My Webquest Idea

Since I'll be teaching social studies second semester, which is a subject I've never taught before, I know I would like to make the class more exciting than just using the textbook. One way to do this would be to create a webquest. I've created two webquests in the past, one for my Spanish class and one for my language arts class. However, after looking at the different webquests as a result of our other assignment for this week, I noticed that these webquests were a little different from the ones I had created, for these were more inquiry-based. Considering the fact that our webquest does need to be inquiry-based and one in which allows the students to become active learners and to construct their own meaning, I think that the idea I have will fit these requirements.

The idea I have is to do a study of the decades. Since I'll be teaching World War II and history from that point on (mostly up through the 1980's), I think it'd be suitable to create a webquest that enables the students to learn about not only our country's history in terms of political events, fashion, pop-culture, education, and health, but also teaches them about economics, such as inflation and the cost of living.

What I would do is break the students into groups. Groups would be about 4-5 students each. The students would choose a decade they would want to research. I would probably have roles they could choose, similar to the roles that were identified in the webquest I selected as "the best webquest" for our other assignment, in which the tasks would be clearly identified. For example, one person in the group would research pop-culture, another would research political events, and someone would research health, to name a few.

The students would then compile this information into some sort of presentation - most likely a PowerPoint or poster presentation. I'd like them to stick with using technology, which is why I'd have them create a PowerPoint. At the same time though, I do like offering the students choice when it comes to creating a final product. At any rate, the information gathered would be compiled into a final product which the students would have to present to the class. The overall purpose of this webquest would be for the students to learn about the history of the U.S. and to be able to compare and contrast the way life is now to the way it was years ago. I think the students would find more meaning in learning about history this way rather than simply reading about it in the text.

For now, this is my idea. It may change after I give it some more thought. We'll see...