AVL Demonstration

 Barbara Cook

AVL Demonstration - History Reference Center (EBSCO

For this Alabama Virtual Library demonstration, I chose to demonstrate how to access and navigate the History Reference Center (ABSCO) site.  I chose the resource "College & University" because I wanted to learn more about the site, and how I can use it with my students. It is an easy site to navigate with useful tools to use in narrowing a topics search down. It's useful if you are searching for books, academic journals, or for articles.

AVL Demonstration

 Whitney Crowell: AVL Demonstration

As I was on AVL, I decided to explore a program that would be beneficial for my 5th grade students. Although each program was eye catching, the one that stood out was PebbleGo. This is a site my district uses however, I have not really investigated it and incorporated in my classroom. While exploring this program it provides kid friendly research database for students in grades K-3rd. PebbleGo added an extension called PebbleGo Next for grades 3-5 to provide additional curriculum to meet specific needs. Students are able to access videos, interactive games, listen to the reader, along with a glossary for defining words. It is a great resource if you want to break students into groups and have them investigate this database. As a teacher you are also able to assign projects and have students use this platform to cite information and provide fact on a particular time. 

AVL Demonstration

 Rebecca Henderson - AVL Demonstration of Britannica Science Middle

I choose to demonstrate how to use Britannica Science Middle from AVL because there is a real push at my local school to use more reading and writing in the core classes. As science teachers, we have decided to adopt the CER (claim, evidence, and reasoning) model in the science classroom to incorporate as much writing as possible. In order for students to give evidence, there has to be research completed to back up their claim. These articles help fill the gap for teachers to give the students to opportunity to find the research they need. Although the target audience is middle school, it isn't as much the subject information as it is the reading ability levels. If you had a struggling reader in high school, this would be an appropriate resource. On the opposite end of the spectrum, if you needed to challenge your elementary students, this could be a great resource for some higher level text. 

AVL Resources- Matt Wilson

 AVL Resource Demo

As I was exploring the AVL, I came across a program called Pronunciator. I initially thought this was a dictionary/thesaurus type resource, but when I opened it I found it to be a very robust language acquisition program. It allows students to access resources to help them improve their language knowledge in several manners. Without having to log in, it offers quick mini-lessons each day, personalized learning tracks, a full library of lessons and activities, as well as learning guides that offer more in-depth and interactive experiences. There is a teacher side where instructors can create and tailor a course to fit the needs of a student (with the use of a student login). I can see this being a great tool and resource for ESL teachers who feel overloaded with the number of students they have to serve. This places learning in the hands of the students. While this is not intended to replace curriculum, it is definitely a resource that can be used in addition to what is required by the school or system.

AVL Demonstration - Tori Gaddy

 Click here to view my tutorial on the Encyclopedia of Alabama found in the Alabama Virtual Library.

The Encyclopedia of Alabama is a great resource of information on - you guessed it - the state of Alabama.  The database includes articles on a variety of topics, and photographs and videos are often included.   The database can be used by all learner age groups, though I expect it to be most useful to those in upper elementary or older.  It would be a great resource for a 4th grade trivia game or digital scavenger hunt of Alabama History.   Not only would the site provide answers and increase state awareness, the game would provide opportunity to strength skills such as online searching and scanning information.

Alabama Virtual Library Demonstration

Alabama Virtual Library Demonstration Link

For the Alabama Virtual Library Demonstration, I selected Elementary School. I demonstrated the Topic: Animals using Peebles Go Platform. I use small group teaching for all my classes, and Peebles provides engaging materials for my students. Primarily, my ELL students are English Second Language students. It also has accountability pieces for the centers for students to write and explain their learning. Also, I use Peebles Go in our PLCs to teach and share resources with our team and across grade levels. 

The Alabama Virtual Library also provide research-based materials for teachers use to improve instruction for class. As a principal I would share this information with teachers and staff to enhance their instruction and PLC’s. 

AVL Database Overview - Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints

Click above to view my overview ⬆️

The Alabama Virtual Library database that I chose to highlight is called Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints. What this database focuses on is the compilation of resources for any and every set of opposing viewpoints you can think of. It breaks down the viewpoints into categories, alphabetical lists, and even spotlights some of the current "hot button issues" in society, which makes it ideal for students in grades 9 - 12 due to mature content. One thing that the Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints database does that makes it an asset to the classroom is that it allows students to save portions of resources (by simply highlighting text), add annotations about the relevance of the resource, and revisit their list of notes and annotations. Not only that, but it also builds students' bibliographies for them from their saved highlights! I am ecstatic to have found this resource, as my juniors are in the middle of Argumentation and will begin writing their Argumentative Essays, which they will turn into Lincoln-Douglas debates, here soon. I plan to introduce this database as students begin their research on their debate topics. I think it will make their lives so much easier!

AVL Demonstration

 Click here to watch my AVL Demonstration. 

I chose to demonstrate the EBSCO History Reference Center - Ebook Collection. This resource allows you to search for ebooks on historical topics. Many ebooks are available in PDF format for easy reading. This reference not only provided with the text itself but the citation information for the work as well. I see this being an appropriate resource for students in grades 9-12 as the texts can be a bit complex. To this point, this database also provides the Lexile level of text in order to help students find books that fall within their Lexile band. I see this being a great resource for my AP U.S. History class to use during their summer reading assignments. I often assign presidential biographies for summer reading and have students write a 2-page overview of the president's administration. This would be a great tool for students to use during the summer because it would not require them to head out to bookstores or search Amazon for a book that costs money when they most likely will not read the book again. 

AVL Demonstration

 Click here for the link to my video on Points of View Reference Center:

Points of View

The Points of View Reference Center on the Alabama Virtual Library portal provides access to reputable resources on a variety of topics that students could be researching. Articles from magazines, newspapers, and academic journals are accessible. Background information and key terms related to the topics are included as well. Much of the material available would be appropriate for high school students writing research papers, argumentative essays, or preparing presentations. The topics covered are so vast, they would be useful in any secondary subject area. This database would be a good starting point for school librarians to assist students as they begin their research.

Alabama Virtual Library Demonstration - Maria Hayes

 The video for the database I decided to demonstrate is called Teaching Books.  You can click here to access my video.

Teaching Books is a database all about books that teach.  The resource is available for all ages.  Students can use the video for fun, for learning, to create a reading list, and more.  The database has a great feature with audio clips to learn how to pronounce authors' names as well as some background information about the author.  Educators can use the resource to help find books for the classroom.  My job consists of working with educators and preparing educators so this is a great resource I can share with colleagues and students to help them in their teaching careers.