Lesson 7 -- EBooks on EbscoHost (formerly NetLibrary)

Basic Challenge

1. Do a search for a topic that interests you. Note the default search is "Find all my search terms." You may want to change the search to one of the other options. Review your findings and observations. 

Well, I decided to look up a topic that many of my students are interested in and do reports on. I looked up "Volcanoes." Wow. Books on astronomy, plant migration, Hawaii, and more came up. I thought that they would have more information on such a broad, common topic. I settled on a book titled Geology by James Woodhead. It was a little difficult to navigate at first, but it had a lot of great information on different types of volcanoes, pictures, and references for more information. I think that this would definitely work as a source for my students. 

2. Constitution Day is looming and several students need more material. Search EBooks on EbscoHost and recommend some appropriate titles. 

I liked The Readers Companion to American History and also  The Complete Idiot's Guide to the American Presidents. AP U.S. History also looked very useful, especially if you are studying for the AP exam. It included information on "What you need to know for the exam," "A comprehensive review of US history," and "Developing confidence by taking practice exams."

3. A class is doing projects on Western history. They have exhausted the library's print collection. In EBooks on EbscoHost, click "Advanced Search." In the "Select a Field" box, choose "PB Publisher." In the search box, type "Nebraska" or "Oklahoma." Report your findings. 

I looked up "Nebraska" and found that there were 56 results and the first books to come through on the search were books on Native American tribes and peoples. I looked and found that all of the books were published by the University of Nebraska Press. 

Common Core Challenge
In Lesson 7, spend some time exploring Ebooks on EbscoHost titles and topics. Consider how you would use this resource to meet a Common Core standard. 

In your blog post, name the standard and briefly and specifically describe the lesson you will teach using Ebooks on EbscoHost to help meet the standard.

I clicked on the "eBooks" tab in the upper-left hand corner of the main screen. This took me to a page where I could just browse through some topics. As much as I wanted to look through the cookbooks, I clicked on "Children's and Young Adult Nonficiton."This gave me a list of 148 books to browse through. I was looking for books for a standard that I had not used yet in this challenge. 

There were some books on "Children of Hawaii/Dominica/Tlingit" and I thought that this would work great as a compare and contrast for children in different cultures. 
I had to stretch a little, but I found the standard (I don't think that I've used this one yet):  

 5.R.I.6 Analyze multiple accounts of the same event or topic, noting important similarities and differences in the point of view they represent.


I thought that I could use this standard and also have the students compare their experiences and culture with those of the children in the books.