InfOhio Access for Students: Login is required

See Pickerington Main Homework Help Center Coordinator Kristin Hyde or Sycamore Plaza Homework Help Center Coordinator Jennifer Wissenbach for login information.

Foreign Languages

Learn new languages and review vocabulary with these databases and websites:

• Transparent Language: Pickerington Public Library card is required.
• Duolingo 
• Memrise 
• Conjuguemos  

Writing Resources

Find great topics, cite your sources, and enhance your research papers:

• Newsbank: Pickerington Public Library card is required.
• NY Times: Topics for persuasive papers
• E-Reading Worksheets: Topics for persuasive papers
• Purdue Owl: Citation help
• Study.com
• Online Etymology Dictionary: Discover word origins!

Math Help

Get real world math help, explanations that make sense, and some free calculators at:

• Khan Academy
• Purplemath
• Thirteen
• Desmos
• Meta-Calculator
• Math Is Fun
• Mathpickle
• National Library for Virtual Manipulatives
• Calculus Workshop (most pages do not require subscription to view!)
• Regents Prep 
• Engage NY
• GeoGebra
• Good Calculators
• Algebra Help
• Homework Spot

Reading resources

Track your reading, practice comprehension, or find a new book recommendation:

• NoveList: Pickerington Public Library card is required.
• Newsela: Read today’s news at your lexile level (or in Spanish)
• Biblionasium
• Reading Rockets
• What Should I Read Next?
• Rewordify: Simplify text to make it easier to read

Primary Resources

These are great resources if you need a personal account of history or a credible resource from a witness of an event.

• American Archive:  A curated online museum of resources
• Chronicling America:  A collection of American newspapers
• Digital Public Library of America
• Library of Congress
• Library of Congress Screening Room (Historic video)
• National Archives
• Newberry Library of Chicago: Focuses on the Midwest, but has some national and international topics.
• Smithsonian Learning Lab: Everything the Smithsonian Institute has to offer, online and fun to use!
• Teaching with Primary Sources Network: For teachers. A free account is required.
• World Digital Library: Dive deep into world history with almost 20,000 documents.
• Public Domain Project: Audio, video, and even 3-D model files, free for use

Science

If you need help with your science work or you just want to learn something cool about the world around you, visit:

• World Wide Metric (Conversions made easy!)
• Fact Monster
• NASA
• Aspire Astrophysics

Spelling Sites

Spelling is FUN-damental! Practice your words and learn new ones at:

• Spelling City
• Vocabulary
• Kids Spell
• AAA Spell
• ABC Ya!

Coding

Have you caught the coding bug? Program amazing creations with these sites:

• Scratch
• Code.org
• Hopscotch
• Greenfoot
• Code Academy
• Other recommendations

Resources through the Pickerington Local School District (PLSD)

Here are links to resources your teacher might require you to use:

• PLSD applications

The books below are among the required reading titles for grades 9-12 in the Pickerington Local School District. These are additional resources to help you understand and relate to these literary works as you read them in class.

Any book:

• Sparknotes
• Shmoop

1984 (George Orwell):

• About George Orwell
• Themes of 1984
• Propaganda Examples from WWII

Animal Farm (George Orwell): 

• About George Orwell
• Cliff’s Notes Russian Revolution
• Character Analysis

Anthem (Ayn Rand):

• About Ayn Rand
• Individualism vs Collectivism

Autobiography of Malcolm X (Alex Haley):

• About Alex Haley
• About Malcolm X
• Black Panthers
• Nation of Islam (US History)
• Nation of Islam (Washington Post)

Beowulf (Anonymous):

• Araby Greene
• Figurative Language in Beowulf
• Anglo-Saxon Culture

Black Boy (Richard Wright): 

• About Richard Wright
• Race Relations in the South
• Jim Crow Laws

The Bluest Eye (Toni Morrison):

• About Toni Morrison
• Themes

Brave New World (Aldous Huxley):

• About Aldous Huxley
• About Aldous Huxley (another resource!)
• Longview Library

Childhood’s End (Arthur C. Clarke):

• About Arthur C. Clarke
• Elements of Science Fiction

The Crucible: 

• About Arthur Miller
• Sources on the Salem Witch Trials:
  • Eyewitness History
  • Salem Library
  • Smithsonian Magazine
• Sources on McCarthyism:
  • How Stuff Works
  • History.com
  • Modern Times

Cry, the Beloved Country (Alan Paton):

• About Alan Paton
• Apartheid
• Zulu culture
• Johannesburg, South Africa

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Mark Haddon):

• Autism
• First person perspective

Death of a Salesman (Arthur Miller):

• About Arthur Miller
• TedTalk–The Nature of Success
• Business in Post-WWII America

Fahrenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury):

• About Ray Bradbury
• NEA Big Read
• ACLU on Censorship
• Beacon For Freedom on Censorship

Farewell, My Lovely (Raymond Chandler):

• About Raymond Chandler
• “Farewell” as a detective novel
• Philip Marlowe and Raymond Chandler’s World

The Fault In Our Stars (John Green):

• About John Green
• Vlogbrothers on Youtube
• Childhood Cancer
• Penguin Publishers

For Whom the Bell Tolls (Ernest Hemingway):

• About Ernest Hemingway
• Spanish Civil War
• NY Times article: “The Spanish Holocaust”

Frankenstein (Mary Shelley):

• Mary Shelley
• Quick Analysis
• Regency England

The Freedom Writer’s Diary (Erin Gruwell):

• About Erin Gruwell
• Official Curriculum Guide
• Curriculum for Film
• Miep Gies
• Print Resource: Freedom Writer’s Diary Teacher’s Guide, by Erin Gruwell
• Print Resource: Diary of a Young Girl, by Anne Frank

Funny in Farsi (Firoozeh Dumas): 

• About Firoozeh Dumas
• Farsi
• CIA World Fact book-Iran
• Read-alike: Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi

The Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald):

• About F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Digital History of the ’20s
• History Channel: The ’20s
• NEA Big Read
• TES Resources

Heart of Darkness (Joseph Conrad):

• About Joseph Conrad
• Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)
• Themes

The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter (Carson McCullers):

• About Carson McCullers
• National Association of the Deaf (NAD)
• 1930s Georgia

The Help (Kathryn Stockett):

• About Kathryn Stockett
• Domestic Race Relations 1960s
• The Maid Narratives
• Domestic Workers in the 1960s

The Hours (Michael Cunningham):

• About Michael Cunningham
• Virginia Woolf
• Gender Issues in the 1920’s regarding Virginia Woolf
• Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West
• Themes of Mrs. Dalloway
• Print Resource: Mrs. Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf

In the Time of the Butterflies (Julia Alvarez):

• About Julia Alvarez
• Dominican Republic
• The Mirabal Sisters
  • NY Times Article
  • Jynessa Mendoza article from California State University

Into the Wild (Jon Krakauer):

• About Jon Krakauer
• Devil’s Thumb, Alaska
• Jack London
• Henry David Thoreau and Walden
• Neurotoxins and Chris McCandless
• Transcendentalism

The Joy Luck Club (Amy Tan):

• About Amy Tan
• Mahjongg
• Chinese Immigration to San Francisco
• Chinese Americans after WWII

Jude the Obscure (Thomas Hardy):

• About Thomas Hardy
• Victorian Serialized Novels
• Life in Victorian England

Kaffir Boy (Mark Mathabane):

• About Mark Mathabane
• Apartheid
• Nelson Mandela
• Albert Lutuli’s Nobel Prize
• Umkhonto WeSizwe, the armed wing of the African National Conference
• Anti-Pass Campaigns

Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini): 

• New York Reads
• CIA World Fact Book-Afghanistan
• Soviet-Afghan War

The Last Lecture (Randy Pausch): 

• Randy Pausch’s Website
• Pancreatic Cancer
• Watch the actual “Last Lecture”

Light In August (William Faulkner):

• About William Faulkner
• Southern Gothic Literature
• Digital Mapping of Yoknapatawpha County

Looking for Alaska (John Green):

• About John Green
• Vlogbrothers on Youtube
• Teen Suicide
• Teacher’s Notes

Mrs. Dalloway (Virginia Woolf):

• See “The Hours (Michael Cunningham)” above for resources

Of Mice and Men (John Steinbeck):

• About John Steinbeck
• Migrant Workers
• Mental Disabilities in the 1930s
• Great Depression Photos

Persepolis (Marjane Satrapi):

• About Marjane Satrapi
• Iranian Revolution
  • Summary
  • Revolution and Aftermath
  • Shah Reza Pahlavi
  • Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini
• Print Resource: Persepolis 2, by Marjane Satrapi
• Print Resource: Embroideries, by Marjane Satrapi

Pygmalion (George Bernard Shaw):

• About G. Bernard Shaw
• E-book Copy (in case you lose yours)
• A comparison of Pygmalion and My Fair Lady
• The Pygmalion Effect

A Raisin in the Sun (Lorraine Hansberry):

• About Lorraine Hansberry (includes resources for the book)
• Digital Copy of the Play
• Harlem by Langston Hughes
• Langston Hughes

Rebecca (Daphne Du Maurier):

• About Daphne Du Maurier
• Themes of Rebecca
• 1940 Hitchcock film adaptation
• Print Resource: Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison (narrator remains anonymous due to cultural restrictions)
• Print Resource: Jane Unlimited, by Kristin Cashore (read-alike)

Revolver (Marcus Sedgwick):

• About Marcus Sedgwick
• Gold Rush

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (Tom Stoppard):

• About Tom Stoppard
• Hamlet complete play
• Themes of R&GAD

The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd):

• About Sue Monk Kidd
• Themes in TSLOB
• Symbolism in TSLOB

Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (Stephen R. Covey): 

• About Stephen R. Covey
• Extra resources for the book
• Print Resource: How to Win Friends and Influence People, by Dale Carnegie

Sunrise Over Fallujah (Walter Dean Myers):

• Iraq War
• Military Diversity
• Civil Affairs Officer
• Print Resource: Fallen Angels, by Walter Dean Myers. This book precedes Sunrise Over Fallujah.

Their Eyes Were Watching God (Zora Neale Hurston): 

• About Zora Neale Hurston
• Interview: Growing Up Black in the 1930’s
• Harlem Renaissance Primary Resources
• Harlem Renaissance

To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee): 

• About Harper Lee
• Southern Liberalism and Atticus Finch
• Southern Race Relations
• Emmitt Till
• Jim Crow Laws
• NEA Big Read
• Print Resource: Go Set A Watchmen, by Harper Lee

Tuesdays With Morrie (Mitch Albom):

• About Mitch Albom
• ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis)
• Nightline interview with Professor Morrie Schwartz

The Turn of the Screw (Henry James):

• About Henry James
• Digital Copy
• Victorian Ghost Stories
• Additional Victorian Ghost Story Suggestions

Waiting for Godot (Samuel Beckett): 

• About Samuel Beckett
• Themes of Waiting for Godot
• Print Resource: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, by Tom Stoppard
  • Theater of the Absurd

Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte):

• About Emily Bronte
• Gothic Literature
• Regency Period

Open Educational Resources (OER) are freely accessible and openly licensed learning tools that are great for reinforcing concepts, gaining new knowledge, or continuing lifelong learning. These are just some of the hundreds of OERs available so you never have to stop learning!

Free college classes through reputable universities:

• Open Educational Database
• Coursera
• EdX
• Open Course Workshops through MIT
• Open Yale Courses
• Johns Hopkins open courses
• Carnegie Mellon University Open Learning Initiative

Math curriculum for teachers:

• Open Up Resources

General studies for your own learning enjoyment:

• Open Course Library
• OER Commons
• Digital Public Library of America

Full textbooks used in some of the top universities: 

• OpenStax

K-12 curricular tools for use at school or at home:

• CK-12

For teens and adults who are interested in volunteering in the Homework Help Center, please fill out the volunteer application and indicate which afternoon you are available and willing to commit.

Volunteer hours for the Homework Help Center at Pickerington Main Library are Monday-Thursday, 2:30-6:30 p.m., and from 2:30-6:00 p.m. at the Sycamore Plaza Library. Commitment is ongoing through the school year. Training is provided.

Please note that the library’s volunteer criteria apply: see the guidelines for volunteer applications on the library’s Volunteers page.