Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Invitational Week #5 - What a "Novel" Idea!

This week we have been spending time with NoveList and NoveList Plus. Because I teach middle school, I spent most of my time looking around NoveList K-8.
Our first "task" requested that we search a series and then see how we might use the "view" box to help with finding books. I searched the Percy Jackson series as it is very popular with my seventh graders. When the search showed me several of the Percy Jackson books, I "played around" with the different views possible when looking for book titles. Personally I like the detailed view. When I look for a book, I like to have a summary of the story to see if it would appeal to me. As I looked over other information on each of the views, however, a couple things "popped out" at me. One was the fact that you can get more information about the book, information like genre, setting of the story, types of characters in the story... As a teacher I think this could help when looking for books for my students or having them look for books for themselves. The other "cool" part of my series search was finding "Series Read Alikes." Wow! This directed me to several series/books that are like the Percy Jackson books. What a help this would be when working with a student who loves a series but has read all the books in that specific series! A teacher could direct the student to other series with similar characteristics. A definite "plus" in my eyes.
The second task followed along with what I had discovered during my first task. We were asked to find  authors whose writing was similar to David Baldacci's writing by looking at the "Read-alikes from NoveList" section on the page. Again this would be helpful when a student loves a certain author and we have exhausted the local supply of reading materials from that author.
I spent a great deal of time browsing the database. Something I really liked was the "Grab and Go Book Lists" capability. I am always looking for books to read aloud to my students or books to recommend. The lists would be very handy! As a teacher I would use the detailed view. I know my students would use the grid view when browsing the Grab and Go Book Lists. Middle Schoolers are usually first attracted to a book by the cover. They could browse through the books on the grid and if a cover caught their eye, the student could click on the title to get more information about the story itself. I can see this as a very helpful tool for my students when they are trying to find books. I could see these lists as helpful for me to collect books for my class library or just to supply titles for students to try. The fact that the lists can be printed is great! I was interested in the book discussion guides. It took me awhile to get to these, but I did eventually find them. (I should have used the bar at the top of the page!) Most of the books/authors did not apply to my grade level, but the information I found was interesting and seemed easy to use.
I was interested to get into NoveList and enjoyed the time spent on the site. I will definitely use NoveList and take some time showing my students how this could be really helpful to them when looking for books.

Monday, October 22, 2012

Invitational Week #4 - Hobbies? Crafts?

When I saw this week's topic, I almost froze. I am not a "crafty" or hobby type person. Once I got to the page, I decide to look into the Home and Leisure category. This proved to be a good one for me. I went directly to the subcategory of "Healthy Cooking" and found lots to keep me reading for awhile. I focused on recipes for main meals I could cook on a weekday, mainly made from fish or poultry, foods my husband and I like. I found a lot of recipes from magazines I have heard of and, in some cases, used.  I don't believe we have the cookbooks in our middle school library but am not really sure since I don't look for cooking magazines when I am in there.
I browsed through the recipes when I clicked on the link to the information. Something I found with all the recipes I read was that the html versions were not really user friendly. The recipes seemed to blend into each other with no differences in font print or size. I had to read very carefully as I was looking at the recipes. Also, none of the recipes I read had photos which I find very helpful when looking for recipes. I did save recipes to a folder, however, as some are going to be on our dinner menu!
The "help" button came in handy with my folder. I decide to open a personal account so my folder could be saved and I could add information to the folder as I browse through other areas of the site. The  "help" information led me in the correct direction and even told me what to do if I forgot my user name and password.
Before quitting the site, I had to go to one other link - Halloween crafts for kids. What fun! The links I checked showed recipes as well as gave directions for all kinds of crafts and cooking projects. One thing about the links was that most had photos and step by step instructions which made them user friendly for kids (and for "visual" people like me). I think this would be really helpful as a teacher if I wanted to do some "themed" activity around holidays.
Fun activity this week! I plan to go back and browse through some other topics!

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Invitational Week #3 - What's News?

Today I spent some time on Maine Newstand. I had used this database in the past but realized today I really did not use it the way it could be used to my advantage and that of my students. I decided to search for information related to the Dempsey Challenge since it has been in the news recently. Most of the articles were from the Lewiston Sun Journal and of course quite timely (I narrowed the search to articles published in 2012). I then decided to sort my search with most recent articles first.
Next I decided to "play" with the most recent article. I looked at the abstract with citation as well as full text with citation. I then checked out the citation information and was amazed. There are multiple formats for citation - more than I had ever heard of! If I was using this source with my students, I would have to be sure I specifically have them use only one format for citations. They and I could become very confused. However, having a citation already done certainly saves time and insures fewer headaches for students and teacher!
I think using this database would take lots of direct instruction with students. They would need to definitely have some help with using the page once a search has been done to narrow down information. I would be leery about having them just search key words due to the number of sources that might be found (in the thousands for some topics). I can see that if students are using Maine Newstand (or other newspaper/periodical databases), they would need to have a teacher's input as they work to help with their search.
I set up an alert but got the message that the server was having problems so I have to try again another time. I will try again later in the week to see what happens.
I do play to check out the Maine Memory Network as well as Windows on Maine. I think I would have some fun looking around on those sites. I can see how they could be really useful in the classroom!

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Invitational Week #2 - More searching!

Oh my gosh! I returned to the Britannica Middle School edition site tonight. I went to a link called "Learning Activities" and got totally wrapped up in some information and activities about short stories and novels. Informational yet easy to use and not too "boring" as my students might say. I may use this with my classes when I get into story elements in detail. I plan to use the setting information in a couple of weeks. Fun!

Monday, October 8, 2012

Invitational - Week #2

I spent a great deal of time exploring the Britannica editions today. I think I could have spent all day on the site! I had used Britannica with my students in the past but never got on the correct link, I guess. I had never used the middle school section and realize now just what I missed and what my students have missed! I love the home pages for each of the school editions. As I "played around" with various links to articles, I found myself searching more and more information. I would definitely take my students to the middle school home page and do a lesson on just that page with them, showing them the options and letting them search around as they try many of the links.

I began my search today by linking to the Britannica Elementary School edition, searching for information about the Maine coon cat. The search brought me to a page with links for several cats but not the Maine coon cat. However, there was a picture of a Maine coon cat on the right. When I clicked on the photo, it enlarged the picture but did not give any further information. Something I liked about the elementary edition was the fact that students could click on the speaker at the top of the article to have the article read to them - a great help for nonreaders. I would direct some of my low-level readers to this edition if they were struggling to understand information from other editions of the Britannica.

The Britannica Middle School edition brought me directly to an article and picture of the Maine coon cat when I searched. I was surprised it had an article when the elementary edition did not have any information about the Maine coon cat. If I was an elementary school teacher, I would make sure to check the middle school and high school editions if one of my students was having problems finding information on a particular topic while searching the elementary edition. One thing I have noticed on each of the editions used so far is the print size. I am pleased that the size is not tiny but a size that would not "turn off" students. Sometimes when print size is too small, middle school students will shy away from the article, thinking it will be too difficult for them to read.

I ventured to the Britannica High School edition and searched for information about Spain. Not only did I find a great deal of information in the main article (with a clear and easy to follow table of contents on the left) but I found helpful information in the right-hand side bar. I think the  information on that side bar most helpful to students would be the maps and photos in the multimedia section. As a teacher I was impressed with the "Learning Materials" section. Of course the citation information at the bottom of every article is all-important!

The "workspace" option could prove to be a very helpful tool for my students. I like the idea that they can immediately move information they want to save to a "page" as they move around the Britannica searching for more information for a particular project. I think it would be especially good for saving maps and pictures (with citations). Kids tend to print images they think they "might" use for their projects and end up with lots of images they don't need. By saving these images to a workspace, they could end up with a wide variety from which they may choose a few to use in a final project. Another important part of the workspace is the ability to "share" with others. I can see this as an important tool when working on group projects. Students can look at peers' workspaces to help them as project information is combined into a final product. It could also lead to discussion among students about varied facts that are learned. As a teacher I could have information in my shared workspace with the expectation that students go to my workspace as well. Students could use this workspace in a variety of ways. I worry about "copying and pasting" of entire articles but hopefully could control this by checking with students as they are working.

I am not done searching around on the Britannica editions. I have a project in mind for my students and have already done a brief search to see if the Britannica would be a good source for our research. I want to make sure my students will be able to access a wide variety of information as they search. The articles I found looked very promising. My search has just begun!


Monday, October 1, 2012

Invitational - Day 1

Let the fun begin!  I am happy to become a blogger. At least I hope I have become one! The next few weeks should be an adventure!