WebQuest to the Old West

Karley Royal EDU 214: Preparing Teachers to Use Technology Nevada State College 2/5/13 Grade: 4th

Introduction
It is the year 1845 You and your pioneer family are searching for a better life and have decided to Go West. What lies ahead in your journey? Will you make it to the new frontier? You decide!

Task
You and two other group members will write letters to your extended family describing your journey out west describing some of your journey, warning them of the dangers and encouraging them to join you out west. You will use the computers to research as much as you can about your role and journey as a pioneer.

Process
Choose
Each family member witnesses many wonderful things and is responsible for different tasks while traveling on the wild frontier. With your two other group members, decide which family member role you would like to explore:
Father Mother Child

Next, decide as a group whether you will be taking:

The Oregon Trail
Cheap land Fresh start Gold rush Opportunity for work

The California Trail

Research
Your Role
Find out as much as you can about your role in the pioneer lifestyle. What tasks are you responsible for? How do you contribute? Why are you traveling out west? What are you packing with you? What is the trail like? Are you nervous? Excited?

The Journey

Write
You and your family members will write letters to send to your extended family members describing your journey: Father will write to Uncle John, Mother will write to Aunt Mary, and the child will write to Cousin Charlie.
Describe your journey in detail. What did you see along the way? What hardships did you have to face? Did you travel with a group? Be descriptive!

 Research Links
http://www.kidinfo.com/american_history/pioneers.html http://library.thinkquest.org/6400/ http://www.malakoff.com/goldcountry/maintcgc.htm http://library.thinkquest.org/CR0210182/ http://library.thinkquest.org/J001587/ http://americanhistory.pppst.com/oregontrail.html

Accommodations for EL or SE
This would vary based on the level of the student. For one variation, I would have them focus on listing facts related to specific pioneer categories such as hardships, technology, and lifestyle. They would also be given vocabulary words where they would need to find a picture on the internet to represent the definition, such as covered wagon or oxen. They could summarize what they learned in a paragraph at the end. If the student had a SLD, I would have them draw or print out pictures of pioneers and label parts relative to that lifestyle.

Evaluation
Category Ideas 1
The letter seemed to be a collection of unrelated sentences. It was very difficult to figure out what the letter was about. Many sentence fragments or run-on sentences OR paragraphing needs lots of work.

2
Ideas were somewhat organized, but were not very clear. It took more than one reading to figure out what the letter was about. Most sentences are complete and wellconstructed. Paragraphing needs some work.

3
Ideas were expressed in a pretty clear manner, but the organization could have been better.

4
Ideas were expressed in a clear and organized fashion. It was easy to figure out what the letter was about.

Sentence and Paragraphs

All sentences are complete and wellconstructed (no fragments, no run-ons). Paragraphing is generally done well. Writer makes 1-2 errors in grammar and/or spelling.

Sentences and paragraphs are complete, wellconstructed and of varied structure.

Grammar and Spelling Salutation and Closing

Writer makes more than 4 errors in grammar and/or spelling. Salutation and/or closing are missing.

Writer makes 3-4 errors in grammar and/or spelling

Writer makes no errors in grammar or spelling.

Salutation and closing have 3 or more errors in capitalization and punctuation.

Salutation and closing have 1-2 errors in capitalization and punctuation.

Salutation and closing have no errors in capitalization and punctuation.

Conclusion
What did you learn about pioneers? Do you think youre tough enough? Well, thanks to you, Uncle John, Aunt Mary, and Cousin Charlie have all been prepared about the journey out west and will soon be joining you! I am sure they will have many adventures of their own to share with you too.