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A WebQuest for 6th Grade Social Studies

Designed by

Designed by Aliveni Akella, Danielle Lefebvre, and Rebecca Stapleton

Introduction | Learners | Standards | Process | Resources | Evaluation | Conclusion | Credits | StudentPage

Introduction

This WebQuest was designed as part of an Educational Technology Masters Degree Program at the University of Hartford.

This lesson is designed to teach students about the important events and people of the 1960’s. After completing the WebQuest students should be able to tell how the 1960’s shaped America today.

Learners

This lesson is designed for 6th grade Social Studies curriculum in the State of Connecticut. This lesson also involves Technology standards.

Prior to beginning this lesson students need to have experience with technology including: following links, creating PowerPoint Presentations, and using MS Word.

Curriculum Standards

While working on this WebQuest students will be addressing the following Social Studies and Technology standards:

Social Studies Standards

Content Standard 1: Historical Thinking

Students willdevelop historical thinking skills, including chronological thinking and recognizing change over time; contextualizing, comprehending and analyzing historical literature; researching historical sources; understanding the concept of historical causation; understanding competing narratives and interpretation; and constructing narratives and interpretation.

Content Standard 2: Local, United States, and World History

Students willuse historical thinking skills to develop an understanding of the major historical periods, issues and trends in United States history, world history, and Connecticut and local history.

Content Standard 3: Historical Themes

Students willapply their understanding of historical periods, issues and trends to examine such historical themes as ideals, beliefs and institutions; conflict and conflict resolution; human movement and interaction; and science and technology in order to understand how the world came to be the way it is.

Technology Standards

  1. Basic operations and concepts
  2. Students demonstrate a sound understanding of the nature and operation of technology systems.
  3. Students are proficient in the use of technology.
  1. Social, ethical, and human issues
  2. Students understand the ethical, cultural, and societal issues related to technology.
  3. Students practice responsible use of technology systems, information, and software.
  4. Students develop positive attitudes toward technology uses that support lifelong learning, collaboration, personal pursuits, and productivity.

3.Technology productivity tools

  • Students use technology tools to enhance learning, increase productivity, and promote creativity.
  • Students use productivity tools to collaborate in constructing technology-enhanced models, prepare publications, and produce other creative works.

4.Technology communications tools

  • Students use telecommunications to collaborate, publish, and interact with peers, experts, and other audiences.
  • Students use a variety of media and formats to communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences.

5.Technology research tools

  • Students use technology to locate, evaluate, and collect information from a variety of sources.
  • Students use technology tools to process data and report results

Process

***This webquest will take five to six sixty minute class periods to complete.

  1. Join the group of time travelers that your teacher has assigned you to.Each group should consist of 4 students. You can assign them to groups according to your knowledge of your students.
  2. Each member of the group must take on one of the following roles.

Arts and Entertainment Specialist

People and Events Coordinator

Science and Technology Guru

Lifestyles and Sports Expert

  1. Each of you must research the following questions that go along with your role. Click on your role to download your research organizer.

Arts and Entertainment Specialist

  • What were some of the popular forms of entertainment during the 1960’s? (Examples: radio shows, television, books, movies, theater, musical artists etc.)
  • Who were some influential artists of that time? What pieces of art did they create?
  • What major advances were made in arts and entertainment?

People and Events Coordinator

  • What were some of the historical, political, military, and social events that took place?
  • Who were the important people in these events?

Science and Technology Guru

  • What were some of the important inventions and discoveries?
  • What were some of the important innovations and improvements made to existing products?

Lifestyles and SportsExpert

  • What were the major fashion trends?
  • What were the main leisure time activities?
  • What sports were popular?
  1. Use the resources provided in the Resources section of the quest to gather information on these questions.You may also want to use any materials that you have available in your classroom or school library. Research should take two sixty minute periods to complete.
  2. Review all of your answers and each of you will choose the four most important pieces of information that you found. This information will be used for your multi-media presentation.You may want to take some time to review with students how to determine what information is important. You could use present time references for examples.
  3. Put all of your information together to create a PowerPoint presentation that you will use to teach America about the 1960’s. You will need to have knowledge of PowerPoint to do this part of the assignment. If you are uncomfortable with PowerPoint you will want to enlist the help of your library/media specialist. You will need two to three sixty minute periods for students to complete their presentations.
  4. Present your PowerPoint to the class. At the time of your presentation, you will turn in your answers to the research questions.Collect information sheets from students. You will need to provide one day for presentations.

Resources Needed

In order to successfully implement this lesson you will need:

  • Computers
  • PowerPoint software
  • Internet Access

Links used in this lesson include:

1960’s Flashback – This site tells all about music, fads, and sports from the 1960’s.

1960’s Timeline - Get information on all aspects of the 1960’s.

Fact Monster – 1960-1969 World History – This site goes into detail about important people during the 1960’s were.

Great Moments of the 1960’s – Visit this site to learn about important events of the 1960’s.

Nostalgia Café: The 1960’s – This site is full of information on sports, lifestyles, entertainment, and more.

Issues from the Interviews ~ the 1960’s – Quotes from people about important events during the 1960’s.

The Apollo Program – Find out about the space program.

American Cultural History – 1960-1969 – Get information on all aspects of the 1960’s.

This lesson is designed to be implemented using 1 teacher.

Evaluation

To evaluate the lesson objectives teachers should use the following rubric while looking at students PowerPoint presentations and Research Organizers.

Beginning
1 / Developing
2 / Accomplished
3 / Exemplary
4 / Score
Content / Information is incomplete, irrelevant, and/or unclear. / Less than four pieces of information from each reporter are presented in the presentation. / Four pieces of information from each reporter are presented in the presentation. / Four relevant pieces of information from each reporter are clearly presented in the presentation.
Research / Most reporters did not answer the questions required of their role. / One or more reporters did not answer the questions required of their role. / Each reporter answered most of the questions required of their role. / Each reporter completely answered all of the questions required of their role.
PowerPoint Presentation - Appearance / Use of font, color, graphics, effects etc. but these often distract from the presentation content. / Makes use of font, color, graphics, effects, etc. but occasionally these detract from the presentation content. / Makes good use of font, color, graphics, effects, etc. to enhance to presentation. / Makes excellent use of font, color, graphics, effects, etc. to enhance the presentation.
PowerPoint Presentation - Content / Content is minimal OR there are several factual errors. / Includes essential information about the topic but there are 1-2 factual errors. / Includes essential knowledge about the topic. Subject knowledge appears to be good. / Covers topic in-depth with details and examples. Subject knowledge is excellent.
PowerPoint Presentation – Spelling & Mechanics / More than 4 errors in spelling or grammar. / Four misspellings and/or grammatical errors. / Three or fewer misspellings and/or mechanical errors. / No misspellings or grammatical errors.
Presentation Skills / Delivery not smooth and audience attention often lost. / Delivery not smooth, but able to maintain interest of the audience most of the time. / Rehearsed with fairly smooth delivery that holds audience attention most of the time. / Well-rehearsed with smooth delivery that holds audience attention.
Teamwork / The workload was not divided OR several people in the group are viewed as not doing their fair share of the work. / The workload was divided, but one person in the group is viewed as not doing his/her fair share of the work. / The workload is divided and shared fairly by all team members, though workloads may vary from person to person. / The workload is divided and shared equally by all team members.

Conclusion

This lesson will teach students about the decade 1960, which was a very important decade in American History. Students must tell important events and people of the 1960’s and explain how it has influenced their life today.

Credits & References

The images above were taken from The University of Texas, Infoplease, and The Mountain 99.5.

To find more Webquests, visit The WebQuest Page. The template for this webquest was found on the Design Patterns page.You might want to include the following statement:

"We all benefit by being generous with our work. Permission is hereby granted for other educators to copy this WebQuest, update or otherwise modify it, and post it elsewhere provided that the original author's name is retained along with a link back to the original URL of this WebQuest. On the line after the original author's name, you may add Modified by (your name) on (date). If you do modify it, please let me know and provide the new URL."

Based on a template from The WebQuest Page