In order for children to find their desired layout, ask them to write out their information in the sections of a grid, cut them out, then move the pieces around like a jigsaw puzzle until they find the arrangement they want.

Provide a success criteria for a good fact file layout to support children to give useful feedback to their peers. Once peer-assessed, pupils can glue their final arrangement onto another piece of paper, ready to inform a final draft.

If DISC can provide a description of a person's behaviour, then the idea can be extended to develop a model of a job or role. This process is called Job Profiling: developing a DISC profile that describes the ideal combination of behaviour needed to perform a particular role.

Once we have a Job Profile, we can apply the same principles to it as to a personal DISC profile. For example, we can create a textual description of the type of person needed to fulfil the role effectively.

The real strength of a Job Profile, though, is that it gives us a basis for testing different personal styles against a role's defined needs. This is a Job Match - a procedure that can assess exactly how effectively a person's behaviour will fit the needs of a role. It can even examine the specific differences, and suggest areas where a person will excel, and where they will likely benefit from training.

Deciding on the ideal definition for a new role is a often a question best settled by consensus, and Discus recognises this fact with a brand new feature: collaborative Job Profiling. Now, it's possible to create multiple different 'views' of the needs of a role, and use Discus to merge those perspectives together to create a single Job Profile.

For example, you can use a simple question set to describe the main features of a role, or choose a candidate who is currently successful in that role as a template. For really experienced users of DISC, you can even create a Job Profile entirely by hand.

It has to be emphasised that Job Matching like this is only a part of the process. Clearly, there is more to a person's suitability for a role than merely their behavioural style, and that means that Job Match provides only a part of the picture - albeit an immensely useful and informative part.

Health inequities are differences in health status or in the distribution of health resources between different population groups, arising from the social conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age. Health inequities are unfair and could be reduced by the right mix of government policies.

They die of pneumonia, malaria, diarrhoea and other diseases. They are 14 times more likely to die before the age of five in sub-Saharan Africa than the rest of the world. Furthermore, children from rural and poorer households remain disproportionately affected. Children from the poorest 20% of households are nearly twice as likely to die before their fifth birthday as children in the richest 20%.

Maternal mortality is a health indicator that shows the wide gaps between rich and poor, both between and within countries. Developing countries account for 99% of annual maternal deaths in the world. Women in Chad have a lifetime risk of maternal death of 1 in 16, while a woman in Sweden has a risk of less than 1 in 10 000.

Around 95% of TB deaths are in the developing world. These deaths affect mainly young adults in their most productive years. Contracting the disease makes it even harder for these adults to improve their personal economic condition and that of their families.

In low-resource settings, health-care costs for noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) can quickly drain household resources, driving families into poverty. The exorbitant costs of NCDs are forcing millions of people into poverty annually, stifling development.

In low-income countries, the average life expectancy is 62 years, while in high-income countries, it is 81 years. A child born in Sierra Leone can expect to live for 50 years while a child born in Japan can expect to live 84 years.

For example, in the United States of America, African Americans represent only about 13% of the population but account for almost half of all new HIV infections. There is no biological or genetic reason for these alarming differences in health.

Close to 1 billion people in the world live in slum conditions, representing about one quarter of the world's urban population. The likelihood of meeting the Sustainable Development Goal 3 on good health and well-being is closely linked to the targets of goal 11 on sustainable cities and communities.

For example, from 3 January 1950 through 31 July 2012, the average daily return of the S&P 500 was 0.03%, and the standard deviation was 0.98% (source: Yahoo Finance, CFA Institute). These results are remarkably similar to the mean and standard deviation of the normal distribution of 0 and 1, respectively. This suggests that daily returns for the S&P 500 closely approximate the normal distribution, and that returns follow a random walk.

There has also been a doubling of two sigma events, a tripling of three sigma events, and so forth. However, careful scrutiny reveals something extraordinarily interesting: Just two years of daily market activity, 1987 and 2008, account for 56% of all five sigma and above events! In 1987 there were six events that were five sigma and above, and in 2008 there were 18 such occurrences. Wow! These numbers compare to the average number of five sigma and above events per year of 0.68. So, in addition to there being daily return sigma events to be cautious of, there are clearly high sigma years to be wary of as an investor, too.

One famous piece of oft repeated wisdom doled out by the buy-and-hold community is that missing just the top 10 up days results in a significantly lower total return. Consequently you should always stay invested, lest you miss these days. Indeed, when framed this way there is truth to the statement. One dollar invested on 3 January 1950 would have turned into $81.79 on 31 July 2012. Yet, if you had missed those top 10 performing days, you would only have $38.95 instead of $81.79.

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