http://www.kn.att.com/wired/fil/pages/webthewestmr.html
Last revised Thu Nov 15 20:59:29 US/Pacific 2007
created by mr.jckennedy
Introduction | The Task | The Process | Conclusion |
The purpose of this web quest is to teach third-grade students about the settlement of the western lands of North America. They are going to examine a major trail that pioneers traveled including how they traveled, problems they encountered, and supplies they needed while traveling.
During your discoveries about the Western Movement, you will be expected to differentiate and locate states used by travelers, identify problems that may have influenced their travel, and identify the supplies they needed.
You will be working together as a group exploring the following web site (American West)that your teacher has selected. Each group is responsible for deciding what part of the questions they will be responsible for.
Phase 1 - Background Information
These sites are important because they will provide basic information about the topic as a whole. Everyone should explore these sites before starting your Task.
Phase 2 - Roles
Since you are already in cooperative teams, your roles are already determined. Please see your specific instructions and questions below.
INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Explore the website provided.
2. Read through the files designated for your group. You can print out pages and underline the parts that you feel are important or cut and paste from the webpage into a word processor.
3. Remember to include the URL of the page you take information from so you can return to it and use it as a citation.
4. Focus what you've learned into one main opinion that answers the Big Quest(ion) or Task.
Phase 3 - Reaching Consensus
You have all learned about different parts of The Western Movement. Now group members come back to the larger WebQuest team with expertise gained by searching from one perspective. You must all now complete the Task as a group. Each of you will bring a certain viewpoint to the answer: some of you will agree and others disagree. Use information, pictures, facts, opinions, etc. from the web site you explored to convince your teammates that your viewpoint is important and should be part of your team's response. Your WebQuest team should write out an answer that everyone on the team can live with.
So is an elephant smooth, rough, soft, or hard? Well, when you're blindfolded and only *looking* at one part, it's easy to come up with an answer that may not be completely right. It's the same for understanding a topic as broad or complex as The Western Movement: when you only know part of the picture, you only know part of the picture. Now you all know a lot more. Nice work. You should be proud of yourselves! How can you use what you've learned to see beyond the black and white of a topic and into the grayer areas? What other parts of The Western Movement could still be explored? Remember, learning never stops.
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Content by mr.jckennedy, mr.jckennedy@yahoo.com http://www.kn.att.com/wired/fil/pages/webthewestmr.html Last revised Thu Nov 15 20:59:29 US/Pacific 2007 |