Must-Have Programs

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Three resources that are sure to make you look good

By Shonda Brisco -- School Library Journal, 09/01/2006

Regardless of how many resources are available within the school library, there always seems to be just a handful of "must-have" programs that make the instructional process more productive and enjoyable. Here are three worth considering this school year.

Grades PreS–12+

Cost School and district licenses range from $325 a year for one school to $4000 per year for 200 schools. University/teacher training institutes, public library, and individual subscriptions are also available.

The Big Picture TeachingBooks is the work of founder, Nick Glass, whose experiences as an educator, an independent bookseller, and later as the events coordinator at a local bookstore, inspired him to create this online Web site. TeachingBooks allows educators, students, librarians, and parents not only to learn more about their favorite books but also to become enveloped and inspired by the “behind the scenes” activities, thoughts, and ideas used by authors and illustrators to develop their works.

Each book showcased in TeachingBooks provides the opportunity to become engaged in a virtual experience of the author’s life, personal background, and ideas; the illustrator’s style, techniques, and works; or additional resources to extend the reading experience. With multimedia resources that allow users to watch an author interview or an illustrator at work, TeachingBooks let’s all students learn more about the creative experience and the work involved in creating their favorite book. While the experiences may be virtual, the opportunity to examine a healthy list of more than 6,500 titles for preschool through high school will bring to life the excitement of reading for students at all levels, whether they are in the library, the classroom, or at home.

Look & Feel The Web site is colorfully organized in sections that make access easy for students and adults. A top banner provides various information links such as the Educator’s Area, How to Search, Training, and Support. Below, the dashboard features the major areas within the Web site: Author Programs, Book Guides, Book Readings, and Author Web sites. Each of these links provides in-depth Web pages filled with resources.

In the two major columns below the dashboard are the brief introductory examples explaining how TeachingBooks works and a Search Box. The latter allows users to immediately search by Author, Title, or Keyword, or perform an Advanced Search. The Advanced feature leads users to another Web page with a wide variety of search options. Among those searchable fields are Grade Levels, Subject Areas, and Genre. In both the simple and advanced search, a Quick Search provides a drop-down box with lists such as What’s New?, Spanish books, Series, Canadian, and a few state-award lists (such as the current Texas Bluebonnet and the Florida Sunshine lists).

On the bottom right-hand side of the page, librarians can e-mail access instruction to other educators or even parents. Below the e-mail box is a Printable Bookmark link to automatically create a page of four bookmarks that can be copied for distribution. Each one lists the Web site address, directions for accessing the database, and the universal password used by the school or district.

There are three individual boxes on the bottom of the page: Integrate Books, Educators Area, and Author Programs. The Integrate Books link provides educators with examples of how to incorporate books into the curriculum or specific subject areas; the Educators Area link provides a Web page that lists additional resources such as Author Programs, Book Guides, Book Readings, Thematic Booklists, Book Awards, and Valuable Links; and the Author Programs link provides a list of original, comprehensive, in-studio author programs that are viewable via the TeachingBooks Web site. These programs feature a projectable movie, interactive slide show, and in-depth written interviews with authors such as Avi, Sharon Creech, Christopher Paul Curtis, Rosemary Wells, Leo and Diane Dillon, and others.

How It Works One of the most impressive things about TeachingBooks is the amount of instruction, in-service, and user assistance that is available. TeachingBooks not only provides user assistance on the Helpful User Tips page, which alphabetically lists topics ranging from ADA Compliance (by the way, the Web site is in compliance with Section 508 and is monitored by the Bobby validator) to Valuable Link Category Descriptors (information about the links within the database), but it also provides librarians with a descriptive, step-by-step outline and presentation scripts to share during an in-service program.

Students and teachers can easily search for their favorite books by performing a simple or advanced search on the home page or browse the Author Programs, Book Guides, Book Readings, or Author Web sites.

The Author Programs contain 1,647 presentations and are divided into elementary or high school levels. Each program allows students to virtually meet authors or illustrators through either a brief online video (available in either Microsoft Media Player or QuickTime formats for broadband or dial-up) or a slide-show presentation. Users can check their computer for necessary software and TeachingBooks provides links to download free software. Viewers should find the program user-friendly since it supports a variety of Internet browsers including Explorer for Mac and PC, Netscape, AOL, Firefox, and Safari.

The Book Guide page provides discussion guides, activity ideas, and literary extensions for approximately 6,770 different titles, divided by elementary or middle and high school levels. By choosing a level, users can browse the list of titles by author, title, subject, grade level, or Web site of the book guide creator. Even though most of the book activity guides are not created by TeachingBooks but rather link to educational or publisher Web sites, the ability to browse one site is a whole lot easier than searching each title online.

The Book Readings page provides audio excerpts of titles read by authors, professional actors, and others. With over 1,360 readings, divided by elementary or middle and high school, users can search by author, title, narrator, subject, grade, or creator. Audio creations are provided by companies such as Scholastic, HarperChildren’s Audio, BooksOnTape®/Listening Library, and others.

Finally, the Authors Web site page provides an alphabetical list of official sites of authors and illustrators. Most users would be happy enough with the listings of favorite authors such as Judy Blume and J.K. Rowling, but this site features more unique writers and illustrators such as Crescent Dragonwagon and Antoine De Saint-Exupery.

For Students & Teachers Starting with a simple search, most students and teachers should be able to locate a title from the home page by entering the author, title, or keyword. By using the Quick Search, a selected list of titles can also be found; however, neither the Newbery nor Caldecott award lists made the Quick Search list. Other well-known lists (such as the Coretta Scott King Awards, the Printz Awards, or the Alex Awards) were not included in the Quick Search list either.

Regardless of the lack of list availability, a search for this year’s Newbery Award recipient, Criss Cross by Lynne Rae Perkins, provided one author program listing from NPR that includes an author’s interview and two book guides with reader questions, follow-up activities, and resource links.

A search for newer titles such as Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief or Lois Ehlert’s Leaf Man provided excellent results with both titles located and resources available.

A Quick Search for Spanish titles provided a listing of 13 Author Programs, 161 Book Guides, 29 Book Readings (some audio formats in both English and Spanish), and 16 Author Web sites.

Report Card TeachingBooks.net receives an A for providing a quick, easy, and user-friendly interface that helps students and teachers locate great book, author, and illustrator resources. Overall, TeachingBooks.net provides a virtual author’s visit experience, book club discussion resource, and literary study program that lends itself to use by students, teachers, parents, and librarians.

Grades K–12+

Cost A onetime sign-up fee of $99; yearly subscription $119; upgrade to QLists! $149.

The Big Picture QuizList Interactive is the “ah-ha” moment for those who use Accelerated Reader (AR), but have never truly been able to make their book test lists meet the needs of every user. In the past, most librarians became frustrated with the continual updating, sorting, printing, or uploading to the library Web site of an unending list of AR books and tests available for students. Aside from being outdated the minute a new test was purchased, the ability to search a static list of titles by interests, reading level, or genre was a time consuming process…until now.

Created by now-retired librarian Jo Lewis, QuizList Interactive allows students and teachers the opportunity to search for title tests without scanning a lengthy catalog. After working on the project with her husband and creating a rudimentary program, Lewis met Chip Switzer, an interested parent and former Microsoft software developer, who helped develop what is now a fully-interactive quiz list database.

Look & Feel QuizList Interactive allows each library to import its own test records to create a Web site that is fully maintained by the company. The look and content is as individual as the school library collection itself because only tests and titles that the library owns are in the database. In addition, the database offers the ability to search for book titles or tests based on Library of Congress catalog information, so data elements such as subjects, genres, series, and book summaries can be easily located.

The program provides two versions. Basic allows search functionality and printing only, while Plus provides book lists, ratings, and added printing features such as a “book bag” that allows users to insert specific titles from their searches into one list. Customized lists can be created by QuizList Interactive administrators at each school to develop book lists for specific classes or required reading assignments. Other customized options allow pictures to be uploaded to personalize school Web pages.

Each QuizList Interactive Web site provides the school library’s name with a standard banner that has links to options such as Search, Book Lists, Printer List, My Stuff, and Help. A left-hand side banner provides a Home link which can be set to the school’s Web site and a Return to Library link which can bring users back to the library’s site. A total list of tests within the database provides users with the ability to see how many title tests are immediately available.

Below the banner is a simple search box that allows users to select various search preferences such as Author, Title, Subject, Book Level, Points, Fiction or Non-Fiction categories, Interest Level, or Language (English or Spanish). Users can also select their list by Author, Title, Points, Level, or Quiz Number and by Ascending or Descending Order.

With Advanced Search, users can limit their query by Author or Title using limiter terms such as Contains, Exact, Starts With, or by Subject using limiters such as All Words or Any Words—all useful when exact titles or names are unknown. Users can also search by Quiz Numbers and Publisher.

How It Works In as little as five minutes or so, librarians can upload their AR tests to the QuizList Interactive Web site and have their complete program available. Once loaded, a URL is provided to link the database to the library or school’s site for access to the test list from anywhere.

Users can search for tests by Author, Title, or Subject or develop a specialized search that can limit results to specific requirements. Once test titles are selected users can view or print the list. Advance Searching allows users to increase specific criteria options to narrow the search to a specific list of titles.

Librarians or administrators can access the administrator’s page with a password to edit or update the school’s profile, add missing interest levels to book test records, add pre-made book lists, add or edit special sponsors or advertisements (such as upcoming book fair information, etc.), and even upload the online catalog’s MARC records with call numbers and book locations to provide more in-depth search ability. Usage reports are available immediately, allowing the administrator to see how many tests are available, how many teacher-made tests are available, how many searches have been conducted within the past month, and how many lists have been printed. Previous monthly reports are also immediately accessible.

Premade lists are available to the administrator to transfer into the school’s database of titles. Many of the lists are available for anyone to view.

For those who want to create their own list of books, directions are also available via the Administrative area. The administrator has complete editorial control over all book lists and may view, edit, or delete any user’s list, or make it private.

For Students & Teachers Using the trial version, I uploaded my school’s AR records and checked the results. Within ten minutes, 8,200 quizzes were uploaded with the school’s name on the top banner and a lengthy list of books from various genres or subjects on the left-hand side. Because the list of titles being searched includes only those books for which tests are actually available, there is no concern that a student would find a title listed and later discover that we did not own the test. (To see the example of my school’s records go to www.quizlist.net/search.aspx?id=29538).

With a simple search by Author, Title, Subject, Book Level, Points, Fiction or Non-Fiction, Interest Level or Language, a list of titles that are currently owned is created. After choosing a title of interest, users can read the same information found in the online catalog, including a brief blurb, the call number, the location, copyright date, and the number of pages. Finally, after reading the book, students can recall the title on the QuizList Interactive site and rate the book from 1–5 with 1 being “Not Good” and 5 being “Loved It!”

Report Card QuizList Interactive receives an A for making the once time-consuming process of keeping up with an unending list of titles as simple as a database search. With QuizList’s ability to provide users with exactly what tests, lists, or books they want, teachers, librarians, and students will be more likely to utilize their library’s collection and the electronic reading test program more effectively.

Grades K–12+

Cost Personal subscriptions are $49; personal teacher edition $69; the Enterprise Edition for a school license for one year ranges from $495 for grades K–5 to $995 for grades 6–12, or $695 for a district license. Available in both PC and Mac formats. Click here for system requirements.

The Big Picture Information literacy and technology instruction has been a focus of librarians and teachers for over a decade. As the Internet has increased the amount of available information, students must have the skills to locate, examine, and evaluate information for them to achieve success in education. Big6™, an information problem-solving research model created by Mike Eisenberg and Bob Berkowitz, was developed to provide students with a six-step process to achieve research success. In the past, much of the Big6™ information and instruction came from books, professional presentations, and Web site information. But with the introduction of Big6™ Turbo Tools, teachers, librarians, and students are able to immediately implement the six-step process in an organized, efficient, and timely manner from any computer at any time.

Look & Feel Big6™ Turbo Tools have a sleek, easy-to-use look that helps students not only organize their research assignments, but also create an online assignment calendar that shows stages completed—and what’s still lacking. The program provides several modules, or tools, that students can use throughout their research: Big6 Planner, TurboCite, TurboReport, TurboWrite, TurboLinks, and TurboRater.

The program comes complete with an in-depth instruction manual, while the Personal Edition provides a 76-page instructional booklet (even the demo version provides a 27-page tutorial). Additional resources, examples of the Big6™ process, online courses for educators, and other useful ideas are available at the Big6™ Web site.

How It Works Each student (in the Enterprise edition) has a Locker that allows him or her to keep electronic note cards, lists of possible research sources, bibliographic information, and assignments. Projects are created individually and each one contains all of the resources and information in one file—making it less likely that students will lose their resources.

A Big6™ Planner creates a road map of the assignment so students are able to determine how the project is progressing. A citation program called TurboCite allows for easy tracking of resources and citation notes. By plugging in the resource information, TurboCite provides an accurate citation of any source used.

A variety of tools are also available including a dictionary; a comprehensive list of stages in the Big6™ process; an instant messaging tool, TurboTalk, that allows collaboration with teachers or peers from within the software program; a list of Big6-related Web sites; the Planner that uses questions, answers, and video clips to guide students through the problem-solving process; TurboReport, a collection of report templates that enable teachers and librarians to generate customized reports; TurboWrite, a fully functioning word processor for printing reports, labels, captions, graphics, and more; and TurboRater, a tool for generating tests and evaluations using a variety of question types that can be completed by the student online and saved, printed, or e-mailed to the teacher.

For Students & Teachers If you are frustrated with disorganized research projects, Big6™ Turbo Tools are an enormous help. Through guided instruction, students can easily transfer their information problem-solving skills in a step-by-step process that directs them from completing simple book reports to understanding the university selection process.

For students who need more in-depth guidance, Big6 Turbo Tools not only allow them to keep their work in one place, they also teach them the information-seeking process in a step-by-step format that they can easily follow. The Big6™ Planner makes notebook schedules or organizational folders obsolete as students are able to create their due dates on the Big6™ calendar and follow the steps toward completing the project in a timely and productive fashion.

For schools that restrict student and teacher access to instant chat forums, Big6™ Turbo Tools provide instant networking opportunities for users logged in to the program.

TurboReport and TurboWrite may seem to be redundant for most schools, but both offer the instructional guidance of the Big6™ model while helping students to choose what type of product they are creating. Because many students don’t know where to begin when writing their final report, TurboReport allows students to choose from among 12 different types of reports such as book reports, state reports, essays, current events, or science lab reports. A Questions tab on the Report module allows students to ask their own questions, which will be answered within their report. This provides the student with a critical-thinking project that they can control and develop.

The Bulletin Board provides administrative authority for librarians and teachers to post additional online resource links such as the catalog, databases, Big6™ video clips, graphic organizers, worksheets, and other resources to one project module forum. Students can work with those specific resources without wandering aimlessly on the Internet.

Report Card Big6™ Turbo Tools receive an A for providing organized and user-friendly online tools for students, teachers, and librarians involved in the information-seeking process. While the Big6 model can be taught without the use of the software program, Turbo Tools provide continual reinforcement of the instructional process and a forum that guides and teaches students at every research level.