SIRS Discoverer

When I teach the use of the online databases to our middle school students, I find myself often telling them that SIRS Discoverer is my favorite online database!  I think it is an attractive and easy to use database for the students.  I like the little summary that comes up for each of the hits in the results list.  This is so helpful to the students because they can quickly read to find out if the article might be helpful in their research.  Of course, you can immediately see which articles have pictures and what type of informational source it is by using the tabs at the top of the screen.  I usually introduce the tabs to my students by asking how many magazines articles come up when they do a search.  They love being the first one to discover the tabs and tell how many magazine articles were found in their search.  I find that the lexile levels are really not helpful to the students, so I teach them to look at the green, blue and red book icons that indicate the reading levels of the articles.  I also teach them to use the Descriptors to give them added key word searches for more information.

The "Country Facts" and "Maps of the World" are great features that I could use more with our 7th grade social studies classes.  I didn't realize that teacher resources came up when you did a search for a country in the "Country Facts" feature.  I must share this with my teachers!

I was excited to see the "Science Fair Explorer" feature because all of our 7th and 8th graders are expected to do a science project every year.  I like the way this feature is set up, but the few experiments that I looked at were way too easy to be considered acceptable by our science teachers which was disappointing.

In SIRS Issues Researcher I looked at the topic, Cell Phones in Schools.  I am very impressed by the setup of this database.  I like the Pro/Con, Perspectives, and the Critical Thinking and Analysis features.  They truly provide the information the student need, but also guides them through the debate process.  The Additional Resources are great features to help guide the students through the whole process of gathering information and delivering their debate topics.

Under the "Curriculum Pathfinders" I chose Medical Science under the Science tab.  The information that comes up is very broad.  You can narrow your results by the type of resource or the type of medical science.  I will have to play with this feature a little more to decide if this feature would be that helpful to our students and teachers.

Learning Express: Ebooks

The ebooks on Learning Express provide a wealth of information for people from many different walks of life!  This resource is certainly a great way to prepare people for many of the exams that they will need to take in their career paths or otherwise in their life. 

As far as our students are concerned, I think the reading and math practice tests would be great to prepare them for the Dakota Step test and to evaluate what skills they need to work on.  I think our teachers already use these tests with their students, but I am certainly going to double check that they are aware of this valuable resource.

Learning Express: Job Search and Workplace Skills

I think this feature of Learning Express would be a great help for anyone looking for a job!  I did the Career Course: Interview Tips to Get the Job You Want.  I found it easy to read and concise enough that a person could easily find the tips they need before a job interview.  I also liked the feature where you could stop in the middle of the course and then later continue at the same point where you had stopped previously.

Learning Express: Taking the Test

I did the Grade 6 Reading Diagnostic 1: Informational Text test.  I thought the test was age appropriate as the test had you read about cats as pets which would be interesting to a sixth grade student.  I liked that when you viewed the answers of your test,  you are given the reason why the answer is correct.  This would be very helpful to students to help them improve their reading comprehension.

Lesson 1a--World Book School Edition

In comparing World Book Kids and World Book Student, I see advantages of both databases for use by my middle school students.  Most of the students will use the World Book Student database because the content is more for middle school children.  Also, the Related Information for the article is great because it gives them further informational sources for their research.  This includes web sites, magazine articles, and special reports.

The World Book Kids is great for my special education students as the article can be read to them and the information is more concise.

Using World Book Advanced will also be great for our students because the article is broken down on the left by topics so they can quickly go to the area of the article that will answer their questions.  Also, on the right, it has primary sources which will be helpful for some of their assignments.  Our gifted class will especially use this feature.

For our students that are just mastering the English language, World Book Discover will be a great help.  With this database they can read the article in their own native language and also hear the article read to them in their native language.