South Dakota State Library: Library Development e-Newsletter

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Household products and your health

More and more patrons want to know the environmental and personal health effects of household products. Which brand of toilet bowl cleaner is safest? What’s really in that shampoo? What products won’t activate allergies?

Find the answers in the free Household Products Database, www.householdproducts.nlm.nih.gov. This National-Library-of-Medicine-sponsored site gives current information about the health effects of more than 2,000 ingredients in more than 6,000 household products.

The site features a product recall search, an ingredients search, a health hazard search, product information, manufacturer contact information, and more resources.

What is Library Development reading?

Using Technology to Improve Adolescent Writing: Digital Make-Overs for Writing Lessons

Reviewed by Jane Healy

Teachers and teacher-librarians continue to have “technology integration,” “21st century skills” and “digital learning” thrown at them, and good educators know that mere word processing is not enough. How can educators in all content areas improve their students’ writing?

Stephens and Ballast, two highly-credentialed Texas educators, offer answers in their new title Using Technology to Improve Adolescent Writing: Digital Make-Overs for Writing Lessons. They state their purpose as recognizing “how secondary school students are proficient with technology and to think of ways to motivate them using digital tools that they use outside of school” (p. 4).

The authors define 4 types of writing that build upon each other: Inside (prewriting and experiencing), Responsive (investigating and collaborating), Purposeful (refining and ordering) and Social Action (persuading). Each chapter defines the writing type, gives an example of a good lesson plan and then gives a digital version of the lesson plan. Assessment suggestions are included. Introductory “Key Elements,” definition sidebars and chapter summaries allow readers to get information at a glance.

The Social Action chapter is cumulative and includes suggestions for content area writing. It demonstrates the use of literature circles and employs writers as multi-media creators who are community change agents.

The last chapter is comprised of 10 lists of 10 items, including lesson plan changes, Web sites, people, 21st century teaching, terms and professional organizations.

This title contains a good balance between theory and practice. Though any educators wanting to improve student writing can benefit from this book, it is especially recommended for established educators needing to align their lessons to meet technology standards. The book is available through interlibrary loan from the State Library at library.sd.gov.

21st Century, health, reviews, technology, writers

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