"The Best Resources For Learning Research & Citation Skills
September 24, 2009 by Larry Ferlazzo | 8 Comments
This "The Best…" list is sort of a combination of two lists I had been thinking of making to go along with The Best Online Resources To Teach About Plagiarism (Another list to keep in mind might be The Best Reference Websites For English Language Learners - 2008).
The more I thought about it, though, the more I felt that a list of engaging (and even fun) sites to teach research skills and accessible citation resources would make a good combination.
Since a graduation requirement in our district is that seniors need to develop a "Senior Project," I've spent some time finding these kinds of helpful sites that might be accessible to English Language Learners. I have to say, though, that these sites (except for the first one) would probably only be accessible to more advanced ELL's.
Here are my choices for The Best Resources For Learning Research And Citation Skills:
LEARNING RESEARCH SKILLS:"
"Anyone can use LeveledLibrary without registering for a free account. However, registered users have access to many features that are not availble to the unregistered users. Most notably, registered users can:
Everyone
Keep an inventories of the books you own and their levels
Specify the leveling system in which you want the book levels displayed.
Print labels for your leveled books in popular label sizes
View book details, such as binding, dewey decimal number, suggested categories, and cover images
Keep books in your shopping cart across multiple computers
All Educators
Search the inventories of colleagues at your school
Vote on book levels for books in the system
Manage Courses and Track Student Lending
Access reports about your classroom library
Administrators
Purchase and unlock reports:
See what books are in your school
Analyze how well a teacher's library matches the students in the class
Track student reading growth over time
See how well your students are picking books on their reading
level"
This is one of the oldest publically accessible U.S. repositories of education resources on the web. It contains a variety of educational resource types from activities and lesson plans to online projects to assessment items.
There is a free trial version of the materials in the National Library of virtual manipulatives. Math topics Numbers and Operations, Algebra, Geometry, Measurement and Data Analysis & Probablity are covered. I did not come across anything asking for money so I a not certain there is a cost. There are tons of manipulatives to access from each of the above categories. This site is associated with the Uta State University.
TeAchnology is a site that has tons of resources for teachers. There are worksheets, lesson plans, rubrics, teacher resources, printables, tools, tips and there is a membership option. Some of the materials are available free as samples but if you want access to all of them I believe it is 29.99 a year.
Studyblue is a free tool that allows users to create flashcards, quizzes, and lecture notes and share them with others. Teachers can set up a "class" and give students a code, and everyone with the code can create collaborative study materials. There are mobile phone apps that the students can use to take their flashcards and notes anywhere. They can access their files offline. StudyBlue also sends helpful test and study reminders via email and text message.
The Purple Teapot is a blog created by retired teacher and technology integrator, Sue Shaffer. Sue provides weekly prompts for students to respond to. This blog is geared toward kids. She loves comments from the students.
I know Sue Shaffer. She is a retired teacher and technology integrator from Central York. Sue has started this blog to encourage students to continue to write. Check it out. Maybe you could have your students respond to some of the prompts that Sue has created. Students can access this from home or school.