The link to the log-in page for Achieve 3000:
https://portal.achieve3000.com/index.php?logout=1&lang=1&msg=
I wasn't able to make links to the particular articles. You can search Achieve 3000 for many different science topics.
Here are some general science articles with multiple choice activities:
1. Making Science Fun
2. Doing Science: Measure and Know
3. The Four Branches of Science
4. Would You Get Sick for Science?
5. The Dean of Invention
6. Scientists Needed
KidBiz Lesson: How to Search for Articles (Kidbiz BINGO)
At Palisades, Kidbiz is introduced in second grade. The lesson below teaches students how to use the search feature of the program to find articles about topics that they are interested in. This is a valuable skill. The lesson and activity pdf (KidBiz Bingo) are attached below and can be downloaded. Another lesson could be done on finding science articles related to what the theme the students are currently studying.
Caption:
My students haven't had much training in how to use KidBiz yet. They needed to learn how to use the search feature
of the program in order to find articles on topics that they were interested in. I'm hoping that if they read about articles that they are familiar with and interested in, they will score better on the article activities because they a have some prior knowledge of the topic and will know some of the key vocabulary. After the students were introduced on how to use the Search Feature for KidBiz and could select articles that have activities attached to them, they completed a KidBiz article Search BINGO where they found at least 5 articles that interested them that had activities attached to them. The articles selected couldn't have Article Only or be an article only used for a Writing Prompt or for a Read Aloud lesson.
Reflection:
The KidBiz program is introduced to second grade students at my school. They are expected to pass at least 20 article activities per semester. I’ve been using this program for about 6 years and have refined my lessons on how to introduce it and how to teach my students how to perform well on the article activities. However, this semester I am on a sabbatical. The teacher who is currently teaching my class had no training on KidBiz and no experience in teaching it. She was able to get the students started on the program and has assigned it for homework at least twice a week. Some students are getting help from their parents to navigate this program, while others haven’t had the opportunity to log on to it very often. Since my students had varying levels of experience with the KidBiz program, I needed to teach them the basic skill of searching for articles that they are interested in reading about. I think the lesson went well because they’ve all had exposure to the program, and the students who are my “KidBiz experts” were able to give their own tips and tricks to help their peers. My students also knew that they would be expected to continue to use this program for the rest of the school year and they were well aware of the expectations. I think this motivated them to listen carefully to my instruction because it was valuable information to them. They loved the topics that I searched: cats, dogs, toys, video games, dinosaurs, Barbies, Mario Kart, etc. I even heard a few squeals of delight when I assigned an article about Halloween to them. Getting students excited about reading non-fiction articles is always a success in my books.
As I was teaching the lesson, I needed to change my original lesson plan. Being out of the classroom has given me temporary amnesia about the length of a seven and eight year old’s attention span. When I began to “lose” them (I had reviewed a few too many tips and tricks to get better scores before I introduced the Search feature) I decided to take some brain breaks with the Go Noodle online program. I continued with my lesson and had a few dance breaks in between. Again, I have planned to do too much in one period. Next time I will be the teacher introducing KidBiz from the beginning of the school year and I won’t need to front-load my lesson with the review strategies. Sometimes students have brain hiccups about what they are interested in. I think it would improve my lesson by having an anchor chart about fun and cool topics to search for articles about for those students who don’t have any ideas at the time.
The students were delighted to complete the KidBiz Article Search BINGO page. I think they enjoyed it because they had a choice in what kinds of articles to look up. The BINGO sheet has topics about planets, candy, robots, sports, jobs, Star Wars, and Hawaii. They also had the option to only do the “Own Choice” searches. Differentiating this technology lesson with a form of a choice board was key to the student engagement. My students now have at least five interesting articles to read about for their KidBiz homework. The students who don’t have the support at home from parents/guardians to get them on KidBiz and help them out needed extra assistance to complete the BINGO activity. I was thrilled to see the BINGO pages of the students who went beyond the expectations of writing down five articles. Overall, all the students learned how to use the Search feature on KidBiz, and they all have at least five articles to read about. I also got a glimpse at the kinds of topics that my students are interested in.