by Jacqueline Weaver, Sheridan Middle School, Sheridan, IN
In this WebQuest, students will research and produce short “bio-sketches” on five influential Renaissance people and then select one person to be represented in a Who’s Who in the Renaissance magazine produced by the class.
Teacher Introduction
My sixth grade social studies class will use this Webquest after using several resources to gain an overview of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The overview includes a short video that a colleague and I created called "Middle Ages Art, or Renaissance Art? Detecting the Difference."
This Webquest is one of several learning centers that students visit in my classroom during an intensive two weeks of learning about the Renaissance. Each student should keep a portfolio of products compiled from the learning centers in which they choose to work. Other learning centers include:
- "Leonardo for a Day" is very popular with the students. It is based on the following website and uses ideas like self-portraits, backwards writing in notebooks, and coming up with new inventions.
http://www.mos.org/sln/Leonardo/
- Painting "frescos" with watercolors on Plaster of Paris before it completely dries.
- Creating "stained glass windows" using black construction paper as a frame, and placing colors of tissue paper behind each cut-out in the construction paper. I have had students create some really elaborate stained glass in this way, even incorporating their name in the "glass."
- Viewing a short video overview of the Renaissance and then completing a response sheet.