Teachers

Teacher Notes

Purpose

This WebQuest is designed to correlate to the Florida Sunshine State Standards with a focus on sixth grade social studies and language arts, in connection to the Dig This! reading unit.

Objective:

Students will individually research the controversial subject of unearthing ancient human remains, based on the role they assume. As a group, they will create a mock trial to convince the teacher to award the unexcavated mummy to one member of the group, who will determine the mummy's ultimate fate. An underlying objective is to strengthen students' writing and speaking skills.

Grade Level Expectations and Benchmarks

Social Studies, Reading, Language Arts and Science

Grade Level Expectations:	Benchmarks
Students will understand ways in which cultural characteristics have been transmitted from one society to another.	SS.A.3.3.1
Students will understand ways judgments about cultural characteristics and degree of technological development influence perception of places and regions.	SS.B.1.3.4
Students will understand ways current issues affect political, social, and economic systems in selected regions.	SS.C.2.3.7
Students will know ways scientific theories may change with new discoveries.	SC.H.1.3
Students will use pre-reading strategies before reading (i.e. skimming text headings, bold type, other features)	LA.A.1.3.1
Students will make inferences and generalizations about what is read.	LA.A.2.3.1
Students will use graphic organizer and note-making to clarify meaning and to illustrate organizational patterns of text, and monitor own comprehension and make modifications when understanding breaks down by re-reading a portion aloud or silently.	LA.A.1.3.4
Students will use a graphic organizer to clarify meaning of text.	LA.A.1.3.4
Students will determine a text's major ideas and how those ideas are supported with details.	LA.A.2.3.1
Students will form and revise questions for investigations.	LA.A.2.3.5
Students will separate collected information into useful components using a variety of techniques, and synthesize collected information using a matrix or other graphic organizer.	LA.A.2.3.7
Students will distinguish between fact and fiction, and examine text for identification of strong versus weak arguments.	LA.A.2.3.8
Students will use a pre-writing strategy suitable for the task.	LA.B.1.3.2
Students will focus on a central idea or topic.	LA.B.1.3.2
Students will use an effective organization pattern and substantial support to achieve a sense of completeness or wholeness.	LA.B.1.3.3
Students will write notes, outlines, comments and observations that reflect comprehension of sixth grade level or higher content from a variety of media.	LA.B.2.3.1
Students will use electronic technology appropriate to writing tasks to create, revise, retrieve, and verify information.	LA.B.2.3.4
Students will summarixe main points and supporting details orally and in writing.	LA.C.2.3.1
Students will organize and effectively deliver a speech with a beginning, middle and end.	LA.C.3.3.3
Students will participate in classroom discussions using effective speaking strategies, such as making observations and asking questions.	LA.C.3.3.2
Students will: use appropriate grammar, word choice, pacing; language that is clear, audible, and suitable; and deliver a speech which appropriately addresses the audience; participate as contributor and occasionally acat as a leader in a group discussion.	LA.C.3.3.3

Process

Ideally, grouping should be entirely random, with students choosing a strip of paper with a role and group number on it. However, in the event you have students who should not work together, you may want to pre-select the groups, then allow the children to draw for roles.

Completion of this WebQuest may take anywhere from six to ten class periods of approximately 45 minutes each, depending on the number of computers available, as well as the class's reading and writing skills. This activity touches briefly on science, and requires grade-level reading and writing skills.

Resources

This WebQuest is best and most easily accomplished whole class in a Computer lab where each student has his/her own computer, resulting in the need for only one teacher to supervise. Links are provided for each character's individual research needs, as well as links to general information suitable for use by all roles. Print material is optional but not necessary.

Modifications

If you find that younger students are struggling with the ability to assimilate their research into viable arguments, you may wish to set aside one class period to allow students with like roles to discuss what they've learned and develop arguments together. Students could then take back the information to their respective teams and use it to support their positions. This would build more self-confidence in the students, as well as help encourage the discussions to involve fact as well as opinion.

LD/SLD: For students with learning disabilities, you may want to consider grouping the students so that all the children in one group are the same character. Rather than having 6 groups of 4 characters each (1 archaeologist, 1 curator, 1descendant and 1MONA official), you may want to have 8 groups with three students each (2 groups each of 3 archaeologists, 3 curators, 3 descendants and 3 Monas). Besides providing the students with a sense of security created by working with - rather than against - others, it also allows the teacher to provide support and assistance to the students as a group rather than individually.

ESOL/ESL/LEP

Long-term projects such as WebQuests can provide extra challenges for those students for whom English is not the native language. For students who speak at least some basic English, I have found it helpful to pair that child with another reliable student in the class, giving them both the same role and allowing them to work together. Besides helping the ESOL student to practice reading, writing and speaking English, this provides the assisting student an opportunity to gain reinforcement through the information s/he teaches the ESOL student. In the instance where the student speaks no English, when possible I pair the child up with another bilingual students in the class who can work with the ESOL student in his/her native tongue, then allow the English speaker to present the argument using details provided by the ESOL student.

Evaluation

See "Evaluation" link on navigation bar for specific criteria used to evaluate the completed activity.

Conclusion

Students should realize that in the real world virtually every important issue in life has more than one side, and more than one way of proving a particular point of view. This project is designed to help students understand that researching a matter from as many perspectives as possible is a positive step toward making oneself aware of all the details, which, in turn, will help them to decide in the future which decision is the best one when there is no single clear-cut answer.

Ready? Let's return to Introduction.

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