C.O.D. Library ESL/ABE/GED Faculty Newsletter October 2011
Resource of the Month
www.khanacademy.org Khan Academy is an online library of over 2000 educational videos. Currently, Khan Academy's strength lies in math and science, with hundreds of videos just covering developmental math topics, but the website offers introductions to many topics including the sciences, humanities, finance and test prep. Videos tend to be short, but depending on the topic, can be in the 10-15 minute range. Individual videos can stand alone, but are arranged as parts of playlists-- watch "Parts of a Cell" and you are prompted to watch "Diffusion and Osmosis", a logical next topic. Watching a Khan Academy videos is like watching a 21st century blackboard: viewers are presented a black screen onto which the instructor, generally founder Sal Khan, draws
Making Graded Readers Easier to Find Keep your eyes open for some changes in the Library stacks! I'm working with Technical Services to make graded readers and other short books in the PE section easier to find, both on the shelf and in the Library catalog. If you have ever browsed the literacy collection in the stacks, you know how challenging it can be to find the small books that can be so helpful to the emerging, reluctant or striving readers the collection supports. Although we have many series that our students enjoy (Oxford Bookworms, Double Fastbacks, Grass Roots Readers) the books are scattered over several shelves-- contained only by the plastic magazine racks that keep them from disappearing altogether. Some readers, because of their subject matter, are interfiled with much larger workbooks or textbooks and are essentially lost in the shuffle. Starting with the enjoyable Thumbprint Mysteries series, the Library will be recataloging readers to make them easy to spot on the shelf and easy to find in the online catalog. Here are some of the changes you can look for: • New call numbers: Readers, like Fatal Fiction, book 1 of the Lin Hill Mysteries will have call numbers that start with PE999. This new number will allow us to pull the readers out of their spaces they share with workbooks and textbooks and place them at the end of all the other books in this range, creating a browsable destination for students. • Series Information: When you look at the record for a reader in the Library's online catalog, you will now see information about the series in which it belongs. For a Thumbprint Mystery like Champagne at Risk, you'll see:
We learn that Champagne at Risk is not only part of the Thumbprint Mysteries, but the 2nd book in the Champagne Mysteries series by Joan Lowery Nixon. Clicking either link will
and writes-- no PowerPoint or other distractions and we never see the instructor himself. His voice is clear and easily understandable, even if his illustrations are at times shaky and awkward. For the student who excels with audio/visual aids, Khan Academy is an easy accessible tool that can provide the assistance needed to succeed, expand horizons or review familiar material.
Your Librarian Jenn Kelley Reference Librarian Office: SRC 3043A Phone: (630) 942-2383 E-mail: kelleyj@cod.edu Library Website: www.cod.edu/library Find me on Facebook
give us a list of other books in the series. • New Subject Headings: Finding readers in the online catalog used to be a headache since there was no over-arching descriptor (subject heading) to unite them all in one place. Many readers had the subject: Readers for New Literates, but this category encompassed over 1600 titles and included textbooks and workbooks as well. Soon, a subject search for Graded Readers will provide a list of all the short fiction and nonfiction to which we point our students who are looking for high-interests reads at their particular skill levels. You can try this search now-- we currently have over 80 of our reader titles in this new category, including books from the new Junkyard Dan series, Open Door series and Smith Brothers series. Check back regularly, as new books are being added all the time. Let me know if you have any questions about these changes or can't find a title that you're looking for. As always, I'm taking suggestions and recommendations for adding to the ESL and ABE/GED collections. Send your textbook, workbook, video, audio, software or professional development resource requests to me and I'll be sure you're notified when the material is available.