The NEW Britannica School and the Lesson Plan Builder

We knew it was coming and now, just in time for the 2013-2014 school year, it’s here.  Britannica School, formerly known as Britannica Online School Edition, offers 140,000+ encyclopedia articles, as well as a wide variety of content appropriate for elementary, middle, and high school students and teachers.  The content is the same but the functions and interface design have been improved.  Britannica School offers a lot of interactivity as well as universal access.  It works with any device, anywhere.  Using responsive design, Britannica School will automatically adjust to any device. Some of the content available in Britannica School includes:

• Encyclopedia articles
• Downloadable images and videos
• Student-friendly websites
• Magazine articles supplied by EBSCO
• World atlas (Google)
• Dictionary and thesaurus
• Primary sources
• State and Common Core aligned resources
• Lesson Plan Builder (NEW)
• My Britannica (online folder)

A streamlined homepage allows you to easily select the level you want.  Search directly from the homepage or enter a specific level (elementary, middle, high school).  Search results display appropriate multimedia at the top of page and encyclopedia articles below.  In the left column you can link to more   content, such as primary sources, websites, or magazines.  From the results page you can link directly to content within the other reading levels.  Elementary is level 1, middle is level 2, and high school is level 3.  This feature is also available while viewing an article. One of the new features, specifically for teachers, is the Lesson Plan Builder.  It is available in My Britannica, which is a tool that allows you to save and share content.  You’ll need to create a free account to access it and use the Teacher Code KMVL when setting up your account. Once I logged in with the teacher code, I was shown a page that introduced me to the features available in My Britannica.  This tool lets you save and organize favorites and create descriptive tags for those items; lets you search for interactive lessons, study guides, and lesson plans; and lets you create lesson plans. To create a lesson plan, select the Lesson Plan Builder and follow the next 4 steps to create a plan:

Step 1 involves project details like title, grade levels, subjects, duration, and objectives. Step 2 allows you add Britannica content to your lesson. Step 3 requires that you add in the step-by-step procedures for the lesson. Step 4 allows you to add in any required materials needed for the lesson like a pencil, and this is where you can add in any aligned curriculum standards and teacher tips as well.

You can choose to “save and publish” the plan which allows all teachers with a My Britannica account to view your plan or you can select “save for later” which will keep the plan private.  A link is provided so you can share your lesson plans with students and other teachers.  I was pleasantly surprised to see so many lesson plans already created and available for use within the Educator’s Resources.  You have the option of selecting a certain grade level (or you can search all levels) and you can even select a particular subject area.  I searched for lesson plans for history for grades 1-6 and retrieved about 12 on topics ranging from the Boston Tea Party to Pompeii. We’ll post upcoming training on the new Britannica School on the Minitex training page soon.