Gale Virtual Reference Library

1. Clicked on Nation & World and came up with 131 articles most of them in Worldmark Encyclopedia of World Holidays. Examples were Ching Ming Festival in China held April 5 or 6. Serve cold food such as Rice and Noodles. Also have kite flying contests. Another one was Wielkanoc Easter celebrated in Poland. Mentioned Easter bread (Babka) and Lenten soup (Postna zupa) and even gave the recipes. Also found the Worldmark Encyclopedia of Foods and Recipes of the World which might be helpful.  Like the Search Within Publication feature. Seems to me this is an additional source to World Book.


2. I did an Advanced Search and sorted by Publication date after 2011. Did a good job searching the index.


Common Core:

I read Technology Education from the Encyclopedia of Education. It stressed teaching technology education to foster competence in problem solving and solution design.
Also read Classroom Questions from the same source which talked about Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis, and Evaluation which are all important to Common Core.

Reading Standards for Informational Text.
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas: Grades 9-10

#8  Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning is valid and the evidence is relevant and sufficient; identify false statements and fallacious reasoning.

Using Gale choose two different articles and using the criteria write a paper critiquing the articles.

Proquest

1. Best results when I clicked on Document and then clicked on Review and under Subject clicked on Non-Fiction. Ended up with 88 articles.

2. Put in Hurricane Sandy Impact on Libraries and got 384 articles.
Narrowed it down to just Trade Journals and got 88.  Most recent Library Journal, Jan. 1, 2013. Talked about the clean up of the New York University library.

COMMON CORE:

Writing Standard: Research to Build and Present Knowledge:
11-12 # 7

Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question) or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when appropriate; synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.

Perfect for the Juniors who do research papers. I usually do an overview of several research sites.  Would give them each a recent topic and have them find 5 sources on Proquest and Cite them using the Cite feature. Excellent tool for becoming familiar with listing sources.

SIRS DISCOVERER & SIRS RESEARCHER

SIRS DISCOVERER:

1. Took hint and went to Advanced Search where I checked only the Easy reading level. Also Lexile ratings are given which is very useful in this case. Came up with 4 newspaper articles, 29 magazines and 7 reference articles.

2.  Put in volcanoes. When list came up clicked on Graphics.
Gave both images and maps.

SIRS RESEARCHER:

1. Definitly better then Google. Articles are educationally approved and correlate with Common Core.

2.  Drought Relief, Water Restrictions, Water Conservation and Water Consumption are just a variety of the subjects you can put in for information.

Common Core:

Writing Standard: Production and Distribution of Writing. #7
 Conduct short research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question), drawing on several sources and generating additional related, forcused questions that allow for multiple avenues of exploration.

Using the Pro and Con feature 9th graders will work in teams to prepare arguments for or against chosen topic. Will then present
arguments using a written outline form.

Learning Express

 1.    Went to School Center and chose 4th Grade Reading Practice  
Came up with Read a folktale, a passage on bird watching and a short story. Then answer questions to build comprehension skills and get instant scoring and full answer explanations. Also there are Tutorials and Ebooks.

2.     Clicked on Job Search and Workplace Skills. Would give her choices on Business Writing Skills, Grammar, and Spelling Vocabulary Practice. She could also take some Practice tests.

3.     Would steer him to Nursing and Allied Health. The Career Guidance section would be the most helpful.

Common Core:

Reading Standard: Craft and Structure #4
      Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of a specific word choice on meaning and tone.

      Have 6th grade students choose 1 practice test and analyze using guidelines in reading Standard listed above.

Lesson 2

Chilton Library:

1. Put in year, make, and model. Click repair then Steering and then
    Steering Wheel. Click on Removal and Installation. I would probably recommend the video on Steering Wheel Removal.

2. Think the # is A131L3.

Common Core:

Have 9th grade students read How to Buy a Used Vehicle and list
5 tips they would find helpful in selecting a car.

Mango:

I would recommend the English feature to help her supplement her
English studies.

Common Core :

Couldn't really find anything with foreign languages.