Social Studies and the Young Learner ©2011 National Council for the ...

Social Studies and the Young Learner 23 (4), pp. 13?16 ?2011 National Council for the Social Studies

Founding Documents and National Symbols: A Third Grade Webquest

Linda Bennett and William Cunningham

Imagine that, one dark and stormy night, your parents came into your room and asked whether you would be interested in going to Washington D.C. our nation's capital. The thunder rumbled and the lightning flashed.

Student: "Sweet! But wait a minute. Don't I have school tomorrow? Am I dreaming or something? Let me pinch myself and see. Ouch! I'm not dreaming! What about school?"

Dad: "Let's call your teacher, Mr. Cunningham, and ask him what he thinks."

Student: "Okay. Can I ask some of my friends to go with me?"

Mom: "Let's talk to your teacher first. If it is all right with him, then we will talk to your friends and their parents. Let's start calling now."

After talking to your teacher and to the parents of your friends, Mom and Dad tell you that the trip is on! But this adventure has a purpose, and you and your friends have an assignment.

Mom: "Your teacher said that the class is about to start a new unit of study on the federal government. Since you will be in the nation's capital, you can learn some of the material on your own.

Dad: "You'll have to answer some practical questions about your journey, such as, How will you get there? Where will you stay? How much will the trip cost?"

Mom: "And you'll also have to find answers to some basic questions about your country, such as,

? What were the main purposes of the Declaration of Independence?

? What is the purpose of the United States Constitution? ? Why is the national anthem, "The Star Spangled Banner,"

a symbol of our nation? Each year, William Cunningham's third graders in a rural Missouri intermediate elementary school are presented with just such a challenge--to collaborate on a virtual adventure to the nation's capital to find answers to these questions. These

students are in an eMINTS (enhancing Missouri's Instructional Networked Teaching Strategies) classroom, in which their teacher uses technology effectively to teach social studies.1

The Virtual Trip to Washington, D.C. is a webquest that exemplifies how best practices in elementary social studies can build upon students' desire to learn with the use of collaboration, discovery, problem solving, reflection, and assessment. The activity builds on learning objectives for the third grade--to learn about founding documents (the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution) and about one of our nation's symbols (the national anthem). These learning objectives are outlined in Missouri's "Social Studies Grade Level Expectations."2 So let's travel with William and his students as they seek answers to these important questions.

Learning is a Social Act The Exploration of Washington, D.C. begins when students are placed into groups of four students each. In preparation for their virtual travels, each team makes a "research box" (made from a large shoe box, for example) to collect information during the trip. They use Microsoft Publisher to design a cover for the box that includes the team name and its members. They print the cover in color and adhere it to the box that resides on a shelf reserved for this project.3

The teacher says, "Here are four job descriptions. Read them all carefully, and decide who will do each job. You need to make a good choice because you will be responsible for that information for your group." (TABLE 1, page 14).

The online narration for the unit encourages students to participate, engage in the learning processes, and promote social interactions.

For example:

Teacher: "I know that seems like a lot of work, but we have decided that you will each have a job. One person is in charge of the itinerary."

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TABLE 1. Group Member Responsibilities

Travel Planner

Declaration Researcher 1776

You are in charge of planning the trip. Will you go by train, plane, or bus? How much will it cost? What hotel will you stay in? Type this information into an itinerary.

You are in charge of answering this question: What were the main purposes of the Declara tion of Independence? Keep track of your research and be able to share it with your friends.

Constitution Researcher 1787

You are in charge of answering this question: What are the main purposes of the U.S. Constitution? Keep track of your research and be able to share it with your friends.

Anthem Researcher 1814 and 1931

You are in charge of answering this question: What is the song about? How did it become our national anthem? Keep track of your research and be able to share it with your friends.

Student: "What is an itinerary?" Teacher: "The itinerary is all the information about how you will get there, where you will stay, and where you will need to go to get all the information you will need." Student: "Great. I know we can handle that!" Teacher: "Remember that you need to show what you know, but also show where you got your answers from. Choose websites from the resource list as you seek an answer to your question."

Students take responsibility for online communications for their groups. First, in an online forum, they enter the name they have selected for their team, the names of the four team members, and the agreed upon norms of behavior for the group. Over the next few days, the students record their work, and the teacher provides daily feedback and reflections at this forum.

The idea that learning is a social act is central to William's classroom. Students, parents, and teachers have the opportunity to access his classroom website with its diverse networking tools that are available for communicating and collaborating. By using the Middle Open Source Course Management System (CMS), the students learn technology skills, but more importantly, skills that encourage working together in a democratic fashion.

Literacy is at the Heart of Learning In answering the three questions above, students develop writing skills such as sentence fluency, voice, and narrative. Through writing prompts, they collect evidence and articulate responses based on their research. All of the final projects involve writing strategies to some degree. For example, to demonstrate what they have learned, students can choose to create a news story, PowerPoint presentation, or brochure. If students choose a more visual final project, such as a photo essay or a collage, they must write captions for the images.

Two Founding Documents Social studies literacy includes getting familiar with the founding documents that shape our constitutional democracy by establishing principles and describing processes of government. Missouri's "Social Studies Grade Level Expectations" call for students at each grade level to increase their "understanding

of the main purposes of United States documents." In the third grade, this means being introduced to the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.

The student who is researching the Declaration of Independence visits a National Archives webpage (TABLE 2) which explains, "What Jefferson did was to summarize this philosophy [individual liberty in self-evident truths] and set forth a list of grievances against the King in order to justify before the world the breaking of ties between the colonies and the mother country."

The student who is researching the U.S. Constitution visits a Ben's Guide webpage (a U.S government resource for students), which explains that this founding document "describes the structure or plan of the government and the rights of the American people. . . . The Constitution is organized into three parts:

? Preamble: Describes the purpose of the document and government.

? Articles: Establish how the government is structured and how the Constitution can be changed. There are seven articles.

? Amendments: Changes to the Constitution; the first ten are called the Bill of Rights."

A National Symbol Missouri's "Social Studies Grade Level Expectations" call for students at each grade level to increase their "knowledge of the symbols of our nation." In the third grade, this means learning about the national anthem. Although the founding documents are complex, the most difficult question for the students is the third one: Why is the national anthem, "The Star Spangled Banner," a symbol of our nation? It took the students a long time to complete the research. Understanding the lyrics to The Star Spangled Banner involves knowing the details of a specific battle during the War of 1812 (i.e., the Anglo-American War of 1812-15) and why that war was fought, as well as deciphering Francis Scott Key's poetic phrases written in a style that was popular 200 years ago. Understanding how this particular song (and not some other patriotic tune, like "America the Beautiful") became our national anthem involves learning about a 1931 act

14 Social Studies and the Young Learner

TABLE 2. Online Resources to Visit

Travel Today

Map of Washington DC,

Tourism/Maps/ Washington_DC_Map/

Expedia,

Declaration of Independence 1776

bensguide.3-5/documents/ index.html

exhibits/charters/ declaration.html

U.S. Constitution 1787

bensguide.3-5/documents/ index.html

exhibits/charters/ constitution.html

Gas Buddy, Trip_

Calculator.aspx

exhibits/charters/ bill_of_rights.html

Additional Resources , The White House - Our Government, our-government

Anthem 1814 and 1931

bensguide.3-5/symbols/anthem. html

kids.niehs.lyrics/spangle.htm



TABLE 3. Options for Presentation

Written

Spoken (Write a script, or an outline

of the dialog)

Newspaper Article Brochure Booklet

Radio Show Newscast Speech Debate

Visual Media (Write captions for any

images or photos)

Photo Essay Bulletin Board Comic Strip Collage

Online/Electronic (Write a script or an outline

for any video)

PowerPoint Short Video

of Congress. Although the recommended webpages (TABLE 2) are helpful to students, the content literacy required to answer this question called for significant guidance by the teacher.

Practicing Habits of Inquiry The next steps involves researching the topics and making a plan for presenting each group's findings. The teacher provides recommended online resources for students to use while researching their topics. Some of these websites provide images (or transcripts) of primary source documents and explanations to help young readers understand them. (TABLE 2).

The teacher provides an outline for the research paper to help students organize the information they find and cite various sources. Then each team decides how it wants to demonstrate what has been learned. (TABLE 3)The steps for the government unit to provide students with a structure that leads them through the inquiry process--using online resources, collecting references, taking notes, organizing information, writing a report, designing a presentation, and finally sharing their new knowledge with the class.4

Assessing Progress as It Happens Every day throughout the unit, students share new information and reflections with their peers and teacher. These opportunities

for formative feedback help students monitor their own progress and correct their own work when needed. Each student in the group maintains an online log of findings and references. The log is available for the team members to share ideas and for the teacher to provide guidance. On the Daily Cooperation Survey, students discuss what went well that day (HANDOUT, page 16). The information is used to learn about what is working and to help groups that are struggling.

Expressing Knowledge in Many Ways Students become eager to design a project that encompasses their new knowledge. Each group must carefully consider the most appropriate medium that will showcase their text and images. Groups use a range of multimedia software. Regardless of the presentation format, the students use the classroom computers to type information and print images.

Clip art and governmental primary source documents are used as sources for images. Microsoft Publisher is used for making brochures or flyers. One group uses Movie Maker to produce a video. It is not uncommon for several groups to design a PowerPoint presentation.

The big day arrives and the audience waits with anticipation. While each group worked with the same content and used the same resources for learning, the productions reveal the

March/April 2011 15

uniqueness of each group. The teacher uses a four-point rubric (excellent; good; fair; poor) to evaluate each group's project on these criteria:

? Basic Language Arts--Are there any spelling, grammatical, or punctuation errors? Is there high-level use of vocabulary and word choice?

? Social Studies Content--Is the report correct and well thought out? Does it support the group's conclusions? Does it reflect the application of critical thinking? Does it draw from a variety of sources?

? Organization--Is material presented in an organized and thoughtful manner? Is there a logical, sequential argument or description that supports the conclusion?

? Presentation--Are media used to clarify and illustrate the main points? Does the format enhance the content? Did the presentation capture the audience's attention?

This year, the students were well organized and made strong connections across the content. The enthusiasm in the room showed how well the students cooperated.

Learning How to Learn While a transformation of learning has occurred throughout this unit, the hope is that the learning goes beyond the presentations. This government unit on the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the National Anthem broadens the horizons of the students as they used technology to conduct research, monitor their own progress, and design a final project. Most of all, students learned in an environment of shared responsibility and mutual respect for each other and the learning process itself.

Notes 1. eMINTS national center, index.shtml 2. The three questions that students work with are paraphrased from pages 3-4 of the

Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, "Social Studies Grade Level Expectations," dese.divimprove/curriculum/GLE/SSgle0808. html. 3. William Cunningham's classroom website (login and password are required to view most of these webpages), elementary/cunningham/moodle/. 4. See other examples of "products" (how learners demonstrate understanding) for the elementary grades in National Council for the Social Studies, National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies: A Framework for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment (Silver Spring, MD: NCSS, 2010).

Linda Bennett is the associate Ddean for educator preparation in the College of Education at the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri.

William Cunningham is a third grade teacher at Hallsville R-IV Intermediate School in Hallsville, Missouri.

handout Daily Cooperation Survey

Name of Your Group: __________________________________________________________________________________________________ Today was (day of the week) ________________________________ (month) _ _________________________ (date)_____________________ What went well? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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