Week Nine

It's been interesting to look through some existing WebQuests and get a better idea of what it will take to create an effective quest. I evaluated a WebQuest that was designed for 5th grade American Revolution and it was a valuable experience. The pieces needed to create a WebQuest were there in name only. There was no real opportunity for higher level evaluation on the part of students. I've found that I tend to learn as much from learning what not to do as I do from seeing something done well.

I'm moving forward with my plan to build a WebQuest for 5th grade American Revolution. I have been working on the introduction and I think it will look something like this:

You and four friends are playing in your front yard when you hear a loud crashing noise come from your neighbors garage. Smoke begins to trickle from around the garage door as it opens and you see your neighbor, Mr. Brown, a bit singed but looking quite excited. You all run to see what has happened and Mr. Brown tells you that he has finally been successful in creating a time machine. You all step inside the garage to see the machine, but you get too close and the machine backfires, the next thing you know you're in Boston and the year is 1775. You're just looking around when a man runs out of a store and drags you inside. He thinks the five of you are the new newspaper reporters he's been waiting for. Before you can explain he's given you your assignments.

The task will be for each student to complete a pre-determined newspaper article, complete with an image (not cut and pasted from the www). The five articles will be combined to create a newspaper.

I need to do some reading and see if there is a particular event that I would like the students to focus on for this assignment. A key battle or event that will serve to make them do some deep thinking. I would like them to have a Current Event type article, a Headline article, Across the Colonies, Dear Abby type help column and an Editorial.

I've started to put together some of the resources. I found a British based site on the WebQuest I evaluated, which outlined the American Revolution from the British standpoint and I will include this along with the many US based sites on the revolution. I'm still working on the steps and angles that will insure higher level thinking. Some columns may be broader in scope than others which will allow the teacher to distribute the articles based on student strengths. More to come as I move forward!