Plan a Holiday!

Need to know Teachers and Parents UNITS ONE TWO THREE FOUR FIVE SIX SEVEN 8-10 EVALUATE

Unit 2 level 7-8 2. Step by Step Ask a question, consider what resources are available, locate, gather, select, compare .... Now you've started planning ahead let's look more closely at how and where to find the right information. If you were planning a holiday, where would you go to find out what was available? More is not necessarily better information, but we can pick and choose later. Let's brainstorm some of the available information sources. Spend three or four minutes noting down as many sources of information as you can think of for holiday planning. When you've finished, go to the next page . Example Websites Here are some example websites - but don't forget that it's important to do your own searches and investigate a variety of non-Web materials too. So use a Search engine - and also get out and ask people. www.travelocity.co.uk www.travelselect.com www.travelstore.com www.uTravel.co.uk www.easyjet.com www.go-fly.com www.ryanair.com www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/Archive/ (search for recent articles on holidays) When you find a piece of information which is interesting, copy the important bits and paste them into a word processor. Strengths and Weaknesses Each information source will have its own prejudices, its own strengths and weaknesses. A newspaper may select holiday information by what it thinks its readers want - and might miss out places and holiday styles which are of interest to you. Some travel guides emphasise the well-worn tourist routes and expensive hotels, so you will have to choose your travel guides carefully too. Friends and family may have different ideas about what is a suitable holiday for you and suggest only the type of holiday which they themselves enjoy. Compare and Contrast So your next task is to compare the various pieces of information you've found at different places and to compare and contrast them. You'll have to interrogate the sources, for example: Ask who what why where when and how Who wrote the piece or who recommended it? Are they reliable? Do they know what they're talking about? Have they been there? If it's a published source, do you trust the publisher? is it a holiday brochure which has an interest or a bias in selling this place? Who do you want to go with? What are they describing? Is it the kind of holiday you really want - or is it just an easy option and you can't be bothered to look elsewhere? What are the advantages and disadvantages of the suggestions offered to you? Why is this holiday better for you than that one? Why do you turn up your nose at this one? Why do people regularly say that one is unsuitable? Where do you really want to go? Where fits in best with your life, your dreams, your savings? When can you go? When is it most convenient for you to go? When is the best time for that holiday, given the likely weather and when it's popular, high season or low season? Look at the date on the information - is it recent or out-of-date? (If there's no date, suspect it...) How are you going to get there? How will you afford it? How do you book? You must ask all these questions and more if you want to be sure the information is balanced and thorough. If you pasted extracts into your word processor you can now delete any extracts which seem unsuitable (the trash), leaving you with "the treasure". What you've done so far: So now you've: Asked the question Brainstormed more questions Thought about where you might find the answers Found the resources to provide those answers Chosen the best sources Evaluation - If you haven't done these things properly go back now! You must select the best information and compare it to get the best answer. It's unusual to find a single answer - usually there are several possible answers, some of which might be misleading. However if you see the same information in several good quality sources you can probably accept that it's true. At the end of this unit you should have one or more holidays which match your preferences, based on reliable information from a variety of sources. Go on to Unit Three

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