Enclosed is this month's free newsletter for eLibrary® Curriculum Edition 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.
Don't miss our online archive for access to past issues, and to make changes to your newsletter options.
PROQUEST EDUCATION SOLUTION UPDATES
Our product development team is constantly reviewing customer feedback and making changes to our learning resources to meet your needs. Several updates or content additions were recently completed, and we wanted to bring them to your attention.
New eLibrary: Live!
Last month, our family of eLibrary learning solutions received a long-anticipated graphical makeover, which rounded some corners, brightened up colors, tightened up spacing, and in general brought our award-winning platform solidly into 2006.
In addition, several of our advanced search options moved slightly to provide a more streamlined search experience for users at all levels of proficiency.
Have 20-30 minutes to spare? Interested in learning more about your ProQuest subscriptions, integrating content into your classroom or library, or just honing your searching skills?
Our multimedia training modules make it easy to brush up on every aspect of our tools at your own pace. And best of all, our trainers spent the summer updating more than 90% of our modules to match new interfaces, content, user flows, and more.
We recently completed the installation of all-new maps from Cartographica into History Study Center, SIRS Discoverer, and SIRS Researcher.
The collection offers nearly 3,000 maps covering topics in U.S. and World History, from prehistory to the 21st century, via extremely high-quality graphics. Find out more via this PowerPoint presentation!
Feature Reminder: BookCarts & Professional Development
Did you know that BookCarts can also be used in professional development and in-service activities for teachers? Most teachers and librarians assume that BookCarts are intended for student research activities and reading assignments.
Department chairpersons can create BookCarts with articles and websites that help teachers stay current. They can focus on current educational issues and use more than 100 education magazines and journal to select appropriate resources. Or they can create resources that help teachers stay current in their subject area.
This is particularly valuable in science because of the constant and dramatic changes taking place every day. Textbook-only teaching of science is not recommended when the typical science textbook is five years old.
To review the ProQuest Professional Development BookCart collection, use the following procedures.
Let’s face it--no matter how many times we visit our favorite online learning resources, we’re bound to miss a feature or two. This month, our free video podcast focuses on one of the least-known but most useful feature sets of your eLibrary subscription: Search within this topic.
Help your students make the grade with eLibrary. This month, we’ll show you how to harness the power of one of the most helpful advanced searching techniques available within your eLibrary subscription –- topic searching.
Chances are you’ve used eLibrary’s topic search many times. Researchers can click the topics tab to easily find relevant eLibrary resources, as well as editor’s choice websites, linked to tens of thousands of subjects.
Just choose a high-level topic, then continue clicking until you reach a subtopic of interest. Presto – eLibrary resources and vetted educator website links appear. Once researchers reach a subtopic of interest, one of our newest and most powerful advanced searching techniques appear – search within this topic.
Click the red link at the top of the page to continue: Search within this topic. You’ll be sent back to the main search page, and you’ll notice that this subtopic has been added to the advanced search pane. Enter one or more keywords in the search box, along with any additional advanced search parameters you’d like to add, then click search.
Your refined search results will appear. You’ll notice that the results are much more precise.
Try using “search within this topic” today with several queries. We know you’ll find this once-hidden gem a real time saver – both for yourself and time-crunched students.
Now you’re in the know! We hope this month’s tip and trick bring you closer to being a true eLibrary power user. Be sure to sign up for our free video podcast (no iPod necessary!) to stay up-to-date.
Labor Day marks the end of summer and the beginning of fall for most Americans. As we celebrate this day, most of us forget that the standard of living that we enjoy and our large middle class have been created by the efforts of labor unions over the last 150 years.
During the last two decades the union movement has declined significantly. This has led to more competition for jobs, overall lowering of wages, and a need for two-income households to maintain a middle-class standard of living.
History Study Center Activity
Students should be encouraged to research aspects of the history of the labor movement. This will help them understand how collective bargaining created a higher standard of living for the average worker and the largest middle class of any country in the world. Students can also learn how too much labor power and foreign competition in manufacturing led to the fall from power of unions.
Every research activity must include essential questions created by the teacher and/or brainstormed by the students. These questions guide student search and selection of relevant resources to form reasoned opinions on the overall issue. These questions do not have a direct and factual answer, but force/motivate students to use critical thinking and original thought to form conclusions for their final report/presentation. Here are some samples of essential questions (teachers can create others).
Why did workers have to struggle for decades to gain collective bargaining rights?
What are the breakthrough events that led to the unions as we know them today?
How did the government help or resist the collective bargaining movement?
Why did the labor movement and unions begin to lose power and influence?
Here is the procedure to get information on the labor movement and unions:
Click the History icon.
Type labor unions into the Quick Search box.
Click Labor History in America.
Proquest Learning: Literature Activity
Several famous American authors helped create interest in the labor movement by highlighting the abuses of employers and of capitalism in the pursuit of profit over human rights for their employees.
An example of one of these novels is the “The Jungle” by Upton Sinclair. Here are a few other authors as examples: John Steinbeck; Dorothy Richardson; Theodore Dreiser; and Jack London. Your English teacher can provide you with other examples.
Teachers should assign a variety of authors and their works focusing on social issues including the labor movement. Use the Authors Search to locate the author and answer the following essential questions that help focus students on this issue:
Why did this author focus on the labor movement as a social issue worth writing about?
What were some other issues that the author has addressed?
How successful was the author in getting the American public interested in this issue?
Who were some of the other authors who wrote novels about the abuse of workers?
These are examples of essential questions. Teachers should create others as well.
Last week, ProQuest Learning: Literature relaunched with a host of changes and new additions. You can access PQLL via your eLibrary CE subscription by clicking the Literature button on the right side of interface.
NEW CONTENT
Over 200 new author biographies and 60 revisions and updates biographies currently in PQLL. New biographies include:
Ray Young Bear
George Washington Cable
Ciaran Carson
Dante
Tu Fu
Jane Goodall
Amde Hamilton
Abiodun Oyewole
Li Po
Esmeralda Santiago
Lewis Thomas
Gerald Vizenor
Victor Villaseñor
More than 40 authors from Heinemann’s African Writers Series. The first novels published in English by African writers appeared in this series during the early 1960s. Chinua Achebe, author of the novel Things Fall Apart, was its first editor.
NEW LITERARY MOVEMENT PAGES
3 Period Pages: Renaissance, Neoclassicism and Romanticism
3 Literary Movement Pages: The Inklings, Postcolonialism and Hip Hop
The Inklings: A literary group that included authors C.S. Lewis and R.R. Tolkien. This study page has over 20 articles about aspects of the literary movement and over 40 articles about the novels The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia.
Postcolonialism: 8 video clips showing colonial and postcolonial experience. 68 articles about postcolonial literature. Over 180 articles on specific authors or works. 35 NPR interview transcripts.
Hip Hop: Almost 60 articles about hip hop as a literary movement. Over 60 articles about particular hip hop artists; 20 NPR interview transcripts. Wide range of reading levels: articles from newspapers and popular magazines to scholarly journals. Something for the reluctant reader as well as articles for the more advanced students, or even for teachers (lesson planning). The study page articles trace the origins of hip hop poetry in the Black Arts Movement, as well as to the West African griot, a community’s respected storyteller.
The use of source documents offers students a direct glimpse into the past. But without context, these sources can confuse as often as illuminate. SIRS Decades places these resources into a relevant framework for understanding that enriches both the content and student understanding of the material. SIRS Decades features more than 5,000 hand-selected primary and secondary source articles highlighting key events, movements, people, and places in 20th-century America.
"So What?" is a unique SIRS Decades feature. This content is often found in Topic Essays, and helps students relate a historical topic to modern-day issues, encouraging critical thinking and the continued study of history with a “past meets the present” perspective.
Scientific research shows that students learn best when they can relate what they are learning in school with similar issues and problems in their current world. Without this teacher support tool, many lesson plans are focused on memorizing dates, people, and events of history that have limited interest and provide only temporary learning for most students.
Linking to the best of SIRS articles provides the “So What?” feature with engaging and relevant current information to make history come alive, resulting in more interest and an increase in permanent learning and understanding. Don’t miss out on over 100 “So What’s” available within SIRS Decades!
Here are links to several examples. To access the material, sign up for a free trial, login, and then click on each link:
ProQuest LearningPage can make your life easier with a great selection of educational resources for the coming school year. Now is the perfect time to be sure you have everything you need to help make successful learners out of all the young people in your life.
A subscription to any of the ProQuest LearningPage websites will bring thousands of developmentally appropriate resources to your desktop, 24/7, 365 days a year. Our online store of resources is full of books, lessons, worksheets, and other valuable materials. ProQuest LearningPage has quality materials for every reading need and level at very low prices, available at the click of a mouse.
Reading A-Z: Get instant access to thousands of developmentally appropriate books, lesson plans, worksheets, and activities. Print as many copies as you need at any time, all for one low annual price! The website also offers Spanish, French, and U.K. versions of various books.
Vocabulary A-Z: Build hundreds of customized vocabulary lessons to match the subjects you’re teaching. The categorized word bank has approximately 4,000 words to choose from, with more added regularly. Topics include science, social studies, math, health, language arts, music, physical education, and everyday words.
Raz-Kids: Combine kids' love of cartoons with effective reading instruction. Raz-Kids offers interactive books at 17 levels to motivate students and help them learn to read. The website also provides online quizzes, printable worksheets, and an online management system for teachers.
Reading-Tutors: Print hundreds of lessons and materials for use by tutors, parents, or teachers to provide students with extra support in key reading areas, helping them to improve their reading skills.
Download free samples to try out any of these great low-priced products. We've made it easy for you by placing all the samples in one convenient location.
For information on any of the ProQuest LearningPage websites, please call 866.889.3729 or email razsupport@readinga-z.com.
We have everything you need for back to school--quality, affordable educational resources at your fingertips, anytime, anywhere!
PROQUEST® PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT: ELIBRARY & SIRS
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!
CultureGrams can help you broaden your students' understanding of the world and its peoples. Our World Edition includes 190+ 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 70+ 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.
Country:
East Timor (New!)
Capital: Dili
Population: 947,000 (rank=156)
Area, sq. mi.: 5,794 (rank=153)
Area, sq. km.: 15,007
Real GDP per capita: $400
Adult literacy rate: 59%
Infant mortality rate: 87 per 1,000 births
Life expectancy: 55 (male); 57 (female)
Did You Know?
After a long independence struggle, East Timor achieved nationhood in 2002.
East Timorese families are generally large, with seven children on average.
A prospective groom's family usually pays a bride-price of money, alcohol, and livestock to the bride's family.
A major spectator activity is cockfighting, in which opposing roosters are agitated into fighting to the death.
Religion
About 90 percent of East Timorese practice Roman Catholicism. The remainder of the population consists of Protestants (5 percent), Muslims (3 percent), Buddhists, Hindus, and animists. East Timorese of all religions continue to perform animist ceremonies that honor their ancestors. In rural areas, members of a community pool a large portion of their assets to construct an uma-lulik, a traditional sacred house in which artifacts belonging to their ancestors are kept. When a person dies, family members hold a series of ceremonies to honor the deceased: the ai-funan moruk (held seven days after a funeral), ai-funan midar (held fourteen days after the funeral), and kore-metan (held on the first anniversary of the person's death, ending the mourning period).
Personal Appearance
Urban men and women generally wear Western-style clothing. For formal occasions, such as a church service, men wear pants and short-sleeved shirts; women wear blouses, skirts or dresses, and high-heeled shoes. Otherwise, people wear jeans and T-shirts. Ties are uncommon; a man usually wears a tie only on his wedding day. People in rural areas are more likely to wear traditional clothing. For men, this consists of a shirt with a lipa (a type of sarong). In some areas, men might also wear a cloth headwrap. Women wear a lipa and a kabaia, a long-sleeved blouse pinned together in the front.
Diet
Rice is the main staple in East Timor. Other staples are cassava, potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, yams, taro, sago, and breadfruit. Urban people might eat bread for breakfast, but cassava and sweet potatoes are common breakfast foods in rural areas. For lunch and dinner, a typical meal consists of rice with modo-fila (stir-fried vegetables) and salad. Another common dish is feijoada (also called koto-da'an), a soup made of red kidney beans. Rural people often eat batar-da'an (stewed sweet corn with vegetables).
Recreation
Cockfighting is a major spectator activity. Opposing roosters, each with a razor-sharp blade tied to one leg, are pushed against one another to agitate them into fighting to the death. Betting is a critical component of the event. The owner of the winning rooster receives his betting winnings as well as the body of the losing rooster. Cockfighting is considered a man's game, so women do not participate. Fighting roosters are beloved pets for many men, particularly the elderly.
To find out more about CultureGrams, connect to our website today.
Each month, our SIRS® WebSelect and SIRS® 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.
"Achoo! Every time you go near your best friend's cat, your eyes water and you start sneezing up a storm. And every spring and fall, your dad gets a runny nose when he takes you for hikes in the woods. What's going on? Well, you and your dad may have allergies." (NEMOURS FOUNDATION)
"Earthquakes are among the most destructive natural events. Use this animated guide to see how they happen." (BBC)
Brain Geography
Organization: Public Broadcasting Service (PBS)
"What about your brain? It's with you everyday. It regulates your breathing, tells your feet when to walk or run, and allows you to be happy and sad. But where exactly inside your head does all that stuff happen? With a little help from your hands, a friend, a small ball, and a pencil, you can become your own brain geographer, and find out." (PBS) Click on the link to "brain geography" to learn the structure of the brain, using your hands as a model.
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.
What features of eLibrary CE do you and your students find the most useful? Have you recently used or are planning to use eLibrary 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.
FORWARD TO A COLLEAGUE + EMAIL SERVICE INFORMATION
Increase the usage of your digital learning solutions! 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.
ProQuest offers a growing family of K-12 classroom-focused,
subscription-based online research tools. Many of these education solutions offer reading level-linked
(lexile) content, support
21st-century information
literacy skills, and help schools differentiate instruction across all curriculum areas.
Learn more about all of our tools here, tap into our training resources and videos, and don't miss our new eLibrary research tool (more). We also have a pair of special resource pages just for teachers (with lesson plans) and librarians.
Let’s face it--no matter how many times we visit our favorite online learning resources, we’re bound to miss a feature or two. This month, our free video podcast focuses on one of the least-known but most useful feature sets of your eLibrary subscription: 
The use of source documents offers students a direct glimpse into the past. But without context, these sources can confuse as often as illuminate. SIRS Decades places these resources into a relevant framework for understanding that enriches both the content and student understanding of the material. SIRS Decades features more than 5,000 hand-selected primary and secondary source articles highlighting key events, movements, people, and places in 20th-century America.
ProQuest LearningPage can make your life easier with a great selection of educational resources for the coming school year. Now is the perfect time to be sure you have everything you need to help make successful learners out of all the young people in your life.
Country:
