Spotlight On: New, Free Research Sites

Great news for all of you who build research and nonfiction reading skills with your students (and that's...um...all of us?).

As some of you may know, the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners offers free access to a number of digital research databases for all Massachusetts residents.

This fall, they announced that they were adding new databases to this list, and three of them stand out as extremely useful in the classroom.

This morning, we added special links to these resources to the the district's Clever portal. You can read a bit more about each them below.

PebbleGo

PebbleGo is an amazing, easy-to-use site that gets kids excited to learn facts about our world. For this year, MBLC has purchased the Animals and Biographies sections of the product. From the PebbleGo website: 

"PebbleGo is a curricular content hub specifically designed for K-2 students. Packed with informational articles, ready-made activities, and literacy supports for students of all abilities, it boosts engagement and fosters independent learning in core subject areas."

The PebbleGo link on Clever is available for PreK-5 students. PebbleGo provides an array of assistive tools for readers of all ages who need extra support. Embedded activities include games, maps, videos, citation support, and more. Check it out!

Gale In Context

Gale In Context: Elementary is rich with topics that will support students as they seek

out that all-important evidence for their writing. From their website:

"Gale In Context: Elementary provides cross-curricular content aligned with national and state elementary curriculum standards including biography, geography, history, government, cultures and religion, literature and the arts, science and health, sports, and social issues, allowing students to create connections between subject areas and to truly put topics into larger cultural, social, and historical context.​"

The Gale Elementary link on Clever is available for PreK-5 students. Assistive tools are embedded, including text-to-speech, display options, translation, citation help, and adjustable reading levels for select articles.

Like the Elementary database, the Gale In Context: Middle School database targets age-appropriate topics and content with multiple reading levels in mind.

Topic areas include cultures, geography, government, literature, people, science, social issues, U.S. history, and world history.

The Gale Middle School link on Clever is available for grade 5-8 students.

A few final facts for you as you give these resources a try:

• These aren't the only free databases that the MBLC has provided - see their public listing to check out others that may be useful in your classroom.
• If you want to use one of these databases outside the ranges listed above, you can! Feel free to share links with students through your digital classroom. But use the URL that's attached to the item in the public listing. Right-click the icon, and select "Copy link address...".

We hope this free resources helps you and your students this year! Head on over to Clever to find them and browse around.