The Internet is a wealth of information; unfortunately, helping young children find information that is developmentally appropriate can be a challenge.There are lots of great websites for children, but one of my favorites is World Book for Kids (WBK). This year marks the fourth year Shorecrest offers this online resource for our Lower Division students to use both at home and at school. This developmentally appropriate website offers:
• Simple search and navigation features
• Easy-to-read articles with embedded multimedia
• Thousands of images, illustrations, and videos
• An Important People feature with several thousand biographies
• A collection of age-appropriate science fair projects
• Atlas, interactive maps, and outline maps and flags
• A tool for exploring and comparing places and animals
• Hyperlinks only link within the site
• Educational games and activities
Second grade students were introduced to WBK in the lab this week. In addition to learning how to navigate the site, they were given instruction on how to read for information by taking short notes. Working with partners, students used graphic organizers to record facts about the continent of North America, their current unit of study. Students learned the technique of highlighting each sentence as they read to help them better focus on the content. This is an important navigational strategy to help children read and understand computer-based text. Next, they pulled the important fact(s) from each sentence. Students could record just one fact per circle on their web. Additionally, they had to figure out a way to write the fact with no more than five words. Learning how to take notes is difficult and one that requires lots of practice.
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