Of the choices given, I searched MiddleSearch Plus. One of the first things I noticed was that the articles I chose to explore were written at a very high level. All would definitely have been too challenging for most of my 6th Grade students. There was however what seemed to be an infinite number of choices of articles and subject areas to explore. The first Discovery Exercise was very simple to access. Since I teach History and Geography I began to explore articles to be used in a project that I will soon be having the students complete. I searched first for the topic Colonial America and then was able to narrow that to Blacks during Colonial Times, specifically the early slave trade and the beginnings of the American Slave Trade in Portugal. I also searched Native Americans, and found a wealth of information on some of the more famous early colonists. There is definitely a huge amount of information, but again text levels seemed too difficult for my 6th Graders. I plan to explore Primary Search prior to staring our project as I'm just realizing now that the Lexiles in this area might be more suited to 6th Graders. I also found similar amounts of information when searching the topic American Revolution. One of the things I found that I thought was wonderful was that each article was also given in audio and that as the computer reads the text, the words are highlighted as they are read. A very impressive feature.
Searching through Ebasco eBooks was just as impressive. I once again searched the topic American Revolution. I found books on a wide range of topics from Black Patriots and Loyalists to Modern Marxism to How to Ace your Midterms and Finals in U.S. History. In searching through resources for Constitution Day materials I found I had to first narrow the search to Constitution Day/ United States. There was some very interesting text on George Washington's inauguration. The novel Founding Friendship: George Washington, James Madison, and the Creation of the American Republic had some incredibly interesting excerpts. Also quite impressive was the novel Constitution Congress: The Federalist Period 1789-1801. Again some of the text seemed too difficult for my 6th Graders, but could definitely be used with some guidance.
For exercise #3 the projects on Western history, I was not as impressed with the materials available. Maybe it was me, but I couldn't seem to find as much information as I would have liked on the actual history of the West. A couple titles that seemed appropriate and usable were Susan La Flesche, MD: Omaha Indian Leader and Reformer.Also, Americans View Their Dust Bowl Experience By: John R. Wunder.
I found huge amounts of information in these areas and feel that I have barely skimmed the surface.
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