Library challenge -- Lesson 2 SIRS

SIRS Discoverer

1. Sirs Discoverer -- I decided to continue with my manatee research. The reading levels on the 103 articles I found were from young kids (Ranger Rick) to high school and adult level (National Geographic World). I like that you can look at all the articles at once or at the tabs which divided the search into newspaper articles, magazines, reference, web-finds and a tab for pictures. This is particularly helpful when you have to have several different sources in an essay you might be writing for school where you are not allowed to only use one book or one website. I am assuming that pictures have permission to be printed or used for educational purposes which would make illustrating a PowerPoint or word document easier than trying to find copyright or public domain pictures.

2. SIRS Discoverer Database Features.

• Country Facts -- The database offers information on population, geography and weather, history and resources for you to be able to find additional information. It also has a summary you can click on the top if all you need are simple facts. I do like that it offers teacher resources such as 3 levels of graphic organizers and you are able to have the article emailed to you.
  
• Maps of the World -- The advantage of being able to print these maps allow you to have a scavenger hunt for facts with your class, weather you want to use it for finding cities locations, historical facts or a collection of several different "hunts." I particularly love the outline maps and I know will be using them with my class at the beginning of term. No more looking for a suitable map now that I know this resource exists =)
• Photo Essays -- I chose this topic in thinking about an ELL learner pictures always help with trying to figure out a text. This section had several different topics including one about endangered species which the manatee is on that list. This section has short articles with a picture. The length of the articles i looked at seems appropriate for use with ELL learners or for a student who does not need much information just a sampling of facts or an idea to incorporate into a longer text the student has been working .

SIRS Issues Researcher

1. I chose racial profiling in the leading issues. The topic overview can be expanded and it gives the student a sampling of the information related to the topic chosen. Your search has information from several sources from newspaper articles to web references as well as political cartoons. I thought the pro/con issues where both sides are given is a good idea and can be used for further discussion in the classroom as well as used for debating the chosen topic allowing students to see issue from all sides and being better informed of their choices.

2. Curriculum Pathfinders -- I really like this feature of SIRS, it has a wide range of coverage on the subjects covered in school. I chose Spanish under language arts. I was impressed with the variety of help found in this area, it even had one of the sites i used frequently in my classes the BBC Spanish website. It also had a link for a website which I plan on using in the coming term, I have been looking for a phonetic alphabet site with sound bites for students to practice the alphabet. It also had a variety of other sources to choose from and it included a suggestion for Spanglish.