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Enclosed is this month's free newsletter for SIRS Knowledge Source™ subscribers. This newsletter is designed to help teachers, librarians, and administrators stay informed about the latest changes to their subscriptions, while providing classroom resources and giving tips for using their ProQuest solutions in a variety of settings.
Check out our online archive to read past issues.
In this issue:
- What's New @ SIRS
- Building Young Readers: Reading A-Z
- Applied Learning
- CultureGrams in Focus
- Top 3 Websites
- Free Online Training
- 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.
Revised SIRS Training PowerPoint
Conducting a training session in the new year? Looking for an up-to-date overview of SIRS Knowledge Source (SKS)? Our product managers recently posted a revised PowerPoint presentation that’s sure to meet your needs. This ever-popular proquestk12.com download now sports revised screen captures throughout, updated information about the products that fall under the SKS umbrella, and more. Additional SIRS Decades and SIRS-related updates will be appearing in the coming weeks, so stay tuned to our website for the latest information.
Government Reporter: Presidents Directory
The U.S. Presidents Directory provides a biographical description of each president, as well as information about presidential libraries, burial sites, and families of the presidents. To connect, click the link to SIRS Government Reporter on the main search page, and then click the U.S. Presidents link on the right side under Database Features.
Renaissance's Literary Corner
Don’t miss SIRS Renaissance's Literary Corner! You’ll find a curricular study of prominent authors in every major literary period and region, along with fresh author profiles, including the Grimm Brothers. To connect, click the link to SIRS Renaissance on the main search page, and you’ll see a large Literary Corner link on the right side under Database Features.
ProQuest Professional Development: SIRS & eLibrary
Our professional development training program is a complete package that delivers the key processes to ensure successful program implementation, and the content to support ongoing use and customization across the entire curriculum.
The CEU-eligible program provides educators with research-based technology integration strategies and tools for customizing instruction and assessment using our eLibrary and SIRS online learning solutions. Schools receive the materials they need to build professional development and instructional models that can maximize teacher efficiency and effectiveness, and improve student achievement.
Educators receive rubrics, assessments, activities, and content designed to spur students' information literacy skills, critical thinking, and reading and writing abilities, while increasing their own technology usage. Plus, our flexible model ensures that all instructional staff in a school or system will benefit from the lessons learned.
Our fresh support for our line of SIRS solutions will train your teachers to fuse four types of literacy using SIRS resources with state and national learning standards. Find out more about this new program today--just in time for your spring training dates!
Newest Articles & Graphics
Our editorial team updates SKS 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.
SIRS Leading Issues: This Month's Top 10
Our popular SIRS Leading Issues feature is dynamically updated daily with new content! New topics are added monthly along with "Your Top 10 Choices"--a list solely driven by end-user searches. Here's a list of some of the more commonly accessed topics by our subscribers:
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READING A-Z: BUILDING YOUNG READERS
Each month our Reading A-Z staffers post a special collection of titles on a specific theme. The collections can be used to plan units, identify teaching topics, and easily locate books at various levels.
This month, Reading A-Z features books for younger readers on the topic of who, what, when, where, why, and how.
In addition to the featured special collection, Reading A-Z recently added its monthly new books. They include books about female sports stars, wildlife rescue, animal homes, playing in the park, and planet Earth. Also included are stories about a family that makes a new life in Plymouth, cousins who challenge each other to make the best sweet potato recipe, and a boy whose perennial longing for adventure transports him into a book.
These books are just a fraction of Reading A-Z's nearly 1,600 printable books. The website also offers lesson plans, worksheets, assessments, flashcards, and reader's theater scripts--everything you need to teach reading at a very affordable price. Guided reading, phonics, alphabet, and so much more, all with just the click of a mouse and for only a few pennies per book! Visit Reading A-Z to subscribe today.
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APPLIED LEARNING
The United Nations was born 60 years ago in 1945 at the end of World War II. The UN was created to help prevent future wars, to help nations fight poverty, malnutrition, and disease, and to improve human rights and economic conditions. The UN was the new world answer to the failed attempt to form a "League of Nations" that had similar goals at the end of World War I.
Activity: Recently, the United Nations has been criticized by the United States as failing its mission. Most students know very little about the UN and its mission, so this would be an excellent research activity to pursue especially in the light of the UN "weapons of mass destruction" inspections that preceded the U. S. decision to go to war in Iraq. The goal of the research is to become aware of the many issues and activities that are part of the UN mission and how they have failed or succeeded.
- Type "United Nations" in the Subject Heading search box.
- More than 100 subjects regarding the United Nations will be available for research.
Teachers should assign separate subjects from this listing to each student. This ensures that reports will contain unique kinds of information. Oral reports of two to three minutes provide students with the opportunity to share information and also practice standards-based language arts skills.
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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:
Rhode Island
Did You Know?
- You can get from one end of Rhode Island to the other in less than an hour.
- The oldest schoolhouse in the United States is found in Portsmouth. The school was built in 1716.
- Ann Franklin was America's first woman newspaper editor. She worked for the Newport Mercury.
Geography
Little Rhody (a nickname for Rhode Island) is small. It's the smallest U.S. state, with only 1,545 square miles (4,001 sq km). There is a Texas ranch bigger than all of Rhode Island. Alaska, the largest state, is 425 times as big as this small state. About 60 percent of the land is covered with forests. Many of the trees are canoe birches, which Native Americans used to make canoes. The area east of Narragansett Bay has almost no trees, however. Narragansett Bay is an estuary, or an arm of the ocean cut out by glaciers thousands of years ago. There are more than 30 islands in the bay. You can find rocky peaks, sandy beaches, and flat plains with some salt ponds. These salt ponds are shallow, and the sunlight helps eelgrass and fish to flourish. The northwest part of the state is rocky and forested.
Early Inhabitants
Hundreds of years ago, several Native American tribes lived in Rhode Island. Some were friendly and peaceful, and others were warlike. Two Native American chiefs gave land to Roger Williams, a Puritan minister, which he used to establish Providence in 1636. Williams respected the Native Americans and they respected him. He learned their language and insisted that colonists buy their land instead of taking it. This friendship grew, and the Native Americans were glad the colonists had come. But greed and prejudice eventually caused the settlers to take the land without paying. Tension grew. In 1675, a war called King Philip's War broke out. Thousands of Native Americans were killed during this conflict. Others left and went west. Today, less than 1 percent of the population is Native American.
American Revolution
When England sent troops to crush the rebellion in America, they landed in Newport--where they didn't get a nice welcome. Earlier, Rhode Islanders had burned a British ship, the Gaspee. Once the Revolutionary War began, Rhode Islanders joined in every major battle. General Nathanael Greene, a Rhode Islander, was second in command to General George Washington. The First Rhode Island Regiment, the first-ever all-African-American unit, was one of the bravest. Most of the soldiers were ex-slaves. They fought bravely and won many awards. Ironically, the Rhode Island slave trade was strong before the Revolution. While these brave men fought for freedom from the British, they would still have to fight later for the freedom of all African-Americans from slavery.
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.
Home Plate
Organization: Chuck Bueter
Find a collection of science and art activities using the common paper plate. This site is a good place for teachers or students to get science and art activities or projects. Paper plates have never been so educational.
Magic Eye
Organization: Optometrists Network
The Optometrists Network presents "3-D eye exercises, games, puzzles, eye training, vision therapy, visual perception, binocular vision, depth perception." (OPTOMETRISTS NETWORK)
Science Toymaker
Organization: Slater Harrison
"You have found the non-commercial site for people who like to roll up their sleeves and make fun, mysterious toys that entice scientific investigation. It is a resource for inspired parents, teachers, teenagers, home schoolers and science fair participants." (SLATER HARRISON) Find inexpensive and fun science projects for student of all ages.
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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.
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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