Lesson 4: SIRS Discoverer and SIRS Researcher

Basic Discovery Exercise:

1.  I looked up ocelot in the SIRS Disoverer search box, and it gave me fifty different options to check out including 4 newspapers, 27 magazines, 13 reference sources, and 5 graphics. The ones with the camera icon do have pictures of the cat.  12 of the articles would be on a typical elementary school student's lexile range (1st to 5th).  Of course the articles can be used in many ways and all would not necessarily have to be read completely in order to find out information about the ocelot.

2.  In Country Facts, I selected St. Kitts and Nevis.  According to SIRS Discoverer, "St. Kitts and Nevis is the smallest independent nation in the Western Hemisphere." I thought it was interesting that the country didn't gain its independence from Great Britain until 1983 and that St. Kitts was earlier named by Christopher Columbus.  

Next, I looked at the map for St. Kitts and Nevis under the maps of the world link in the Database Features section.  For teaching purposes, I could ask students to find out from the map what body of water this country lies in, what is the country's capital city's name,  or what other countries besides Great Britain colonized in this area.  

I also selected the Fiction section of the Database features.  This is a great way to add fiction from literary magazines to the classroom/library that don't fit into the school or library's budget.  I found a story called "The Perfect Valentine," by Teresa A. DiNcola and illustrated by Marsha Winborn, which could be used this week!  There are topics and subtopics listed to the right hand side of the screen that allow you to narrow your search, too.

Works Cited
"St. Kitts and Nevis." SIRS Discoverer: Country Facts. 2013: n.p. SIRS Discoverer. Web. 08 Feb. 2014.


SIRS Issues Researcher

1. I clicked on "Marijuana, Law and legislation" in the Pro vs. Con Leading Issues section of SIRS Issues Researcher. It has an overview of the topic under "At Issue:" and has sides for and against and major arguments under "Pro/Con Issues and Essential Questions." Sources are broken down into newspapers, magazines, viewpoints, reference, graphics, and webselect sites. These can be sorted either by date, or lexile level. The research tools are interesting with the little icons such as the timeline, statistics, or note organizer. All of these would be beneficial for 6 through 12 grade in research skills and report writing.

2. Under "Curriculum Pathfinders," I selected Algebra. It has a wide variety of information on the subject, such as articles on whether or not the subject is required for high school graduation, a dictionary/encyclopedia entry defining the subject, as well as summaries and addresses for websites that can help you practice your algebra skills online.




Common Core Connections

• Strand: Informational Text
• Anchor Standard: Integration of Knowledge
• Grade Level: 5

5.R.1.7 Draw on information from multiple print or digital sources, demonstrating the ability to locate an answer to a question quickly or to solve a problem efficiently.

In teaching this standard, I would want students to be able to "identify multiple credible sources" and "use digital sources to locate information to answer a question and solve a problem" as it is written in the I Can statement versions of the standard.

I would ask students to provide 3 facts on the 2014 Winter Olympics from three credible digital sources using SIRS Discoverer. If they type in "Winter Olympics 2014 in the search box, they will get 30 results broken down into newspapers, magazines, reference, graphics, and webFind sites. If they chose a graphic, they could include a picture of the Laura Biathlon and Ski Complex in Souchi, Russia, to share the location of the games. If they chose a webFind site, they could watch a video on how athletes train for the Winter Olympics in a certain sport (snowboard cross, for example). In they chose a magazine article, they could tell about how female ski jumpers will get to copete at the Olympic games (from ScienceSpin magazine). This lesson could follow lessons on using SIRS and its features and how to decide if a source digital or print is credible. It is nice for teachers and librarians to have the common core link so you can quickly check standards in the grade level you are preparing for. The standard I chose above, 5.R.1.7, would go along with Fifth Grade's Reading Content Standards Indicator 5: Students can access, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate informational texts.