Online Databases - good for differentiated learning
- PebbleGo* K-3 Each database (Biographies, Social Studies and Animals) is designed for beginning researchers. Includes audio, text highlighting and media.
- ABC-Clio Databases* Challenges students to evaluate historical evidence. (reference, textbook, primary sources, perspectives section)
- World Book Encyclopedia * Elementary, Middle, and High School levels, read-aloud and translation for many languages.
- Encyclopedia Britannica Elementary, Middle, and High School levels in one interface, plus read-aloud, and translation for over 50 languages.
- Kids Infobits - targets the research needs of students in Kindergarten through Grade 5.
- SIRS Issues Researcher * Background and current analysis necessary for research and understanding of current and pervasive Leading Issues.
- Newsela News adapted for students. Five reading levels available for each article. (Requires free registration.)
Google Docs Add-Ons
Open a Google Doc, and in the menu bar, select Add-ons, then Get Add-ons. Select Easybib and TextHelp. Once the add-on is installed, it’ll be listed in the “Add-ons” menu within all of your docs.
Open a Google Doc, and in the menu bar, select Add-ons, then Get Add-ons. Select Easybib and TextHelp. Once the add-on is installed, it’ll be listed in the “Add-ons” menu within all of your docs.
- Easybib -automatic bibliography and citation generator
- TextHelp Study Skills - select, highlight, and group content together for review an learning.
- Research - (not an add-on but a Google doc tool) this is found under Tools. It allows you to preview a web page, insert a link, and add a citation while you are working in a Google doc.
Read&Write for Google Chrome
Read&Write for Google™ offers a range of powerful support tools to help students gain confidence with reading and writing, including:
• Hear words, passages, or whole documents read aloud with easy-to-follow dual color highlighting
• See the meaning of words explained with text and picture dictionaries
• Hear text translated into other languages
• Get suggestions for the current or next word as you type
• Turn words into text as you speak
• Highlight text in documents or the web and collect for use in other documents
• Simplify and summarize text on web pages
Teachers can get a FREE premium subscription to Read&Write for Google. To register and activate your subscription, go to rw.texthelp.com/freeforteachers after installing the Read&Write for Google trial.
Read&Write for Google™ offers a range of powerful support tools to help students gain confidence with reading and writing, including:
• Hear words, passages, or whole documents read aloud with easy-to-follow dual color highlighting
• See the meaning of words explained with text and picture dictionaries
• Hear text translated into other languages
• Get suggestions for the current or next word as you type
• Turn words into text as you speak
• Highlight text in documents or the web and collect for use in other documents
• Simplify and summarize text on web pages
Teachers can get a FREE premium subscription to Read&Write for Google. To register and activate your subscription, go to rw.texthelp.com/freeforteachers after installing the Read&Write for Google trial.
Tech Tools for Research
- Research Project Calculator - The calculator customises the steps for your project according to your research task.
- Organizing and Pre-Writing - These exercises provide keywords, meaning, and structure to research before writing, and may help you to overcome "writer's block."
- Cornell-Notes.com PDF Generator
- Microsoft Office template for OneNote
- Google Drive Cornell Notes Template
- Thesis Statement Builder
- Thesis Generator - thesis statement guide development tool
- Interactive Essay Map - map out your essay
- Outline Maker
- Interactive Website Evaluation Wizard an interactive, online tool for evaluating websites
- Graphic Organizers - Use for planning research and brainstorming.
- Sweet Search is a search engine that points to websites that have been evaluated and approved by research experts, librarians and teachers. Rather than ranking the results by popularity, the results are ranked by credibility.
- MyStickies - Sticky Notes for the Web. While bookmarks store the title of a webpage and its link, they do little to help you find what was important about the page and why exactly you chose to mark it. MyStickies solves this problem by giving you the power to mark up the page the way you like, and a tool to find notes easily and efficiently.
- Diigo A social bookmarking website which allows users to bookmark and tag web-pages. Additionally, it allows users to highlight any part of a webpage and attach sticky notes to specific highlights or to a whole page.
- Google Search Education: Resources and teaching tools for building advanced web search skills.
Miscelaneaous
- Biblioboard (New) - Here you will find digital collections of books, images, articles, audio and video from leading publishers and archives around the world. (free - provided by the state)
- Research Class taught by Kate Leslie and Shelley Mains - full of great resources
- 13 Good Resources for Social Study Teachers
- Resources for teaching social studies - Top free resources for teaching and learning Social Studies