Evaluation of webquest effectiveness and implementation

Education - Teaching Methods

Evaluation of Webquest

Chiang, Judy. "The American Revolution: Was it worth it?" 19 Oct 2007. http://questgarden.com/47/76/3/070311160651/

The introductory page of the Webquest "The American Revolution: Was it worth it?" is strong and provocative. It encourages students to engage in critical thinking from the very beginning of their research. This section asks the Webquest's users if they would have joined the colonists who revolted against the British monarchy. It uses age-appropriate language for students in Grade 5 but still takes the students seriously as critical thinkers about historical and political issues. To make the question relevant to the student's lives the introduction asks: "What are you willing to lose in order to fight for something that you want to gain?" This question could apply to a variety of historical, political, and even personal questions the students will face in school and life. The Webquest teaches how to think as well creates a task that will teach 5th grade students about an important period in American history.

Task

The task is multifaceted. It involves group and individual research, which ensures that individuals collaborate and discuss the issues, but are not reliant upon others to do all the work. This is one of the dangers of only requiring group activities to teach about any particular subject. The task is dynamic and interactive. Students are not just researching answers to a list of factual questions. They are always creating something unique throughout their 'quest,' in the form of posters and then a persuasive essay. The essay question of "was the American Revolution worth it" is subjective in nature and encourages students to engage with history rather than merely accept their teacher's and common wisdom's received opinion.

The main task is to research the American Revolution and to write a persuasive essay using the student's new knowledge of the times. They must write in a way that would be persuasive to the American colonists. Then, students, using the historical information available to people of the era will decide if fighting the Revolutionary War was worth the consequences. This encourages students to look at things from an ethical perspective, weighing the pros and cons of going to war. However, in an age-appropriate fashion it asks the students if they would have fought the war themselves, personalizing the activity in a way to make history interesting to young students.

Process

The guided process of individual research is clear and directed, yet allows for student input. Students can seek out individual sources beyond the ones suggested by the website or make creative use of language and persuasive techniques when crafting their essay. By encouraging students to independently research the good and bad effects of the American Revolution, it underlines the fact that there are two sides to every political issue. Even though the American Revolution is seen as justified today, it was not seen as such during its time period, and a sophisticated historian never sees historical events as inevitable. Nor is the decision to go to war ever a purely good ethical decision. Students will be able to take a similarly rigorous analytical approach later on to other periods of history, and to contemporary civil controversies.

The use of art will give added aid students who are visual learners, or who have untapped artistic talents that may go unnoticed in the academic classroom to shine. Making a poster a group project encourages collaboration and discussion. Debate and exchange of ideas is another essential element of the civic process the students will later engage in, as future voters. On this section of website, the graphic of the pointing Uncle Sam, although not historical, underlines the importance of political advertising in American history as well! The posters, however, must also present the pros and cons in addition to being artistic and decorative so this artistic activity is educational as well as fun. Leaving the posters hanging up in the classroom after the assignment is finished will provide additional educational reinforcement to the issues discussed in the lesson.

Finally, the individually authored persuasive essay is the cumulative result of the academic research weighting the pros and cons and the fun, but still relevant rendition of the poster. The group discussion of the poster, the comprehension that there are pros and cons to every issue finally is resolved as students form a reasoned, substantiated position based upon researched facts, and framed in terms of the understanding that some people might disagree with their views.