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Teacher Tips
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Child Labor Activities
The start of a new school year is a great time to cover maps and
map skills. Below are a variety of Web sites that can help you teach
map skills so your students can read and use the maps in the Scholastic
News Zone Special Issues Online.
Tell your students to think of a map as a snapshot. Just as
a snapshot of a person shows that person in a different aspect
of his or her life, so does each map give different information
about a place. The legend, or map key, tells you how to read a
map. Have the students look at the map of Hazardous Child Labor
Around the World.
Point out that the map is in different colors. Ask them to look
at the legend below the map and tell you what each color means.
Now ask them the following questions:
1. What category does the United States fall into?
2. Which other countries have children working in both informal
and commercial labor?
3. What is informal labor?
4. What is commercial labor?
5. Which color dominates the map? What does that tell you about
child labor?
What
Do Maps Show?
Working
With Maps: Information
Making
Globes
Welcome to TerraServer
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Activity Overview
Teacher's Tips uses Scholastic News Zone's Special Issues Online to enrich the study of a specific curriculum theme or topic, in the areas of language arts, math, science, social studies, children's literature, and current events. Teacher's Helpers are designed primarily as a lesson-planning tool for the teacher, but you may also wish to consider using them as guided research for students beginning to use the Internet independently.
Learning Outcomes/National Standards Correlations
Teacher's Helper activities can help students expand their knowledge and understanding of the current topic of focus and their understanding of technology as a resource. Specific Special Issues Online in each of the subject areas will meet a variety of content standards for that area. In addition, the use of Special Issues Online supports the research standards set out in the National Council of Teachers of English/International Reading Association Standards for the English Language Arts:
- Students conduct research on issues and interests by generating ideas and questions, and by posing problems. They gather, evaluate, and synthesize data from a variety of sources (e.g., print and nonprint texts, artifacts, people) to communicate their discoveries in ways that suit their purpose and audience. (Standard 7)
- Students use a variety of technological and informational resources (e.g., libraries, databases, computer networks, video) to gather and synthesize information and to create and communicate knowledge. (Standard 8)
Before You Start
Useful technology skills to make the most of these activities include:
- Bookmarking Web pages for future reference
- Navigating through a Web site
- Returning to previous pages using Back or Go commands
Classroom Strategies
In most cases, the teacher will want to spend time reviewing Scholastic News Zone's Special Issue Online and planning curriculum correlations before presenting it to the class. You will have four Special Issues Online to choose from each month, with a total of 20 in a school year. NOTE: All sites recommended on Special Issues Online have been reviewed by teachers and by Scholastic editors. However, due to the nature of the Internet, following a series of links from a recommended site may lead students far afield to potentially inappropriate sites. Teacher supervision and school appropriate use policies are always recommended when students are using the Internet independently.
REVIEW THESE CORE TERMS
Nav bar: The nav bar is a list of the features on a Web site, usually listed on the left hand side of a Web page. Each line in a nav bar is "clickable" and will lead you to each story or feature on the site.
Home Pages: Scholastic News Zone has two home pages representing features for the entire site, as well as home pages for each of the sections listed in the nav bar. Subscribers and non-subscribers have their own home pages. The non-subscriber home page focuses on features available to all users of Scholastic News Zone whether they read Scholastic magazines or not. That home page gives them an opportunity to subscribe and get a password to get into features exclusive to Scholastic subscribers.
The for Readers Only, or subscriber, home page requires a password. Click on any feature and then type in your password when asked. Passwords are found in your issues, or click on the password helper.
Home pages for Games and Quizzes, Special Issues Online, Teacher Support, and magazine issue pages are reached by clicking on those features in the nav bar, or by clicking on "Back to Home Page."
Logos: Each Special Report has a logo, or graphic, across the top. You can return to the home page, or index page, for the Special Issue Online by clicking on the top logo.
Grolier Research and Reference: Each Special Issue Online includes encyclopedia articles, maps, facts, and more from Grolier Online's The New Book of Knowledge, The New Book of Popular Science, Lands and Peoples Encyclopedia, or Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia, depending on the topic. The information you will find includes related Web links as well. Click on Grolier Research and Reference in the nav bar for a list of features.
Back to News Zone: This nav bar button takes you back to the Scholastic News Zone home page where you can choose a different activity.
Back to Special Issues: This nav bar button takes you back to the Special Issues Online home page, which lists the current Special Issues as well as past Special Issues. The Special Issues Online home page also includes issues found in the non-subscriber section of Scholastic News Zone. Remember, as a subscriber and user of Scholastic magazines, you have access to ALL Scholastic News Zone features.
Following are three possible strategies for using Special Issues Online in the classroom or media center:
AS A TEACHER RESOURCE: For many teachers, the most effective use of the Teacher's Helper for Special Issues Online will be as a planning tool. Choose a Special Issue Online and review it to determine which of the features you think would be of the most interest to your students. Create your own lesson plans using the Web, or simply print out the available resources to supplement your current curriculum.
AS A CLASS ACTIVITY: If you have a large-screen TV or LCD display panel, you may wish to follow the links in the Special Issue you chose as a whole-class, Internet-literacy activity.
- Open to the selected Special Issue Online and read the text as a group.
- Show students how you click on each link to access the features listed in the nav bar to the left.
- Review each story and discuss the story selection. Why did the Scholastic editors choose these particular stories? What do the story choices tell readers about the focus of a Special Issue Online?
- Specifically take students to the list of Web links you will find in Grolier Online Research and Reference. Point out that the links do not always take you to the home page of the site, and that some links are to different places within the same site. Explain that when they connect to a link, they are leaving the Scholastic site. Demonstrate simple navigation strategies, such as clicking on the Home link to discover the sponsor of each site. Discuss how this may help you evaluate the reliability and validity of information found on the Web.
- Explore with your students other areas within the Special Issue Online, pointing out any interactive areas such as polls, comment areas, or pop-up features.
- Discuss how the information in the Special Issue Online relates to other information on the topic, which you have covered in textbooks or in the classroom.
FOR INDEPENDENT STUDENT USE: Students who have some facility with online research can use Special Issues Online independently or in small groups.
- Allow online time in the classroom, media center, or computer lab for students to visit the Special Issues Online.
- For students just beginning to do online research, you may want to prepare one or two questions to be answered as they explore the Special Issue.
- Older or more experienced students can create research reports. These can be presented as written reports supplemented with images downloaded and printed from the Special Issue. They should take note of Grolier Online research and reference connections for background information, maps, and Facts at a Glance.
- Allow time in class for each student (or group of students) to present their reports orally or in multimedia format.
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