World Book School Edition

1.       World Book School Edition – Kids edition

"Elephant." World Book Kids World Book, 2013. Web. 28 Feb. 2013.

World Book articles contain citation information.  I really like this feature because it makes it easier for teachers at elementary school levels to teach kids to cite their sources.

This article listed information about Indian and African elephants.  It contained both pictures and videos.  There are several handy tools that kids can use.  They can have the article read to them, or they can have single words defined by double clicking on them.  The article can be translated into many different languages.  The article can be emailed, saved, and printed.  Another great feature is that there are links to outside sources.

2.       World Book School Edition – Student

MLA:

Moss, Cynthia. "Elephant." World Book Student. World Book, 2013. Web. 28 Feb. 2013.

APA:

Moss, C. (2013). Elephant. In World Book Student. Retrieved from
http://www.worldbookonline.com/student/article?id=ar177700&st=elephant Harvard:

Moss, C 2013, 'Elephant', World Book Student, World Book, Chicago, viewed 28 February 2013,
<http://www.worldbookonline.com/student/article?id=ar177700&st=elephant>.

Three formatting options are given for citation.

The information is divided into quite a few more sections.  Each section gives the student the option of printing just that section.

There are links to article contents on the left side of the screen and “Related Information” as well as “Content Standards” on the right side of the screen.

The search box allows the students the option to search the student edition, the student edition + kids, and the media.

The tools expand on the kids edition by allowing them to view by section, highlight the text, and save their research.

3.       World Book Advanced

On the left side of the screen, the “Search Results” box gives the user the option of searching in different types of sources. They can search maps, charts, sounds, primary sources, encyclopedia articles, timelines, websites, research guides, and more. On the right side of the screen, links to the primary sources are listed.  Under that, there are links to E-books.

 When clicking on the country, the user can narrow his/her search by looking on the left side of the screen and choosing from the article contents.  The article is divided into the 5 themes of geography: people, way of life, the land, the climate, and the economy. Also listed is the citation information; again, the article lists the MLA, APA, and Harvard styles. On the right side of the screen, there are links to related information and related primary source information. There is also a link to show how the article aligns to the common core standards.

My links that take students to specific parts of the article would be valuable for my students so that they don’t have to look through the whole article for the information they are looking for.  Also, the related information links will be nice because they will be sent to other credible sources.

World Book Discover

The article about affirmative action contains several features that will those who struggle reading English.  On the left side of the screen, there is an option to translate the text into many different languages.  In the tool box at the top of the article, there is the option to have the article read aloud.  Lastly, one can double click on a word to have it defined.