E-Books on EBSCOhost

I searched “France during World War II.” The books that came up were American Soldiers Overseas: The Global Military Presence and The Idiot’s Guide to American History. After these books were several random options, like Exploring New Orleans: A Family Guide and Junior Genreflecting: A Guide to Good Reads and Series Fiction for Children. I was disappointed with the options that were related to my search. When I saw all of the books that weren’t even a little bit connected to World War II or France I was ANNOYED. Still, I continued on, selecting American Soldiers Overseas, I opened the full ebook. The print was small. I clicked on the magnifying glass and the print did not get any larger. The one thing that I did like was that I could view the books table of contents without opening the whole book. Then again, opening the whole book didn’t take long. Next, I searched “constitution.” Since I was looking for information for students I went into the advanced search; this did not help me at all. On the side it said there were 185 books on the subject. Many were law books; not helpful in the classroom. Then I saw the constitution of the countries and the constitution of the Confederate States. This was a huge disappointment, I was not able to find any useful books. Also, if the books are only available to one person at a time, how many would I have to pick out for suggested student use? There are not enough options. Next, I went to the required advanced search: Nebraska. And the results were divided by publisher. As part of my research I am supposed to be looking as though students are doing a project on the west. Here are the first search results (THIS IS THE WORST): 1. Upside Down: Seasons Among the Nunamiut (this is a book about a tribe in Alaska, NOT THE WEST!); 2. Origins of the Final Solution: The Evolution of Nazi Jewish Policy September 1939-March 1942 (What? I don’t know if this could be any more off topic.) 3. Playing for Their Nation: Baseball and the American Military During World War II (Baseball? Really?) ~Common Core~ I would use this site in class to teach students to eliminate all of the things that do not apply to our topic. Looking at the first descriptive words, what tells you that this can be eliminated as a possibility because it does not apply to our topic? I will not use this.

Gale Virtual Reference Library

Title List>Political Theories for Students>Comparison Table of Political Theories I like this table comparing different political theories. I could easily use this in my government class. The chart itself was easy to understand and gave good information that was easy to find. Search I searched for World War II. This was a very general topic, but I think this is how students usually search. Under World War II, I found a variety of things: WWII Nurses, National War Labor Board, and other more general World War II information. The nurses topic gave me interesting information that I may not have looked for or even known about. When I clicked on the article I found PRIMARY SOURCES (!): pictures and eyewitness accounts. The National War Labor Board topic gave a short article (the perfect size for high school students). I liked that the MLA citation was displayed at the bottom of the article for easy student use. Under the general World War II topic, I looked at the Berkshire Encyclopedia of World History. This is where I “listened.” I liked that it highlighted the words as it read. I also liked the option to Download MP3 and Download PDF to eReader. When I looked into my colleagues’ blogs, I saw that they enjoyed the listening function too. One pointed out, however that the voice was a little robotic. This is true, but if a student needs it read to them I think the voice is fine. ~Common Core~ Under education, I searched Critical Thinking. (I noticed, and liked, that as I was typing this in it started pulling up related ideas like “critical thinking skills” and “thinking critically.” I came upon an article about “Classroom Questions.” In the article, they discussed they types of questions that can be asked and the purpose of asking questions in the classroom. Common Core Standard 11-12.RH.5 Analyze in detail how a complex primary source is structured, including how key sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text contribute to the whole. When looking at a primary source, students need to have the right questions. They need to look at the source and answer the basic questions and then think more deeply on the material and get some kind of connection to what they are supposed to be getting out of this.

Proquest

I looked up “Normandy” and then “common core.” I wasn’t overly impressed with either of the results. I feel like I could have done as well with Google. I did like that the results were recent, from 2013. I liked that on the side I could divide my search result by the type of article I was looking for. Even when I clicked on newspapers, in my “common core” search, I was still overwhelmed with options. The suggested subjects box was of no help. Their suggestions were in no way related to what I was looking for when I searched “common core.” The suggestion box when I searched “Normandy” was more helpful. Publications- When I looked at the publications tab I had no idea where to begin. If you don’t know what to search for (when you are looking up the title of something) how do you know what to search for? I scrolled through the first couple of pages of periodical titles. I decided to type in “history.” This brought up several good magazines, all fairly recent. But I think that it would be hard to search a specific topic here unless there is an entire magazine dedicated to that topic. ~Common Core~ This could be easily linked to common core reading standards. Students could use this to find an article relating to the classroom topic. Journal articles could be used to “cite specific evidence.” This is a repeating theme in the common core standards.

SIRS

SIRS Discoverer First Task- look up armadillos. It was easy to search and I clicked on the first option. I picked the first option because I thought that may be the first reaction of an elementary student. It was a good selection: an article on “Awesome Armadillos” by Diane Thuna that appeared in Wild magazine…in 2003. I’m sure information on Armadillos hasn’t changed much over time, but in some cases 10 year old research can be outdated. I liked the access to information, but I think that it is going to be hard for students, especially younger ones to get their heads around the idea that this was in a magazine. They’d like to see it. (I would have settled for just seeing the cover of the magazine.) But this magazine is designed for kids. I’m sure that it was full of pictures and text boxes with little bits of information to make it appealing to young students. Now, when I need it for research I am forced to look at just the text. To me, this tells young students that research is the boring part of reading. With the technology of tablets, we should be able to see the magazine article. That way we show students that they can be entertained and interested while doing their research. Next task: database features. Country Facts. I had options of Country Facts, State Facts, and Canada Facts. This was very straight-forward. I was able to click on a country and find the basic facts and see a map and their flag. It’s useful information, but I do not think that this beats the CIA World Factbook. Maps of the World. I could find almost any map here. I looked at the Historical Maps. There were so many maps. And they had printable versions! This is an excellent resource for teachers to find maps for their classes. Historical maps are a great resource to illustrate change over time. Skills Discoverer. I selected Social Studies for a topic and then selected maps. This led me to a list of areas that I could find maps for. Which led me to the CIA website. It seemed a long way around to get to a site I already use. SIRS Issues Researcher: I like that the SIRS Researcher gives “leading issues,” this is perfect for students who “have no idea what to do.” I looked at the top ten and most of the topics made sense to me. They seemed to be the same controversial issues that were discussed when I was in high school: gun control, abortion, marijuana use. Among these issues was cheerleading. I was curious as to what the “issue” was with cheerleading. I was interested in the debate over whether or not cheerleading was a sport. I liked that the pros and cons were laid right out for me when I was looking. Research Tools. The note organizer was amazing! I could easily see using this with students. It would help them to keep their paper balanced. And they are right where the research is so they would easily be able to see if one side was stronger than the other, then they could even it out. Articles. There were a ton of articles out there on a topic that I didn’t even realize was being debated. This is where I learned the most: if student comes to me with a topic in mind ask for them to show me that there is research available. If someone would have come to me wanting to discuss the topic of cheerleading being a sport I would have wondered where they would get their information. Now, I’m wondering what else is out there. ~Common Core~ 11-12.RH.1 Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources, connecting insights gained from specific details to an understanding of the text as a whole. SIRS Issues Researcher could be used when a student is writing their research paper to ensure that the research is balanced. The cheerleading articles were a good combination of primary and secondary sources. And with so many to choose from students will be able to find proof to make their argument easily. (I was not impressed with the Educator’s Resources.)