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American Indian Heritage Month +
Dear %%NAME%%,
Welcome to this month's issue of ProQuest Teachable Moments. This issue focuses on a myriad of topics, including American Indian Heritage Month, Children's Book Month, the Great American Smokeout, Aviation History Month, and much more.
Our monthly enewsletter delivers a set of hands-on learning activities that encourage students to conduct quality research and produce meaningful results to increase their knowledge and understanding of everything from basic math to literature to history and beyond. Keep in mind that these activities are not duplicated in our other monthly newsletters, which also contain ready-made lessons.
Have an idea or feedback concerning this newsletter? Send email to tim.mclain@il.proquest.com today.
SIRS® Researcher
Blowing Smoke About Our Health
Grades 6-12
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November is an excellent month for students to investigate the hazards of smoking. It is both Lung Cancer Awareness Month and also features the Great American Smokeout on November 16.
In the 1930s to 1950s, cigarette companies promoted cigarettes as healthy and glamorous, using doctors and movie stars as spokespersons in their ads. The military included cigarettes as part of field rations during World Wars I and II. A 1964 report by the Surgeon General was the first to link smoking with lung cancer. Since then, more than 12 million Americans have died from smoking-related illnesses.
In 1964, 43% of American adults smoked. The figure dropped to 23% in 2002. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are 440,000 annual smoking-related deaths in the U.S. and the average smoker shortens his or her life by over 13 years.
A 2004 Surgeon General's report now links smoking to diseases such as leukemia, cataracts, pneumonia, and cancer of the cervix, pancreas, kidneys, and stomach. The report also notes that quitting smoking has immediate and long-term health benefits.
Activity: Leading Issues provides students an opportunity to explore many of the real issues involved with smoking and the disease and discomfort it causes smokers, their families, and the public:
- Is smoking really harmful and if so, isn't that a personal choice?
- Why don't we just ban all smoking and make it a misdemeanor, to prevent disease?
- Why don't we put the tobacco companies out of business?
- Why don't we make it illegal to grow tobacco?
- Why don't we refuse to provide health insurance for people who smoke?
- Why don't we charge so much for cigarettes that people would refuse to buy them?
- Why don't we ban all tobacco advertising?
Leading Issues provides the focused information and resources to help teachers and students to get the most educational benefit from researching controversial issues. Click the Leading Issues Pro vs. Con > More Issues link > Smoking. Click the Overview tab and read to understand the issue. Click the Pro/Con tab to look at both sides of the issue.
And most importantly, click the my/Analysis tab to get specific guidance in how to use the SIRS information to form and express a reasoned opinion on either side of the issue.
Six special and unique student and teacher support resources are listed in step five. These resources are written to provide ideas and formats that are designed to specifically correlate to the information provided in the leading issue. This makes it easier for teachers and students to create the reports, presentations, or mini-debates that make up the student performance products that result from Leading Issues research. These student performance products are the most important part of the research process and usually the part that's most difficult to manage for teachers and to accomplish
for students.
Find out more about SIRS Researcher and SIRS Leading Issues at our K-12 website.
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ExploreLearning® Gizmos
Aviation History Month
Grades 7-11
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Math & Science Solution Resources
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November is Aviation History Month. The science of aviation has progressed dramatically since the Wright Brothers' historic flight on December 17, 1903, which resulted in a 120-foot, 12-second flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. The aircraft represented the first powered flight in a heavier-than-air machine. Contrast that beginning with today's supersonic jets, space shuttles, and satellites.
These technologies all depend on the vehicle's ability to overcome gravity and then to navigate to a targeted location. An understanding of physical science and advanced mathematics fundamentals is basic to aviation success, whether for the Wright Brothers' original flight or for the vehicles designed by NASA to explore the universe.
Activity: The following Gizmos in Math and Science are related to understanding the progress being made in aviation-space flight and exploration:
Math
Distance-Time and Velocity-Time Graphs; Ellipse - Activity B; Parabolas - Activity B
Science
Solar System Explorer; Gravitational Force; Freefall Laboratory; Orbit Simulator
Tap into the entire collection on a trial basis today. Keep in mind that each Gizmo is accompanied by teacher lesson plans and student activities and worksheets that help reinforce the concepts highlighted in the Gizmos!
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Reading A-Z™ & LearningPage™
Children's Book Week
Grades K-6
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Reading A-Z Resources
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In November, schools celebrate Children's Book Week. RAZ books, coordinated with other November themes, provide a great way to read for enjoyment and learning in your school or at home.
The developmental K-6 books in the RAZ collection are inexpensive to print, so –- unlike more expensive reader sets -- they encourage teachers to let students take them home.. Some other major themes that create interest in reading in November: Health & Fitness; Sports; U.S. Geography, and Child Safety & Awareness.
Activity: Here's a sampling of mostly non-fiction titles that teachers can provide their students to read, to learn (Children's Book Week) more about these topics/themes, especially when students complete the worksheets:
Health/Fitness
My Body; Josh Gets Glasses; The Food We Eat; Healthy Me; Inside Your Body; Jenny Loves Yoga; An Apple a Day; The Hard Stuff; All About Bones; Get Moving; All About Muscles; Book of Blood; What Makes You, You?; Genetics at Work
Sports
Summer Olympics Events; Jessica Loves Soccer; Summer Olympics Legends; Skydiving; The Olympics: Past and Present
Child Safety
Police Officers; Firefighters; Playing It Safe; Fireworks; Rattlers; Severe Weather; The Firefighter
You can connect to each RAZ book by clicking the ALL BOOKS tab at www.readinga-z.com.
Learning Page, a Reading A-Z sister site, offers more than 3,200 free educational activity sheets for K-3. Each month new themes are added to the collection. Learning Page recently added Awesome Autumn activities. Celebrate fall by checking out the new materials filled with autumn leaves, harvest foods, and more.
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eLibrary®
Health & Fitness Resources
Grades 4-10
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November provides a variety of themes that focus on Health and Fitness: AIDS Awareness; Diabetes Awareness; Lung Cancer Awareness; Alzheimer's Awareness; Child Safety Awareness; and Osteopathic Medicine.
Activity: To help Health Educators motivate their students to learn more about these themes and disease prevention and cure in general, ProQuest has created a variety of standards-correlated BookCarts. These BookCarts provide students with a focused and time-saving strategy of engaged learning beyond the textbook.
Each of the BookCarts will provide several examples of Essential Questions for Critical Thinking (EQ) that provide motivation and direction for students to form and express their reasoned opinions about the BookCart topic selected for them by the teacher. Look for these in the Description box.
View and copy these BookCarts to the My Local Carts collection for your school:
- Logon to the standard eLibrary Teacher Edition.
- Click the BookCart Admin link at the top right.
- Click the ProQuest Carts tab.
- Click the folder Health and Physical Ed.
- Review a BookCart by clicking the View icon, then click Close Window.
- Click the Copy icon to the right of the title under the Actions column.
- Click Back to the BookCarts page link to return to My Local Carts.
- Repeat the process--Copied BookCarts will appear with "Copy of" as a title prefix.
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eLibrary® Elementary
Children's Book Month
Grades K-6
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Children's Book Month is one of the themes for November that is appealing to teachers, librarians, parents, and students in elementary schools.
One of the most famous of children's books authors is Dr. Seuss, whose real name was Theodor Seuss Geisel. Millions of parents grew up and were captivated by the characters created by Dr. Seuss: Cat in the Hat, Horton the Elephant, Yertle the Turtle, the Grinch and his dog Max, the Lorax, Gertrude McFuzz, Things One and Two, and the lovable Thidwick the Moose. The universal appeal of Dr. Seuss and these characters continues on with this generation of children.
Activity: Motivate students to learn more about one of their favorite authors by creating a mini-research assignment to learn more about Dr. Seuss as a person and what inspired him to write his books for children. To help teachers to manage such an assignment, ProQuest has created a BookCart entitled Dr. Seuss Celebration. This is one of more than 40 BookCarts that have been created to help teachers and students use eLibrary Elementary more effectively in building essential reading and writing skills.
The Dr. Seuss Celebration BookCart has a list of Essential Questions for Critical Thinking in the Description box. Elementary students are capable of developing critical thinking skills, so this BookCart and mini-research activity focuses on developing these skills by providing students with an opportunity to answer these questions in the format of a two-minute oral report.
This may be a departure from the typical K-6 student research that is generally dominated by facts. This usually results in reports that are similar and that show little critical thinking and original thought.
The essential questions help teachers and students to integrate these essential skills in their work. Teachers are encouraged to add to these questions when they copy this or other BookCarts for use.
To copy this BookCart:
- Logon to the Elementary Teacher Edition.
- Click the BookCart Admin link.
- Click the ProQuest Carts tab.
- Click the Elementary BookCarts folder.
- Click the Copy icon under the Actions column.
- Click Back to the BookCarts Page to return to My Local Carts.
- To view, search for the title--"Copy of" will be its prefix.
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CultureGrams™
Electoral College Debate
Grades 7-10
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Use Election Day in November to launch a discussion of the Electoral College. Hand out a printout of the PDF outline map of the United States to each student, along with coloring tools.
Give the students a list of states that voted for George W. Bush (color red) in the 2004 presidential election, and the states that voted for John Kerry (color blue), and have them color in the map accordingly.
When the students are done, tell them that the country was split fairly evenly in this election, with 51% of the nation voting for Bush and 48% voting for Kerry. Yet, from looking at the amount of red on the election map, they might think that far more people voted for Bush. Talk about how the Electoral College works, explaining that each state gets a number of electoral votes based on its total number of senators and representatives, the latter of which is based on population.
Using this formula (senators + representatives), have students use the information in the Government section of the CultureGrams States Edition to fill in their map with the number of electoral votes for each state.
Compare the sum of the blue states' electoral votes and those of the red states. Are they closer than the map makes them appear? Explain to students that many people assume that states with large urban populations (and thus a higher population) typically tend to vote Democratic, while those with rural populations (and thus a lower population) tend to vote Republican. Have students test this assumption using the Create Your Own Table function in the States Edition.
Have students create tables that display the population densities (population per sq. mi.) for both red and blue states. Using this data, have them create and compare averages for each group.
- What do their findings prove?
- Why might more densely populated states vote Democratic, while more sparsely populated ones vote Republican?
- The Electoral College has come under fire as being out of date and unfair. Do the students agree?
- Why or why not?
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BookCarts™ & QuizCarts™
American Education Week
Grades: K-12
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American Education Week is celebrated in November. ProQuest has created a series of BookCarts correlated to a mini-research guide to help teachers and students explore many of the controversial issues in K-12 education today. Critics of the existing education system like to point out that one-third of even our best students who go on to college require college remedial courses in writing and mathematics.
Everybody seems to have an opinion about what's wrong with education today and how it can be fixed. This "expertise" is usually based on their limited personal education experiences in an era when students were either "college prep" or vocational, and could even drop out and still enter careers that let them aspire to the middle class. That era is over, and its curriculum and teaching and learning methods are obsolete in the "Information Age."
Activity: The following list of education-related, controversial, and engaging topics for student research are part of the more than 500 ProQuest model BookCart collection.
The BookCarts listed are supported by the Engaging Issues BookCart Guide which can be downloaded and printed by librarians and teachers and provides teachers with models and "essential questions for critical thinking" to ensure that the BookCart resources are used effectively and help increase student achievement in essential skills and digital information literacy.
Look at the table of contents of the guide under the ED (Education) series.
To copy this BookCart:
- Logon to the eLibrary or eLibrary CE Teacher Edition.
- Click the BookCart Admin link.
- Click the ProQuest Carts tab.
- Click the Elementary BookCarts folder.
- Click the Copy icon under the Actions column.
- Click Back to the BookCarts Page to return to My Local Carts.
- Repeat this procedure for more BookCarts.
- To view, search for the title--"Copy of" will be its prefix.
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eLibrary® Science
Aviation History Month
Grades 5-12
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November is Aviation History Month. The first powered flight in a heavier-than-air machine occurred over a hundred years ago. The Wright Brothers staged this historic flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, on December 17, 1903, when the aircraft flew 120 feet in 12 seconds.
Contrast that beginning with the current technologies used by NASA and other countries to propel astronauts into a variety of destinations in the solar system and beyond. The current manned shuttles are being used to support and expand the International Space Station and repair other orbiting exploration satellites such as the Hubble telescope.
Activity: Students can learn more about the International Space Station and the Hubble telescope by using special eLibrary Science model BookCarts created by ProQuest.
These BookCarts help teachers collect the best resources from eLibrary Science that focus on the topic of the assignment. They save time for teachers and students and ensure that reports are focused and based on authoritative information resources. They also include examples of Essential Questions for Critical Thinking so that student reports become much more than a rewrite of an encyclopedia article. Teachers can use these models to create additional critical thinking questions to assign their students.
To copy these BookCarts:
- Logon to eLibrary Science Teacher Edition.
- Click the BookCart Admin link.
- Click the ProQuest Carts tab.
- Click the eLibrary Science--BookCart folder.
- Click the Copy icon for the title International Space Station.
- Click Back to the BookCarts Page to return to My Local Carts.
- Search for your new BookCart--"Copy of" will be its prefix in the title.
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ProQuest® Historical Newspapers
National American Indian Heritage Month
Grades 5-10
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National American Indian Heritage Month is celebrated in November. What started at the turn of the century as an effort to gain a day of recognition for the significant contributions of the first Americans to the establishment and growth of the U.S., has resulted in a whole month for celebration.
As with other ethnic celebrations, Social Studies teachers have an opportunity to help students learn about other cultures and their struggle to gain acceptance and equality in America.
Activity: Type "American Indians and treaties" in the Search box. Type "Indians or reservations or treaties" in the Title box and then click Search. Students will get a range of results for seven eras. Assign a different era to students (or to teams of students). Research reports should provide answers to the following essential questions for critical thinking:
- What were the most significant issues and events for Native Americans during this era and why?
- What were the major obstacles to inequality encountered by Native Americans in this era?
- What were the major accomplishments or points of progress during this era?
- What's most important to you about the history and culture of Native Americans and why?
Oral presentations of about three minutes provide opportunities for students to develop essential presentation skills and for other students to share in the information, reasoned opinions, and to ask questions.
This strategy also provides opportunities for students to assess presentations with teacher-developed criteria. Plagiarism is dramatically reduced and standards-based critical thinking and digital information literacy skills are developed.
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eLibrary® Curriculum Edition
Native American Culture & History
Grades 6-10
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One of the main proponents of an American Indian Day was Dr. Arthur C. Parker, a Seneca Indian, who was the director of the Museum of Arts and Science in Rochester, N.Y. President Coolidge issued a proclamation on September 28, 1915, which declared the second Saturday of each May as an American Indian Day and contained the first formal appeal for recognition of Indians as citizens.
In 1990 President George H. W. Bush approved a joint resolution designating November 1990 "National American Indian Heritage Month." Similar proclamations have been issued each year since 1994.
History Study Center Activity
Type "American Indian" in the Search box. The Results list will provide five Study Units for student choice:
Native American Culture
Indian Wars in the early Republic
The subordination of American Indians and the dispersal of the tribes
Natives and Settlers in colonial America
Indian Wars, 1860-1890
Assign a variety of study units to students to create a three-minute oral presentation. Each Study Unit provides resources for students to report on the Native American people, significant events, and the impact of these on life and culture in American today.
ProQuest Learning: Literature Activity
Type "Native American Authors" in the Search box. Select one of the authors listed in the Results. If more information is needed to answer any of the following essential questions, do a search in eLibrary.
- What are the themes of this author's works?
- What is the most recognized work of this author and why?
- Why aren't more literary works produced by Native Americans?
eLibrary Curriculum Edition also has available a model BookCart titled "Native American History and Heroes." Teachers can use these resources as well. The BookCart includes examples of Essential Questions for Critical Thinking to help guide students in how to use the variety of resources available to them. Copy the BookCart with the BookCart Editor of the Teacher Edition from the ProQuest Carts tab.
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ProQuest® Platinum
In Our Genes: Health
Grades 6-12
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November is associated with a variety of monthly themes that include a focus on Health & Fitness, and in particular Diabetes Awareness and Alzheimer's Awareness. Both of these diseases and many others are related to faulty genes passed along innocently by parents.
The Human Genome Project succeeded in mapping the human genome. Now that mapping can be compared to the DNA samples of people with specific genetic diseases and discover the genetic markers. This information can then be used to explore other people who may be at risk for the disease, infants, and human embryos not
yet born.
Using the biotechnology and stem cell breakthrough strategies being developed all over the world, scientists predict that these diseases can be cured or prevented by replacing faulty genes. This will save many lives, prevent many genetic illnesses, improve quality of life for all, and save many dollars spent in health care.
ProQuest Platinum learning resources help Health educators to make assignments that address state standards and provide opportunities for students to learn beyond the textbook. Many students have family and personal experiences with genetic diseases, and therefore research activities on these topics are motivating and relevant.
Activity: The following is a list of examples of genetic diseases that teachers can assign students to research: Cystic Fibrosis, Hemophilia, Sickle Cell Disease, Tay-Sachs, Huntington's Disease, Marfan Syndrome, Fragile X Syndrome, Alzheimer's, and some types of Diabetes.
Assign students (or teams of students), one of the genetic diseases examples listed above so that a variety of reports is possible.
Assign students a series of essential questions for critical thinking to guide their research about each of the diseases. Essential questions are a "must" if research activities are to be more that a rewrite of encyclopedia articles. Here are some examples; teachers are encouraged to create and assign others:
- What are the symptoms of this disease and how does it affect the quality of life?
- What are some of the genetic experiments being conducted to find a cure?
- How close to a cure are we and what would that cure involve?
- How important is genetic screening to prospective parents and why?
Three-minute oral presentations are recommended because they provide a way for students to share what they have learned with other students. Oral presentations, with student audience questions encouraged, help prevent plagiarism and address all state standards in Language Arts.
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SIRS® Decades
Veterans Day
Grades 6-12
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Veterans Day is celebrated in November. This past September 2, we celebrated the 60th anniversary of the formal signing of the Japanese surrender and the official end of World War II. This concurrence of both events provides an opportunity for students to study the variety of problems encountered by World War II veterans when they returned home from the European and Pacific theaters.
While all veterans since then have had to overcome acceptance problems, World War II veterans were universally considered heroes in their communities. Many veteran support programs, some that still exist today, were started after the war. This made veterans' adjustment to civilian life easier, and also helped our economy launch the boom of the late 1940s and the 1950s.
Activity: SIRS Decades helps students understand Veterans Day as more than a day off from school. Many students have relatives who served in World War II, The Korean War, Vietnam, The Gulf War, and now in Iraq. This gives them an opportunity to compare and contrast how these servicemen were treated both during and after each war at these different times in history.
- Click 1950s icon > Korean War--Stopping the spread of Communism
- Click 1970s icon > End of the Vietnam War--Domino theory and Communism
- Click 1990s icon > Foreign Policy and Terrorism (Gulf War)--Integration with the United Nations
Assign students to different decades and wars so that a variety of aspects of each will be researched. Assign students a series of essential questions for critical thinking to guide their research about each of the diseases.
Essential questions are a "must" if research activities are to be more that a rewrite of encyclopedia articles. Here are some examples; teachers are encouraged to create and assign others:
- Why were American troops sent to this part of the world?
- What were some of the major benefits achieved by this action?
- What were some of the major disadvantages to the U.S.?
- What were some of the problems encountered by veterans upon returning?
Assign oral presentations of about three minutes. These reports provide an opportunity for students to share what they've learned with their peers, learn standards-based presentation skills, and also help teachers curb plagiarism.
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SIRS Discoverer®
Smoking + Young People = Danger
Grades 2-6
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November is an excellent month for students to investigate the hazards of smoking. It's Lung Cancer Awareness Month and also features the Great American Smokeout on November 16. The best way to prevent diseases associated with smoking is not to start. The next best way is to stop smoking as soon as possible.
Research has shown that stopping smoking can help to reduce the damage done during the period of smoking. Students in elementary and middle school are at risk for starting smoking, so research activities can help make them aware of the dangers and resist peer pressure to start smoking. These students can also spread the word in the community and in their families to help people who are already addicted to seek help in kicking the habit.
Activity: Create a series of essential questions for critical thinking that can help engage students to explore multiple sources for answers and reasoned opinions about smoking. Here are some examples (teachers can create others):
- What are the hazards of smoking?
- What is addiction?
- Why do people smoke even though they know about the hazards?
- What are some of the peer pressures that you will face about starting to smoke?
- How can you avoid or reject the peer pressures?
- What can you do to help the Great American Smokeout in your family and community?
Click the Subject Heading option and type "smoking" in the Search box and then focus on results from the following subjects:
Anti-smoking movement (See: Antismoking movement)
Smoking cessation programs
Smoking, Physiological effect (See: Tobacco, Physiological effect)
Smoking, Psychological aspects (See: Tobacco, Psychological aspects)
Teen smoking (See: Teenagers, Tobacco use)
Passive smoking in children
Passive smoking, Law and legislation
Each student should find two or three articles to help address the questions listed above. Notice that some of the questions require students to form and express reasoned opinions and are not exclusively fact-focused. This is important in raising student achievement in essential skills and should be part of all research activities.
A two-minute oral presentation is recommended because it provides students with valuable experiences in developing standards-based essential skills and overall confidence in presenting their ideas to others. Oral reports can also help other students to learn more about the overall topic.
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Cordially,
Your ProQuest K-12 Team
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