S I D N E Y C I T Y

S C H O O L S

SHS Library News

O C T O B E R , 2 0 1 4 V O L U M E I I I , I S S U E 2

S P E C I A L

P O I N T S O F

I N T E R E S T :

PBS NewsHour

pearltrees

flubaroo

NEWSELA

Science Online

ReadWorks

eGFI

Tech Skills for

Online Testing

Click here to access the Next Generation Assessment Resources

P A G E 2

Hot Stuff: and other things!

PBS NewsHour has a wealth of

educational resources for edu-

cators to use with their stu-

dents. You can search by grade

level and subject area to find

lesson plans that meet your

needs.

PearlTrees—is a place to organ-

ize, explore and share everything

you like. You can organize your

web pages, files, photos and

notes to find them everywhere

(on your computer, smartphone

or tablet) and share them easily.

Do you have a class of students who read at differ-

ent levels? NEWSELA publishes high-interest news

articles daily at five levels of complexity for grades

3-12 using NEWSELA’s proprietary, rapid text-

leveling process. Common Core–aligned quizzes

attached to articles give educators and parents in-

sight into their students’ reading strengths and

weaknesses. NEWSELA develops nonfiction fluen-

cy and critical-thinking skills necessary to master

the Common Core standards for informational text.

S H S L I B R A R Y N E W S

“Education means

inspiring someone’s

mind, not just filling

their head.”

-Katie Lusk

Flubaroo— is a free tool that

helps you quickly grade multi-

ple choice or fill-in-the-blank

assignments. It will also com-

mute average assignment

scores, average scores per ques-

tion, flag low-scoring ques-

tions, create grade distribution

graphs and more!

NEWSELA

Science Online provides reliable information in a variety of useful formats. The content is

organized by subject area and type of resource, as well as by national and state science educa-tion standards. Use Science Online for:

Science Experiments—more than 1,000 experiments and activities

Images, Videos and Animations—more than 6,300 printable diagrams, illustra-tions, and images plus hundreds of videos and flash animations

Biographies—thousands of biographies of key scientists throughout history

State and National Science Education Standards—authoritative content tied di-rectly to the curriculum.

Science Online

P A G E 3 V O L U M E I I I , I S S U E 2

ReadWorks The non-profit ReadWorks is committed to solving the nation's

reading comprehension crisis by giving teachers the research-

proven tools and support they need to improve the academic

achievement of their students.

ReadWorks provides research-based units, lessons, and au-

thentic, leveled non-fiction and literary passages directly to

educators online, for free, to be shared broadly. You can

search by skill and strategy type, unit type and by grade level.

The ReadWorks curriculum is aligned to the Common Core

State Standards and the standards of all 50 states. Most im-

portantly, ReadWorks is faithful to the most effective research-

proven instructional practices in reading comprehension.

eGFI

eGFI promotes and enhances efforts to improve K-12 STEM and engineering education. The interactive

website provides resources for teachers and students. Teachers can find a variety of tools to boost

students’ math and science skills, enliven the classroom with engineering projects an expand their

professional horizons. There are lessons plans, class activities, outreach programs, Web resources and

much more!

Ohio schools are moving toward online assessments for their students which include interactive assessment

items. These interactive assessment items have been enhanced by technology and in order for students to suc-

cessfully complete these online assessments, they will need to be able to perform many technology tasks in-

cluding:

click/tap, scroll, plot points, drag/drop, type with text editor, select object, select text, use video player, select

area, drag/slide, deselect, highlight, use ruler, use calculator, use protractor

It is crucial for students to be proficient using these technological skills before taking the online assessments.

The purpose of the assessments are not to assess technology capabilities, but to assess knowledge of content

area subject matter. The purpose of this Pearltree is to create a place where teachers, librarians, administrators,

parents and students can obtain information on the tech skills for online assessments as well as places to prac-

tice and learn the tech skills listed above. These resources contain interactive online activities that will simu-

late the technological tasks the students will need to complete. Each tab also contains ways to integrate tech-

nology skills into everyday classroom activities.