Curtis+High+School

**__If you see something, should you DO something? __**
 * __Curtis High School (450R): __**

Librarian: Rita Dougherty, rdoughe@schools.nyc.gov Grade Levels: 9-12 1. **__Purchases__:** 211 e-books from Follett (Dewey 959-973)

2. **__Content area addressed__:** English Reading Standards for Literature Grade 10 Reading Standards for Informational Text Grade 10 Writing Standards Grade 10

3. **__Worked with teacher__:** Lisa Pillarella

4. **__Title of Project__:** If You SEE Something, Should You DO Something?

5. **__Description of Lesson__:** Using non-fiction e-books for research to make a pro or con argument - //Resources Used:// __The Apache Wars: The Final Resistance__ (e-book) __Daily Life During The Indian Wars__ (e-book) __Darfur: African Genocide__ (e-book) __The Rwandan Genocide__ (e-book) <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">- //Grade Level:// 10th Grade <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">- //Lesson Goal:// Students learn how to use e-books accurately and effectively. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">- //How do you know the goal was achieved?// <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Students wrote persuasive essays concerning an individual’s responsibility to take action – or not - when a wrong is being committed. They read Boyne’s __The Boy in the Striped Pajamas__ and Weisel’s __Night__, and compared Jews in Nazi Germany during World War II to the plight of American Indians and Africans in Darfur and Rwanda.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">6. **__Tips on implementing at another school__:** The students enjoyed experiencing the e-books on the “big screen” (SmartBoard), but they loved it when they could borrow them on their personal devices. Inasmuch as I myself am still a novice in this format, the children took to it like a fish to water.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">7. **__Lessons Learned__:** The next time I order e-books I will try to find titles that multiple students can borrow at the same time. Although this was a really nice way to expose them to the e-books I purchased, for purposes of researching non-fiction titles, multiple-borrowing capability allows for greater access when an entire class is working on a particular assignment.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">8. **__Plans for usage of material next year__:** I will encourage students and staff to make use of our e-books. In addition to the non-fiction titles, I ordered via the Grant, Follett provided us with free additional titles, mostly classical literature, i.e. 19th Century English/American fiction. **__<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">Lesson Plan: If you see something, should you DO something?: __****__<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">Writing A Persuasive Essay __** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Aim: How do you borrow and browse an e-book? <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">1. The assignment is to develop a persuasive essay relating to the culpability of those who witness wrongful actions but do nothing to stop them. We have a class set of Boyne’s, __The Boy in the Striped Pajamas__, provided by the New York Public Library through interlibrary loan. We also have a class set of Weisel’s, __Night__, provided by the Curtis English Department bookroom.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">2. Students have read the Boyne novel and excerpts from __Night__. By way of comparing and contrasting the horrors of genocide across the ages and continents, the class read excerpts from four non-fiction e-books: __The Apache Wars: The Final Resistance__, __Daily Life During The Indian Wars__, __Darfur: African Genocide__, and __The Rwandan Genocide__.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">3. For the purpose of this particular lesson, we selected the “Read Online” feature to demonstrate the e-books via the SmartBoard in Ms. Pillarella’s classroom. Students were shown how to access the Curtis Library homepage and search the catalog for e-books. Students have individual access accounts set up with their names and OSIS numbers so that after we familiarized them with “borrowing” procedures, they may do so on their own whether in school or at home. E-books that are checked out circulate for two weeks at which time they return automatically to the “shelf.” <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Follow Up: Ms. Pillarella has provided me with two sample essays that appropriately incorporated information obtained from our e-books.


 * __<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 19px;">Lesson Plan: If you see something, should you DO something?: Research and eBooks __**

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Guided question: How do you find an e-book in the Curtis Library Catalog? __<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Note __<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">: Prior to going to Ms. Pillarella’s classroom, I created log-ins so that the students could access and borrow e-books through Destiny rather than FollettShelf. Ideally, the students can then check for both print and online materials in one search rather than two separate ones. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">In class, I demonstrated on the SmartBoard how to search the catalog using “Keyword,” “Title,” and “Subject” (e.g. genocide, Darfur, world war, American Indian). I then distributed the handout with log in instructions. (Handout #1) <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Guided question: How does using e-books enhance our research capabilities? __<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Note __<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">: For these lessons Ms. Pillarella brought her class down to the library. Since there are only 22 computes in the media center and this particular class has 34 students, Ms. Pillarella divided the class in two. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">On two separate days, we allowed 17 students to search the catalog while the other 17 discussed proof of genocide in __The Boy in the Striped Pajamas__ and __Night__. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Guided question: Did you find the experience using e-books pleasurable, helpful, or of no consequence? <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Students presented information that they printed from the e-books. For the most part, they liked the fact that they could mark up the printouts – unlike print materials that they borrow from the library. (Handouts #2, #3, #4, and #5) <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Guided question: What other classes require research reports and would you like more e-books for pleasure reading? <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">We randomly called on students to read excerpts from their essays that contained citations from the e-books. (Sample #1 and #2) All students agreed that social studies classes would definitely benefit from the e-books. All students agreed that they would like to see more popular fiction titles added to the catalog.
 * __<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Lesson 1: How do you find an e-book in the Curtis Library Catalog? __**
 * __<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Lessons 2 & 3: How does using e-books enhance our research capabilities? __**
 * __<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Lesson 4: What information did we gather from our searches that supports our arguments for or against intervention? __**
 * __<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Lesson 5: How likely are you to use e-books for future projects? __**