Week 2: SIRS Discoverer

1. Wow! Searching for dolphins on SIRS Discoverer definitely brought different results than World Book. I think it would make our 3rd-graders animal reports more three-dimensional if they not only looked up the usuals (habitat, size, etc.), but also if they looked up and summarized an article on SIRS Discoverer. I'll have to suggest it to our two 3rd grade teachers. They're both really open-minded. (My list of who I need to inform about what is getting quite long! Nice problem, though!)

I searched for information on dolphins again, and the first article I came to was "A Superhero of the Sea". This was a very high-interest article. As I scrolled down further, I was delighted to find suggestions of what to do before, during and after reading the article. Discussion questions and writing prompts were also available. One of the neatest things I discovered was "Sentence Chef Presents: How to Write a Paragraph". A topic sentence based on the article had been filled in, and there were four additional lines, two for supporting sentences and two for detailed sentences. Hints were given under each. I sure wish there was an option of having these articles read aloud by the computer. During computer class, students could work together and read/listen to an article and then fill out the Paragraph diagram together. This will still work, just without the read-aloud feature. The color-coded reading levels will prove helpful too.

2. I again chose Bangladesh for my country. I found a map of Bangladesh, which offered a link to an article about Clinton's visit there. There was information on its geography and weather. It not only gave its size in miles/km squared, but also compared it to something more familiar (about the size of Wisconsin). There was information about its economy, government, and history. Population was listed, as well as how ethnic groups, religions, life expectancy, etc. broke down within that population. Easy, moderate, and challenging graphic organizers were provided. I will be sharing these with elementary, MS and HS Social Studies teachers.

I went into "Maps of the World" and found all sorts of maps: outline maps, maps with time zones of the world, etc. The time zone map had a link to an article about how time zones work. Neat! A teacher could do a scavenger hunt. Display the outline of a country and have students look for it in the outline maps.

I explored "Educators Resources". I will be sharing the elementary workbook with our computer teachers. It would be nice to let our elementary students play with these resources so it's not so overwhelming when they move into research papers in MS. I also liked the table on SIRS vs. Google. The Analyzing Graphs and Charts sheet is something that our teachers will find helpful.