One response to “Effective Science Instruction Resources”

1. 

   Lee German

   January 21, 2010

   With regard to your project to collect and review some key resources on effective K-12 science instruction, I would appreciate your giving Sylvan Dell a hard look.

   We are a publisher of illustrated children’s books but we are also a serious education company committed to making a difference in literacy, language, and cross-curricular learning. We believe in this idea that you use fiction picturebooks as a tee-up to get children reading and peak their interest in a subject and then you burrow in and teach the non-fiction components that we make freely available. We offer teachers and parents a full-up Science and Math Through Literature Program that is fun, cross-curricular, and high tech and seamlessly integrates reading, science, math, geography, character skills, and language learning.

   For over a year and half now, we have been offering schools, homeschooling families and public libraries a free one-year access to our ebook site license featuring the most technologically advanced eBooks on the market. We call it our School Resource Grant program and to date, more than 4000 schools have participated. If you have an email address happy to send you a sample site license so you can see what these are all about or give a shout and happy to show you around the website.

   One of the big things we stress with schools is that we really want them to share the site license with their families so that children and parent have access from home. It is all online, so no special software or hardware is needed … just broadband access. We like the idea that we are offering families a high tech, fun alternative to video games and that encourages family reading and learning. With or without adult supervision, children can spend hours on our site license going from book to book. For those teachers using our books, ebooks, and online resources in their classroom, having the site license accessible from home also offers an opportunity to involve parents and have them reinforce classroom learning.

   Here are the key points:

   • There are 45 eBooks on our site license (soon to be 50 and with 56 by summer as our new titles are published).
   • eBooks feature auto-flip, auto-read, 3D page curling, plus English and Spanish text and audio.
   • Each title has more free, online resources than any publisher in this country. Look at any book homepage and you’ll find:

   o 3-5 page educational section (from back of back) called For Creative Minds (online as pdf in both English and en Español)
   o 30-40 pages of cross-curricular Teaching Activities
   o three interactive quizzes: Reading / FCM / Math

   • All titles are also available as hardcover and paperback.
   • Aligned to national and all State Standards
   • Most titles are both AR and Reading Counts with quizzes

   I want schools to know about this free site license offer and how phenomenal the eBooks and the overall program is.

   All the best, Lee

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