EmbarK¹² Comprehensive (Website/Pre-K)
[K12 Inc (866) 968-7512]

          EmbarK¹² is an exciting kindergarten readiness program that combines dynamic, interactive online lessons with hands-on learning, multimedia, and high-quality children's literature. It  successfully scaffolds learning activities from thematic units in language arts, math, science, social studies, art, and music and is appropriate for classrooms, learning centers, daycare facilities, and other Pre-K environments.
         There are 430 modules and 1,200 highly engaging activities, and young children will be delighted with the colorful animations and simple, child-friendly graphics that teach important concepts. For example, in the 7-page lesson, Science Town: The Human Heart, a vivid graphic of a human heart beneath the rib cage allows the child to see and hear a human heart inside the body, learn how the heart pumps blood, and discover how it responds to physical activity. This age-appropriate interactive online activity, with voiceover guidance, includes opportunities for physical response and kinesthetic activity.
         Once the child is logged in, audio enhanced lesson modules are accessed on the home page by clicking relevant icons. A theme such as My 5 Senses has modules in Social Studies (Safety and the Senses, Sight, Hearing, Explore Surroundings); Language Arts (My Wonderful Senses, Describe Our Senses, Ask for Help, Three Letters C, G and O, Letters, Words and Rhymes, Write Face and Place Letters); Science (Smell, Touch, Hear, Sense of Sight, All Senses, Senses Lab); and Art (Learn About the Senses, Art and the Five Senses, Hands-On Art, Favorite Foods).
         For parents and teachers, EmbarK¹² has easy-to-use tools for planning, instruction, and assessment. There are helpful guides (digitally and in print) for each of the 18 thematic units, assessment checklists to monitor progress, and much more. There is an offer on their website to try EmbarK¹² risk-free for 30 days.

Bloom's Literature (Website/Grades 9-12)
[Infobase Learning (800) 322-8755]

         Bloom's Literature is a database of literature selected by Harold Bloom, a professor and literary critic.  His "Canon of Literature" represents the greatest achievement of Western literary tradition and is accepted by most educators as the sine qua non of literature. Thousands of works (drama, fiction, nonfiction, poetry, short stories, and fables), from Aesop to Eudora Welty, searchable by author, title, criticism, and characters, are presented here in language accessible to secondary and postsecondary students, scholars and authors alike.
         For example, a search for Virginia Woolf turned up 1,097 results, of which 200 were biographies, 74 were overviews and synopses, 100 topics and themes, and one image.  Within articles, tools such as Save, Email, Print, Increase or Decrease font size, and Citation are available, and, from the home screen, users can search Videos, Timelines, learn about Bloom's Canon, or How to Write About selected authors. A dictionary and standards alignment are also provided.
         Bloom's Literature, winner of the 2014 EDDIE for High School Literature Database Website, is an incredibly interesting and valuable database which should be in every library, if not every English classroom.