2018-2019 Databases: Secondary
Spotlight on Popular 6-12 Choices
Teen Health and Wellness
Red Creek's Merrilee Witherell purchases several Rosen resources for her middle and high school grades. She uses Digital Literacy with her 6th and 7th grade classes, working with small groups to complete research assignments. Her high school business teachers are getting a lot of use Rosen's Financial Literacy database. But it's Rosen's Teen Health and Wellness that gets the most use.
"I've worked with high school health classes, in which each student has to design a brochure about an illness or condition. This is one of the databases I showcased during that lesson. I like the read-aloud feature, because I teach students with a wide range of reading abilities in my daily classes, and this enables them to fully participate in the discussion and follow-up, for cases in which reading the books without audio support would have been too challenging."
An additional bonus: "The students like not having to encounter blocked sites when they look up topics like sexually transmitted diseases."
Proquest SIRS Issues Research & SIRS Decades
Priscilla Beaujon uses SIRS Issues Researcher with her students at Beneway High School in Wayne. "It's promoted mostly with students writing argumentative papers. It is also used during the biology (harmful human activities) and earth science (environmental issues) research projects. I point it out to any student who is working on a paper or project where it will work.
"I like the subject search. I direct students to browse the list if they are still deciding on a topic ... it offers a list of articles for both viewpoints. The Critical Thinking link offers great questions to help students get started on research."
Teacher feedback has been positive; a colleague recently shared that this is one of best databases available. Priscilla's planning to incorporate the SIRS Issues Research Guide into her instruction, as well. "It looks like there are several features that I would really benefit from exploring further."
NoodleTools
Penn Yan students build a solid foundation with NoodleTools from middle school on through graduation. Library Media Specialist Pam Simmons (6-8) says, "All of my 8th graders use NoodleTools. They are required to use it for all research. Our 7th graders are just starting to use it ..."
"Students also use the note-card/note-taking feature. Often they're given the option of using traditional note-cards, a Google Doc, or the note-taking feature of NoodleTools. About 50% of our students choose NoodleTools. For the note-taking feature, students love how easy it is to connect notes to the sources from which they originated. "
Joy Ike at Gananda High School agrees. "NoodleTools is heavily used in the high school for any researched writing where teachers require students to cite their work. I have pushed into all English classes 9-12 to set up, demonstrate, and/or highlight features. In grades 9 & 10 especially, I provide lessons that have students using our databases for research articles and then using NoodleTools to create sources and notecards. Students also use NoodleTools when producing papers in science and social studies, as well. It is our "go-to" resource for organizing our research!"
Bloom's Literature from InfoBase
Manchester-Shortsville (Red Jacket) and several other high schools order Bloom's Literature. Kathy Liebentritt has ordered it for years to accommodate research projects with her 11th and 12th grade English teachers. Like most high schools, Red Jacket requires critical analysis research, as well as author studies.
Kathy's statistics show consistent use. "When I first came here, we were using a different product that had a very confusing interface. As soon as we switched to Bloom's, teachers went from using books for research to using this database (I have the old 800s books to prove it)!"
Hard to Decide? Want More e-Choices?
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We're here to help!
Email: teresa.keyes@wflboces.org
Website: https://www.wflboces.org/teaching-and-learning/school-library-systems
Location: 131 Drumlin Court, Newark, NY, United States
Phone: 315-332-2100
Twitter: @wflsls
Created by Teresa Keyes, W-FL BOCES SLS 2018