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Enclosed is this month's free newsletter for SIRS Discoverer® and SIRS® Discoverer WebFind subscribers. This newsletter is designed to help teachers, librarians, and administrators stay informed about the latest changes to their subscription(s), while providing classroom resources and giving tips for using their ProQuest solutions in a variety of settings.
Check out our online archive for access to past issues.
In this issue:
- What's New @ SIRS
- SIRS Content Selection Process Explained
- Classroom Activities
- Vocabulary Lesson Generator
- Reading A-Z: Building Young Readers
- CultureGrams in Focus
- Top 3 Websites
- Free Online Training Courses
- Call for User Testimonials
- Email Service Information
WHAT'S NEW @ SIRS
Our product development team is constantly reviewing customer feedback and making changes to our learning resources to meet your needs. Several updates to our SIRS family of products were recently completed and we wanted to bring them to your
attention.
Map Activities
Did you know that your Discoverer subscription also provides map activities geared for the younger researcher, from noteworthy sources including Scholastic News, Junior Scholastic, and Current Events?
Students can learn how to read and decipher varied types of maps, and answer discussion questions based on their observations.
Visit a sampling of the following articles to learn more:
Fresh Sample Searches: Live!
Conducting an upcoming training session? On the hunt for laser-focused sample searches to highlight the best content inside your subscriptions?
Look no farther than our all-new sample search collection. Connect to www.proquestk12.com, click the Training & Support tab at the top of any page, then select the name of your solution subscription. You’ll see a link to our new Sample Searches document!
Political Cartoons in Discoverer
Discoverer provides political cartoons geared for the younger researcher, from noteworthy sources including Junior Scholastic, Scholastic News, New York Times Upfront and Current Events.
Students can learn how to read and decipher political cartoons, as well as understand the writing devices employed in them (satire, irony, metaphor, etc.). In a hurry? The quickest route to all of our political cartoons is Database Features, Activities, Editorial Cartoons. Here’s just a few timely examples to get you started:
Subject Tree Updates
At SIRS, we're continually reviewing the Discoverer and WebFind Subject Trees to provide a more comprehensive search function that reflects the carefully selected content available in the database. Visit ACTIVITIES in the Database Features to access new articles and activities relating to Editorial Cartoons, Pro/Con discussions, and Maps.
Current Events
Our editorial team updates our SIRS products every day with new articles and resources. Here's a short list of the timeliest and most topical articles added to your product this month. Publication dates may vary due to the editorial selection process.
Suggested Research Topics
Tens of thousands of students mine SIRS resources for the latest information on the leading issues of the day. To help maximize their research time, our Suggested Research Topics feature offers instant access to relevant articles and resources on many of the most popular research subjects.
Here's this month's list of hot topics and timely issues in Discoverer:
Caffeine
Cloning Animals
Global Warming
Iraq
Ocelots
Phillis Wheatley
Stepfamilies
Synesthesia
Tennis
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CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
April provides a variety of themes of the month that focus on health, wellness, disease prevention, and cures. Here are a few samples:
- Alcohol Awareness
- Autism Awareness
- Cancer Control
- Injury Prevention
- Parkinson’s Awareness
- Physical Wellness
- STD Education and Awareness
- Stress Awareness
Activity: Click the icon for Health & Human Body, then note the list of Topics/subtopics that relate to health, wellness, and disease:
- AIDS/HIV
- Cancer
- Death & Dying
- Eating Disorders
- Environmental Health
- First Aid & Safety
- Food, Drink & Nutrition
- Health Care
- Health Care Providers
- Medicine
- Mental Health
- Physical Conditions, Diseases & Disorders
- Physical Health & Fitness
- Transplants & Amputations
Assign each student a different topic and have them prepare an oral report of two minutes to share with their fellow students. Each report should be based on and cite at least two different resources. Oral reports provide an opportunity to develop standards-based essential language arts skills and also digital information literacy skills.
Provide Essential Questions to motivate students to integrate critical thinking in their research and reporting. Here are some examples; teachers should create additional ones especially if students are assigned the same topics.
Disease Topics
What causes this disease?
How can it be prevented?
What are some recent treatments or cures that work?
Healthy Living Topics
How can this strategy help make people healthy?
Why don’t more people follow this strategy?
Health Care Topics
Why don’t many people have adequate health care?
What are some new ways that help people to get well?
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SIRS CONTENT SELECTION PROCESS
Our ProQuest SIRS team prides themselves on selecting only the best and most relevant resources for your SIRS electronic education solutions and SIRS print information systems. SIRS research staff selects articles, government documents, and websites that reflect both the enduring and current issues of the topics represented in our products.
How SIRS Selects Content
The articles, documents, and Web sites selected for inclusion on the SIRS databases are chosen from 1,600+ sources that include domestic and international newspapers, magazines, journals and government publications.
SIRS compiles the best research information provided by all of these sources into print and online databases for schools and libraries that do not have the resources to subscribe to all these sources themselves. Choosing the best research information from thousands of sources is a daunting task. Such a task can only be accomplished by an expert research staff.
SIRS research team is composed of more than 40 professionals with diverse educational backgrounds. Many members of the SIRS staff possess advanced degrees in disciplines such as: Economics, English, Religion, History, Political Science, Sociology, Business, Education, Journalism and Library Science.
Additionally, there are a number of trained educators on staff with teaching experience in public, private and international schools. These educators lend valuable insight into today's educational needs and priorities.
Selection Process
Every article is personally reviewed and hand indexed before it is included in a SIRS solution. First, our staff researchers meet each week to look at material which discusses current events and enduring issues. When sifting through thousands of sources, the research staff attempts to select only the best for inclusion.
We look for sources that:
- include well-documented information
- include the latest information on ever-changing fields
- include issues of both local and global importance
- examine a wide variety of viewpoints
- use graphics to help clarify information
- are clear, comprehensive, reliable, and relevant
- avoid needless duplication
Next, the articles selected by our staff researchers are compiled into topics, which are then hand indexed according to Library of Congress and Reader's Guide subject headings. Finally, the new content is dynamically added to the databases to ensure that every search provides the most current and relevant information available.
To learn more, visit our K-12 website today!
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PROQUEST LEARNING PAGE: BUILDING YOUNG READERS
"LearningPage is an amazing website… The activities and worksheets are fun and engaging, and there is such a broad range to cater to each child's individual interests and abilities."
-- Kersten Firth, Educator & Mom of Three
LearningPage is celebrating spring with special activities in honor of all of April's events and happenings--National Poetry Month, baby animals, life cycles, Earth Day, and Arbor Day. Check out these fun activities:
- Butterfly math
- Earth Day bingo
- An Arbor Day connect-the-dots
- A recycling activity
- An acrostic lion poem
- And more!
You'll also find three great printable books in this month's
Spring-Fun activities:
Rocks, in which readers discover how rocks transform from mountains into dust
Introducing Planet Earth, a humorous look at how Earth sustains life, day becomes night, seasons change, and more
Tommy and the Great Wall, an adventure in China with Tommy and his friends
Next month, LearningPage will celebrate "Marvelous May" with an assortment of activities related to Clean Air Month, Get Caught Reading Month, and Memorial Day.
All of the thousands of resources at Learning Page are free! If you aren't already a member, register today for access to all the materials at Learning Page. It's quick and easy!
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VOCABULARY LESSON GENERATOR
Finally, educators can generate customized vocabulary lessons with VocabularyA-Z.com, a new website from ProQuest LearningPage. Now you can meet all your classroom vocabulary needs with one great resource!
- Build thousands of customized vocabulary lessons
- Match the subjects you're teaching--science, social studies, arts, health, language, sports, music, and more
- Build lessons to provide materials for a full week of learning
- Get vocabulary lesson plans, assessments, graphic organizers, worksheets, activities, games, and assessments.
- Access the materials from any computer, anytime
- All for an introductory price of less than $30 a year per teacher
Try out Vocabulary A-Z for free, and take advantage of great introductory pricing!
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CULTUREGRAMS™ IN FOCUS
CultureGrams can help you broaden your students' understanding of the world and its peoples. Our World Edition includes 187 country profiles, written for junior high students and older. CultureGrams also has a Kids Edition and a States Edition, geared for upper elementary students. These editions include kid-friendly profiles of 68 countries and all 50 states, plus the District of Columbia.
CultureGrams goes beyond mere facts and figures to deliver an insider's perspective on daily life and culture, including the history, customs, and lifestyles of the world's people.
State: North Carolina
Did You Know?
- The Diamond Shoals, off the coast of Cape Hatteras, are nicknamed the Graveyard of the Atlantic because of the hundreds of shipwrecks in the area.
- Legends say that Nags Head got its name from colonists who would hang a lantern from a horse's neck and walk it up and down the shore to attract ships. When the ships wrecked on the reefs, the colonists would steal the cargo.
- The Venus's-flytrap, a plant native to North Carolina, traps and eats insects and other small living things.
Geography
North Carolina is the 28th largest state, with 53,821 square miles (139,396 sq km). From east to west, the land slopes upward. In the very east are the Outer Banks, a thin string of islands that runs along the state's coastline. The Outer Banks protect the mainland from eroding but can be dangerous to sailors. Along the coast, you can find long stretches of sandy beaches, swamps, and even quiet lagoons. This eastern portion is called the Coastal Plain.
If you travel west from this area, you will hit the Fall Line, where the land rises sharply. There are beautiful waterfalls and river rapids there. Farther west, a hilly region known as the Piedmont Plateau rises about 250 to 1,250 feet (76–381 m) higher than the Coastal Plain. Red clay comes from this area, often coloring the lakes and rivers that pass through it. In the westernmost part of the state are the Appalachian Mountains, where the soil is rocky and thin
The Lost Colony
In 1585, Sir Walter Raleigh sent settlers to start a colony on Roanoke Island. This first colony ended in failure, and most of the settlers sailed back to England. But 18 men were left behind to maintain England's claim to the land. When new colonists returned two years later, these 18 men were nowhere to be found. Eventually, the colony's governor returned once more to England for additional supplies, leaving more than one hundred colonists. He came back three years later and everyone was gone again. To this day, no one knows what happened to the settlers, which is why that early settlement is called the Lost Colony.
The Long Road to Equality
After the Civil War had ended and slavery was abolished, African-Americans still weren't really free. Many states, including North Carolina, passed Black Codes, laws that drastically limited the freedoms of African-Americans. And many former slaves remained in financial bondage to plantation owners. Laws were also made to segregate the races, but African-American facilities were usually in poor condition. In 1954, when the Supreme Court said schools had to desegregate, white supremacist groups like the Ku Klux Klan resisted, often violently. By the 1980s, most schools and universities were desegregated. Although North Carolina still struggles with race issues, open-minded men and women of all races have made great efforts to bring equality to all.
To find out more about CultureGrams, connect to our website today.
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TOP 3 WEBSITES
Each month, our SKS WebSelect™ and Discoverer WebFind™ editorial teams scour the Internet for top-quality sites that help teachers teach and students learn. Although no Internet site can supplant a quality research database, these vetted resources offer unique resources that are sure to be of interest.
Underdogs
Organization: Public Broadcasting Service (PBS)
"Holly and Herbie were renegade youths. Troubled and defiant, they were shuttled from home to home throughout their young lives; no family could manage their unruly conduct. But finally, each found someone who saw that beneath their mischievous veneers were two highly intelligent and gifted animals." (PBS) Read the touching story of two dogs given a second chance to prove their worth. Also, learn about six breeds of working dog and the amazing abilities of bloodhounds.
Ready Kids
Organization: U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
"Are you ready to put your planning skills to good use? Are you ready to help your family get prepared for the unexpected? Your family can use this Web site to create a plan that will help you be ready for many different kinds of unexpected situations!" (DHS) Learn to prepare for natural or manmade disasters through careful planning.
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Organization: British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
William Shakespeare's classic play (featuring fairies, magic, practical jokes and love) is retold here in a shortened version for children. The story is beautifully animated and retains some of the poetry and merry mischief of the original. The Macromedia Flash player is required to view this site.
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FREE TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES
Our ProQuest product trainers are standing by to help you get the most out of your subscription--and learn more about our other digital learning resources! We offer a wide variety of online training sessions each month.
Plus, all attendees can easily obtain a Certificate of Attendance (right) for any of our online courses! The certificate documents the course name, amount of class time, date, and verifies attendance. You can use the certificate to document attendance in the class and submit it along with the additional documentation your school district requires to award you with continuing education credits.
Be sure to tell your trainer that you would like to receive a certificate via email at the start of each class. They’ll be glad to help!
You can download three ready-to-print versions of forthcoming training dates and times in PDF format.
Our training sessions cover after-school hours within several time zones. Best of all, there's no cost to participate. All you need is a computer with Internet access, a phone, and one hour.
Register for a course!
You may also sign up for a timely enewsletter to receive training dates each month via email as soon as they're available.
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CALL FOR USER TESTIMONIALS
What features of your SIRS subscription do you and your students find the most useful? Have you recently used or are you planning to use SIRS as part of an assignment or student research project? How do you and other curriculum leaders in your institution use your ProQuest educational resources?
Share your experiences with peers working in schools across the country and around the world--through an upcoming Product News Bulletin! We're waiting to hear from you. Please send your ideas and stories to: tim.mclain@il.proquest.com
If we choose your submission, we'll contact you for additional information and permission to use your story in a future issue.
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FORWARD TO A COLLEAGUE + EMAIL SERVICE INFORMATION
Increase the usage of your digital learning resources! Our forward to a friend service makes it easy to instantly send this product bulletin--and all the great ideas and information it contains--to others in your subscribing institution with a click of your mouse.
Also, be sure to encourage them to sign up for our SIRS, CultureGrams, ProQuest, ProQuest Historical Newspapers, eLibrary, eLibrary Curriculum Edition, and additional enewsletters as appropriate.
To change your email address, sign up for additional newsletter titles, or modify your subscription settings, click here.
Cordially,
Your ProQuest K-12 Team
Your SIRS license agreement gives us permission to send you email about product upgrades, special offers, and new services. If you'd like to discontinue receiving these messages, you may unsubscribe. If you have any questions or are having difficulty, please send email to Tim McLain. Thanks for your interest in SIRS and ProQuest!
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