Age of Exploration WebQuest URL: Intended Users and Purpose

Age of Exploration WebQuest

Jessica Vandergrift Learning with the Internet

Gail Eubanks LWI Project

URL:

Intended Users and Purpose:

This WebQuest has been designed for a high school World History class that consists of 10-12 graders. The purpose of this WebQuest is intended to help students develop a better understanding of the Age of Exploration through various primary and secondary sources. The students will be constructing e-journals over various topics. Each ejournal needs to be written from a specific perspective that asks the student to experience first-hand the events they are researching and writing about in their journals. For example, one of the e-journal topics is asking students to explain why the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs happened so easily. The students must write their response from the perspective of a soldier of Cortez's or from the perspective of a conquered Aztec Indian. The e-journal activities are intended to have students look at various aspects of history, rather than the textbook version that most experience on a daily basis. This WebQuest is also intended to encourage students to take learning into their own hands while allowing them to be creative, yet still historically accurate.

Learning Standards:

The main purpose of this WebQuest is to address the DESE CLE H.3b.I for World History. By completing this units students should be able to "access the impact of the First Global Age, including the Columbian Exchange; the origins and consequences of European overseas expansion; the effect of European arms and economic power on other parts of the world; resulting transformations in the Americas, Africa, Asia and Europe." Aside from the Social Studies CLE, focus will also be given to the English II CLE 2.A for Writing. This CLE established by DESE will allow the teacher to measure the students' ability to compose text that shows awareness of audience and choosing a form and point of view appropriate to purpose and audience. Since both CLEs are large topics, they will be broken down into more manageable objectives, which are listed below.

The goal and objectives listed below will ask the students to look at various perspectives and explain the significance of each event. It will also ask the students to consider the possibilities of how history might be different had a different course been pursued. Each journal prompt is built to encourage student to look at all aspects of an event and not just the facts presented in the textbooks.

Goal: Students will create an e-journal from a predetermined perspective and provide evidence to support their responses from primary and secondary sources.

Objective 1.1: Assuming the role of a conquered Aztec or Cortez's soldier, students will be able to explain the reason(s) why the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs occurred so easily and determine what might have been had history taken a different course.

Objective 1.2: Taking on the role of Christopher Columbus, the student will write a journal entry describing at least one of his interactions with a native tribe and describe the impact he or she believes will be the result of the interaction in the Old World.

Objective 1.3: After reading primary and secondary sources, the student will take on the persona of a captured African who describes his or her trip through the Middle Passage and the arrival in the New World.

Objective 1.4: After examining primary sources and secondary sources, the student will write an e-journal to evaluate whether or not they believe that Columbus is a hero or villain based on the impact his exploration findings had on the Old and New Worlds.

Method of Assessment: The students will be assessed through the evaluation of the e-journals they submit through our Learning Management System. Each e-journal will focus on a specific event and the students will be graded on a predetermined rubric for each topic. A draft of the rubric is included below.

This rubric will access three specific items - length of the response, quality of response, and composition. It has determined that a quality response will consist of at least 10 sentences. The length requirement will help ensure students will be detailed enough in their response to explain and expand upon the topic. The quality of response will be judged on the author's use of supporting information in their text as well as their ability to write from a predetermined perspective. For example, a student would gather information from the primary and secondary sources provided and in a response to the Middle Passage prompt, a student might explain the smell and conditions of the slave ship that they brought them to the New World. Finally, the students will be graded on composition. Student's will have access to word processing software, grammar checkers and peer reviews. Since they have a wealth of resources of available to help them write an error free e-journal, a low number of grammar, spelling, and other composition errors have been determined acceptable to earn full credit on this requirement.

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Requirements

Journal should be at least 10 sentences long but not exceed one doublespaced page

Journal entry is a quality response to the topic presented in the WebQuest ? it is not plagiarized but a creation of the students own work that draws support from various sources. If the student embellishes details it is okay, but they must be historically plausible

Journal entry uses correct spelling, grammar, and composition

4 Entry 10+ complete sentences that do not exceed the one page maximum

Great use of detail on

topic, entry demonstrate

s the students understandin g of the topic and uses key facts to support response

Entry contains fewer than 3

errors

3

Entry is 8-9 complete sentences

long

Good use of details, but doesn't quite show the

student understands

the importance of the event or doesn't provide key

facts of support

Entry contains 4-6

errors

2

Entry is 4-7 complete sentences

long

Misinformatio n is present and the use

of detail leaves doubts to whether the student understands the material

Entry contains 7-9

errors

1

Only contains 1-3

complete sentences

Entry is off topic and/or plagiarized

Entry contains more than 10

errors

Meaningful Learning: This project meets all of the criteria of meaningful learning, as outlined in Chapter 1 of our text. As opposed to simply reading about the Age of Exploration, this project allows students to apply all of the characteristics of meaningful learning ? active processing which requires constructive, intentional, authentic, and cooperative work on the part of students. They will not only be gaining knowledge about the Age of Exploration but they will also be required to synthesize and evaluate various viewpoints and pass on their knowledge to their peers.

Active ? With the use of e-journals, students will be actively reading and mentally manipulating the viewpoints in which they have been asked to write about. Since the viewpoints are not the typical textbook variety, students will need to be engaged in their reading and consider all aspects of what might have been if history had taken a different course.

Constructive ? The journal prompts in this WebQuest are written in a way that encourages the students to consider the issue from the "other side's" viewpoint. By asking students to consider different viewpoints, it will encourage curiosity

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and according to our text, "puzzlement is the catalyst for meaning...learners integrate their new experiences with their prior knowledge about the world." (4)

Intentional ? As a teacher, it is important that we cover as many CLEs and standards as we can by the year-end assessments come around. Due to the limited amount of time teachers have, there will be a deadline set for this project. Students will have to use technology to plan their research and response to ensure they meet the required items listed in the scoring guide. According to the text, "when learners use computers to do skillful planning for everyday tasks or constructing and executing a way to research a problem they want to solve, they are intentional and learning meaningfully." (4)

Authentic ? Even though students will be reading the majority of the information, they will become actively engaged in authentic learning when they write their ejournals. Students will have to take on the role of a person and step into a simulated world where they are witnessing the event first hand. As research shows, "learning tasks that are situated in some meaningful real-world task or simulated in some case-based or problem-based learning environments are not only better understood and remembered, but also more consistently transferred to new situations." (4)

Cooperative ? When beginning this project, students will find it necessary to "socially negotiate a common understanding of the task and the methods they will use to accomplish it." (5) Students will not only be working together to complete the tasks, they will also be sharing their knowledge with one another and offering suggestions for improving the work prior to submission.

Reflection: Due to the nature of my World History class, the Age of Exploration WebQuest has not been completely implemented, but it will be in completed by the students in the spring semester. Currently, all of the rubrics have been created and the assignment has been created in Schoology, the online learning management system that will be used to turn in the assignments.

The actual creation of the WebQuest was difficult for me, because I felt like I should have been more detailed in my instructions and lined out step-by-step how they should complete their project. However, after much consideration and thought, I felt like students needed the opportunity to explore on their own and take learning into their own hands. If I continued to layout assignments in sequential order, I am not preparing them for life after high school. Once I realized, that I could not control every detail of their learning, it made my job of creating the WebQuest much easier because I realized the students must be willing to take charge of their own learning.

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Evaluation: As of right now, I am satisfied with the initial implementation of the WebQuest. I believe that it will address the standards I need to cover in World History and perhaps allow me to move quicker through the material than the traditional lecture and assignments method. Upon completion of the WebQuest, I plan to ask for student feedback in adjusting the assignments and requirements. As a teacher, I attempt to provide my students with a variety of learning opportunities. I try to alternate how I teach with each unit. For example, if I lecture over Ancient Egypt, I might allow my students an opportunity to write a play about characteristics of Ancient Greece...then my next unit might be lecture on Mesopotamia and the one following it would perhaps include the design of a game board that summarized Ancient Rome. The WebQuest is another tool I can add to my curriculum. Just like the other items I use in my, I revise and edit based on the students perception and the way their final projects turn out when completed. If I notice or feel like the final project does not meet the goals I wanted to accomplish, I revise and edit the rubrics and assignments until I get it correct. Peer Review Feedback: I was fortunate to have a fellow teammate review my project. The teammate liked the fact that students had to take on a persona and "become" the person they were learning about in regards to the project. She also noted that she did something similar when she was in high school as well. The teammate liked the website because it was easy to follow and the assignment was clearly stated and interesting. She especially liked the part where students had to review one another's work and offer feedback using the feedback form. She did note that it would have been nice to include the rubric as well, but she also understood the limitations of the site I was using as well. Further Information: I did include a rubric for the journaling portion of the assignment, but not for the peer review section. When implemented in my classroom the students will have access to all information including rubrics through the learning management system I utilize, so making sure they know what is expected will not be an issue in the future.

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